Your son reminds me of an Art Teacher I once worked with. He got up at 5:00 every morning to make art in his barn for an hour before going to work. I asked him, Why? His reply was that he couldn’t not do it. He did a lot of work with 3-dimensional constructions like your son. He went to college at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He taught summers at the University of Hartford, which has a fine art school. I wonder about schools like MassArt or Pratt Institute in NYC.
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RIT has a lot for him to explore and could be a great option. Look at state universities with various programs.
He needs to understand it is ok to not know. Most kids change their majors a couple times. Also, okay.
Take a break for a month or so. Then come back to this with some refreshed energy.
I’m so sorry to hear about the stress your son is feeling. Has he already done the summer programs you mentioned earlier? Or are those yet to come? If they’re yet to come, perhaps experiencing them in-person might make a difference?
Whenever I read your comments about your son, I keep thinking about set design, whether for stage or screen. He would be able to design and build things and be creative. A few more schools he may want to consider where there are probably several other majors that he might be interested in include:
Keene (NH): A residential campus with just under 3k students and a 13:1 student/faculty ratio, it offers majors in architecture, construction management, education (should he want to be an art or vocational trades teacher), various engineering technologies, athletic training, RN, as well as technical theater/design.
Fitchburg (MA): A residential campus with a little over 3k undergrads and a 14:1 student/faculty ratio, it offers majors in architectural technology, education including art education and trade and industrial teacher education, various engineering technologies, RN, and technical theater/design.
Ithaca (NY): A residential campus with about 4800 undergrads and a 9:1 student/faculty ratio, it offers majors in architecture, education (including art ed), athletic training, occupational therapy, physical therapy, and technical theater/design.
SUNY Plattsburgh: A residential campus with about 4300 undergrads and a 15:1 student/faculty ratio, it offers majors in logistics & supply chain management, athletic training, clinical lab science/medical technology, RN, and an undergrad certificate in technical theater/design.
Though I mentioned it above, @Bill_Marsh’s mention made me think of it again. What does your son think of Massachusetts College of Art & Design’s offerings?
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I’d suggest your son look at VCU, one of the best destinations for “hands-on” process driven arts, especially sculpture. Nurturing and supportive faculty.
Department of Craft/Material Studies
“The BFA in Craft/Material Studies offers five areas of focus—glass, fiber, clay, metal and wood”
Department of Sculpture and Extended Media BFA in Sculpture | VCUarts
"A day-to-day, experimental, and process-orientated studio ethic is encouraged. Fundamental questions of “why,” whether personal, philosophical or conceptual in nature, are buttressed by hands-on strategies facilitating “how.” "
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EDIT: I missed an important sentence…he doesn’t want to do engineering. Why not?
SUNY New Paltz might also be worth some consideration. It has a major in metal arts, and its program in theater offers a specialization in design (though from the brief read I did on the website, I think your son might prefer the minor in theater to focus more in on his particular interests). There are also other degree programs there that could be options for him to explore. Just throwing out another possibility.
OP- hugs to you. Seems like HS kids these days are much more pre-professional than we were- most of my friends were absolutely clueless (as was I) and somehow we all ended up employed, most of us loving what we were doing!
Couple of suggestions for you-
1- perhaps bigger is better in this case, despite the fact that posters have suggested some AWESOME places (Keene and Ithaca- Wow, fantastic ideas from AustenNut). At a big U, your son won’t run out of majors, classes, opportunities even if he does a radical 180 shift.
2- Your son’s major and his ultimate career don’t have to be aligned necessarily. My spouse is a talented repair/construction/plumbing/electrical/design person who has spent virtually an entire career at a computer/desk/doing spreadsheets. That’s just the way things progressed. Great and satisfying career- with lots of tinkering and designing on weekends. And we were able to fire the GC on the one major construction project we did on the house when it became apparent that the “hobbyist” designer/expeditor/contractor (my spouse) was more skilled than the professional!
3- One of your state U’s- affordable for you, and can he get in? Those are typically good places to start exploring-- a visit, time with the course catalogue, time talking to recent grads-- maybe to take some of the stress out of the process???
hugs. We all know that a 17 year old kid cannot possibly pick a “forever” job… but kids don’t know that yet…
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Without going back to the beginning messages, I would ask - why is there so much pressure to pick a major.
Go in undecided. Take classes of interest. Join a few clubs.
Figure out what works.
@blossom makes a point - go to a school that offers everything - and you’ll find your place.
Likely a less competitive school is better - so if you want to transfer into a competitive major, it’d be less so there.
Tons of kids are in this position - and there’s no reason to be. The job they’ll have - they don’t even know it exists today.
Kids today - too much pressure - they’re kids.
Good luck.
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I agree with this 100%, unless the reason for not wanting engineering is unsound. Some think that ME might be too constricting, but he will have the foundation to do ANYTHING he’s expressed interest in with a ME degree, and a little additional self or formal learning. It is a degree with boundless possibilities. If on the other hand, he is not ready for the math, then I’d bail on engineering entirely. It’ll be interesting to hear why he ruled it out once you get a chance to reply.
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That works for schools that don’t admit by major but many do and trying to transfer into popular majors after the fact can be next to impossible at some schools. This student and family will need to do their due diligence.
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For sure- why I noted a less competitive school where those barriers hopefully won’t be as high.
The other thing I’d say to @MAMom01810 is -
Life is a marathon, not a sprint - nice cliche.
