<p>Three small schools (Harvey Mudd, Olin, and Rose Hulman) are featured in this article which says that among other things, their small size allows for more hands-on work.</p>
<p>My son (freshman at Mudd) loved Operation Catapult, but recommended that you take the school’s advice and sign up for a project that is NOT your area of expertise.</p>
<p>If you are looking for summer camps and don’t mind it being 1/2 way across the country from VT. Here is the biggest list of summer camps I know. [Missouri</a> S&T, Summer Programs](<a href=“http://futurestudents.mst.edu/precollege/index.html]Missouri”>http://futurestudents.mst.edu/precollege/index.html)
RPI and MIT are much closer to you though. And look up FIRST.org for robotics. Maybe you can get her school on board next year. Also SWE tends to do programs with the Girl Scouts. Call both and see if they have programs that might help her explore her interests.</p>
<p>Another vote in favor of WPI. S is a junior ECE major and loves it. In D term (spring '12) he will be doing his Interactive Qualifying Project (IQP) in Denmark. As a freshman he participated in A Global Perspective Seminar (for freshmen only) on “Power the World.” WPI is all about collaboration, problem solving, and hands-on “doing,” which is a great match for S. </p>
<p>Again, thank you all so much. I can honestly say that most of these schools were not on our radar, so this has been really helpful. We will also be checking out all the summer programs, too!</p>
<p>Just wanted to add that one of the summer programs at Missouri S&T is Explosives Camp and it is exactly as advertised. A full hands on week of every possible kind of explosive (blow all the water out of a pond, using explosives in mining, ordinance, fireworks.) And the extra added attraction of rolling admissions at S&T. My S had an S&T acceptance in his pocket before he even started his senior year at high school.</p>
<p>In addition to FIRST, if there is a Science Olympiad team there are always engineering type contests that you can sign up for. There usually one that involves building things out of balsa wood and seeing how much weight they can hold without breaking, some sort of Rube Goldberg event, something with catapults, and something with robots. It’s a lot of fun, both my math guy and my non math guy did it.</p>
<p>Try looking at Olin. They have hand-on engineering projects as part of the applications/acceptance process, and I remember when S1 looked at them, they were pretty excited about the serious hard-core equipment available for students.</p>
<p>UMD does a lot of hands-on stuff, though it tends to be EC/competition related. (And they do really well at it.)</p>
<p>This would be a GREAT question for your D to ask of the Society of Women Engineers chapters on campuses she is considering.</p>
<p>You should definitely look at Olin. They do a great job of mixing technical concepts, math and science projects from day 1. Almost every class has hands on projects. You learn to use the machine shop very early on. Summer internships are also encouraged…though I found my internships were often less hands-on than my classes at Olin. Also, you have a year long Senior capstone project where you on an Olin team on a real problem from a real company. Oh, and Olin is about 45% women so that’s pretty unique and very cool.</p>
<p>Ditto. My older daughter always liked doing, building, and creating stuff (art, music, literature) and we thought architecture would be a natural fit. So far it has been an excellent fit. Lots of schools have summer architecture programs.</p>
<p>So many suggestions for colleges. However, this girl (sophomore in HS) needs to learn to get work done in a timely fashion. Perhaps some exposure to engineering as mentioned in previous posts will be her motivation to learn the time skills she will need. She needs to be able to handle the required material in the time allotted. She also will need to be able to ramp up her math skills on timed tests to be admitted to colleges with engineering programs. She will have to survive several math and science courses before getting to the hands on engineering classes. She still has time, given motivation, to change her approach to tests. She and her parents need suggestions for improving her test taking skills. There will always be deadlines for problem solving. A lot can change during HS- find a way to get her “up to speed”.</p>
<p>Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in upstate New York has an undergraduate major in Biomedical Engineering, plus many other engineering majors. They describe a hands-on approach at the undergraduate level. There is also plenty of research coming from that institution. A top student from my D’s high school attended and his SAT scores were stratospheric. He described RPI as very project-oriented. Check their entire list of majors as well as their range for statistics of applicants, to see if that might be a “fit” for your D!</p>
<p>This article in WSJ yesterday reiterates wis & colorado’s comment. It’s a must read for those that is interested in engineering. The link is below:</p>
<p>krug I have to disagree. Overall that article is terrible. The title is misleading. The first portion whines about how engineering cirriculum is too hard. Then the second part whines about how the very best engineering graduates are finding themselves with job offers in the financial sector that they just can’t turn down because the money is too good. It never really deals with the tech sector. Terms like professional, manager and consultant are thrown around with multiple definitions depending on who or what study is being quoted. It is nothing but a collection of sound bites to fill several inches of newspaper. I think the point of the article should have been if you are really good at math consider getting a business degree, the classes are easier and the pay is better. But they didn’t come right out and say it.<br>
Actually this is the last paragraph: “After interning at an engineering firm, “I realized that although I did enjoy learning about all this cool stuff and doing math problems that no one else could solve, it’s not something I wanted long term as a career,” he says.” Not much of a wrap up is it?
And how exactly does the title Students pick easier majors despite less pay jive with the real message that students who choose business over engineering make more money? Personally I kinda like the guy who went to the trouble of getting the BS in Civil and is working on the Masters in Engineering Management (what do you think that speciality actually entails?) and recently secured a business-strategy job in the commercial leadership program of a large global manufacturing company. The message there sounds like engineers can kick butt in any sector. I’m not so sure that is what the authors were going for though. I think they were going for engineering is hard and boring so why waste your time and kill your grade point average.
My mantra is still if you love it you have to do it, but take a couple of business classes as you get the chance.</p>
<p>The article has some information that is helpful for the original poster namely, kids that are great in STEM in high school, might not find college to be the same (so cast a wide net in case your kid wants to change). It is not whining to point out that bright kids are washing out of these majors and in some cases it’s because we don’t have enough motivated, caring professors (because of the pay differential) and in other cases, lack of preparation. This NY Times article also addresses the issue.</p>
<p>We don’t have enough good math/engineering professors BECAUSE MATH /ENGINEERING PROFESSORS EARN A PITTANCE compared to what they could earn in the private sector (mostly, by going into management and doing little engineering per se.) </p>
<p>Another factor is the wholesale outsourcing of engineering jobs to cheaper H1B labor. </p>
<p>Until an engineer can be sure to earn as much as an investment banker – or that his job won’t be outsourced to someone on a 3-year contract from India – the best and the brightest will continue to not pursue this (very difficult) field.</p>