And a college degree never hurts you. You may or may not use it - but later in life when you inevitably switch gears, that degree comes in handy - because it’s a cost of entry to many jobs.
So even if he doesn’t work in a related field - he’ll have four years of friends, growth, maturity, and an achievement he will can always be proud of.
I’m about to go through my 7th or 8th corporate reorg - sometimes I stay the same, sometimes move to the unknown or undesired, one time I switched companies - and well who knows.
Your son won’t have my path - but he’ll have his path - and it will be filled with hurdles along the way - and that’s ok. We adapt - and he will too.
He can start on one path, change a few times, and even after he gets out, change again for real life.
He’ll be fine - no reason to panic now. It just sort of - naturally happens.
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Love these suggestions! Thank you!
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I met someone today on line at the grocery store- she works for our state’s medical examiner in forensics. Her favorite thing to do is skeletal reconstruction.
I wouldn’t have thought of this field for your son, OP, except that she described her interest in “building things” (but didn’t want construction), aesthetics (but didn’t want interior design, architecture, landscape design, etc.) and her two favorite classes her freshman year were chemistry (plain vanilla freshman chemistry) and Intro to anthropology.
Just another vote for starting as “undecided” at a big university, in Arts and Sciences, and seeing where life takes you. This woman’s boss is an MD-- and she wasn’t nearly strong enough in science and math to consider medical school- but there is an entire staff of non-MD’s who have pretty interesting jobs. They are now working a couple of Cold Cases with a team from the FBI-- not a lot to work with but the hope is that with advances in DNA extraction, computer simulation, and the huge surge of interest in geneology websites, they’ll make progress.
What a cool career for a hands-on person!!!
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@blossom the reconstruction sounds like an option I would love (in theory - maybe not literally). I will mention that one, but my daughter is neuroscience and both my husband and I work in hospitals. He has been pretty clear, he’s not into science.
@Bill_Marsh thanks for the art teacher story - it is something I could see. Pratt always comes back around as a good pick for him.
@tsbna44 why not engineering… ‘he thinks it will be boring’ - I know, it would be a good option for him - especially if he moved to Civil or Architectural. He wanted to do that for the last 2 years and something shifted. His Uncles and Grandfather who are engineers have ‘desk jobs’. He doesn’t want that. He’s a mover and a shaker - wants to be on his feet and active.
It’s really not the Math. He currently has an A- in pre-Calculus and seems to be doing it with ease. He’s looking forward to Physics next year and Calculus. He’s not in honors or AP though - his Dyslexia and ADHD holds him pack from those classes just because of the pace and executive functioning/organization needed. But we are in a competitive school district for the area and he is doing great.
I really like the suggestions in these recent comments. I agree undecided is a great option but he has to have an idea bc he’s not going to go a liberal arts route so there needs to be the technical and art options. And someone brought up a good point - some majors are hard to transfer into, like engineering and even some Art programs.
Regarding Mass Art - we have considered it. That’s where the industrial design came in but outside that, I’m not sure they have a major for him. My husband and I don’t think a full on Art program would be right for him, we feel he needs to challenge himself in someway and use those math skills.
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@Bill_Marsh you had mentioned the Art Sculpture Park near Manhattan College.
I was reading about Edward Tufte yesterday (because of his background in presenting data) and came across Hogpen Hill Farm in Northern CT, it’s an Edward Tufte Sculpture park and my first thought was that my son would love doing that kind of sculpture work - and the funny thing is that Edward Tufte is a Statistician. He was the one who demonstrated what failed in the Challenger explosion during the trials.
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Engineering can certainly be boring. He’s a go getter though. He doesn’t have to take the “boring” job. My son certainly didn’t. He was VERY discerning in his job quest. The thing about engineering though, especially ME with a mechatronics concentration, is that it trains people to solve deep problems, and then actuate the solution themselves if they want to. There are very few programs where the career paths are essentially limitless. It would be an ideal platform to launch just about anything off of.
I don’t want to compromise my son’s privacy, but feel free to PM me about what he does, what jobs he turned down, and some of the crazy things other MEs I know do/did.
I am wondering if he would enjoy prosthetics/orthotics.
In that field, there is often a need to customize for each individual patient and might be the kind of hands-on field he would like.
I think most prosthetics/orthotics programs are Masters programs, but he could major in Biomedical Engineering at a school strong in orthotics courses. I know the “engineering” word is still there, but it isn’t the same as the building construction guys at their desks.
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Thanks for the info about Hogpen Hill Farm! I love stuff like that. I live in Connecticut and Hogpen Hill is only an hour away from me. I’ll definitely head over there one of these days. The pictures on line are very alluring.
I don’t know that Storm King Sculpture Park is exactly near Manhattan College - unless you have a car. Both are in the Hudson Valley, but Storm King is 50+ miles away, an hour or so driving time on the Thruway. I do think that your son would enjoy a day or even a few hours there and would find some of the sculptures fascinating - especially the one that is 80 feet high and made of steel I-beams? It looks like something out of Star Wars. An added bonus is that the oldest continuously operating winery in the country is in the next town. (They made “church wine” during prohibition. A lot of people found religion. Haha.)
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Nice, that’s some fun winery history too!
I second RIT. Strong in both tech and art programs and they also have an “exploratory major” where your first year is spent exploring different majors with a lot of career counseling and job shadowing.
I think he’s making the right decision about engineering (my son went through the same process) but has he checked out engineering technology? It is much more about the hands on aspects of engineering (building, schematics, testing) and much less of the theoretical .
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