<p>I know that many kids are undecided, but for those of you whose kids entered college with a specific major in mind, do they still want that major? Or if they want a different major, at their college will it be easy for them to change? </p>
<p>My frosh S has already changed his focus from engineering to economics, and my H isn't too happy about it. He thinks that S will be far more employable in engineering. At S's school, there is no problem with the change since you aren't required to formally declare a major until the beginning of junior year.</p>
<p>Hi gladmom, I’m an alum of your son’s school and when I was there in the late 60’s there were many engineers who switched to either math or econ and many premeds who switched to anything else. My daughter is at SC and she says many her premed friends have already gone for something else. A co-worker’s brother at UCSD has already switched from pre-med to comp sci. So, I really think what your son has done isn’t unusual at all.</p>
<p>My freshman will definitely not end up with the major he originally believed he would do or at leat not that major alone. At his school it’s no problem. I applaud the school for this, their system encourages trying new things and he loved what he tried.</p>
<p>My oldest son is a grad student at MIT, he genuinely loves engineering. He reports that a lot of the undergrad kids he teaches are pressured into engineering by parents. Certainly employability is good, but many are disappointed with jobs and salaries down the line. A mjority of MIT students end up seeking non typical engineering jobs after finding out the lay of the land.</p>
<p>Have DH do some research! He may well find out for the kid that doesn’t love engineering, many jobs outside of it can pay back much more in happiness and financial security.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, kids don’t wash out of engineering because they don’t like engineering. They leave engineering because of a culture at US universities to weed out the already well prepared freshman with killer math, chem and Physics courses. Like female circumcision, the professors inflict this because it was inflicted on them. Most students don’t get anywhere near project or design or anything resembling engineering - so they have not crumbs to get them through the math set years. </p>
<p>Newer Engineering schools, like Olin, Rowan, (MIT AERO) Daniel Webster and the like are exposing students to engineering problems in freshman year. These schools are showing that one can be a top notch engineer without washing out 20% of the class. Old line “wash out” schools will scar the souls of their students. This is not in the student’s or the nations best interest.</p>
<p>My D was talking about it at Christmas break, when chemistry was killing her, but I am happy to report that she has hung in there, worked hard, and is coming out the other side.</p>
<p>D declared Soc when she applied to be a transfer but changed before she formally appeared on campus. She’s now trying to apply to Cinema in Virtual Reality/Animation + perhaps Neuroscience. It should be a fascinating ride!</p>
<p>My daughter is picking up another major but not quite abandon her original major either. She will double major. But I don’t think this is the last I’ve heard of this change of mind either because she has not taken one single course in her original major.</p>
<p>D entered college several years ago as a chem. major. She tested into second semester chem and was placed in calc. After struggling in both of those classes and believing the higher level courses were not going to get any easier, she decided to change her major before the end of her first semester, although her dean tried to talk her out of it. She ended up much happier.</p>
<p>I’ve been holding my breath all year, but so far my freshman is sticking to his plan. He chose his school solely for his major. His advisor even suggested a tougher major, as he’s doing so well, but he refused.</p>
<p>Son went into CS but was also interested in Math, Physics, EE and ME. He’s had no problems with his major (he’s a sophomore but came in with almost a year of credits). He has seen kids drop like flies in both of his years there. The first year it was physics, calculus and computing. He’s taking the first major theoretical course in CS now (a junior level course) and half the class is already gone. One of the kids is a good friend of his with a sponsorship from a private company. Another is an extremely good math problem-solver. They’ve probably withdrawn to try it again in the fall. The thing about CS is that most programs require a few theoretical courses which CS students may never use in their careers and sometimes it’s a degree-stopper.</p>
<p>I have to agree with Toadstool. My freshman son lives in a engineering community building. Over winter quarter he would tell me each week the new people who had changed out of engineering most over a particular class, Math 152 at OSU. The time it took to succeed in that one class had a detrimental effect on all their classes.</p>
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<p>He’s in 153 now and says it’s a vacation by comparison. We attended a GPA awards event on Friday and I sat with some other Chem-E students, listening to them talk about their experience in that particular course made me think of GI Jane, hell week. It wasn’t the content, it was the time the homework required and how it impacted their time for other courses. </p>
<p>Regarding the original question, I can’t imagine my Son changing, he’s getting to do research in a Chem- E lab (since this summer) and got a e-mail Friday that he’s been accepted into his Major Chem-E. </p>
<p>Lots of capable kids left the program this winter and changed concentration.</p>
<p>I’m going to post later on “what I learned this year” for those parents concerned/upset their child didn’t get into that prestigious university.</p>
<p>My son chose his major (computer science) in the 9th grade and never deviated from it. He is now a graduate student in a Ph.D. program in computer science. This despite the fact that he doesn’t particularly like math and always excelled in English in high school. </p>
<p>My daughter strongly suspected that she would have an affinity for economics even before she took AP Economics during her senior year in high school. Once in the AP course, she discovered she was right. She never seriously considered majoring in anything else, and now, at the end of her sophomore year in college, is committed to the economics major (and only two courses short of completing it).</p>
<p>I don’t know whether they’re narrow-minded or whether they just know what they like. I do know that one of the unsung virtues of the AP program is that it helps kids choose their college majors. AP computer science helped my son solidify his decision, and AP economics basically determined the course of the rest of my daughter’s life.</p>
<p>There are a lot of different areas in Computer Science. Many are drawn in by programming and the idea of building things and then learn the theory, circuits and architecture parts which may or may not be interesting but you have to get through them. Some muddle through and some love them all. Some don’t get through them. That gives you the foundation to take course that build on these intermediate areas.</p>
<p>My S has taken an econ class in each of his three quarters this freshman year, and loves the subject. He is planning a minor in anthro or history and may go for the co-terminal Master’s degree in econ if he can. He was originally interested in Management Science and Engineering, but seems to have found his passion elsewhere.</p>
<p>My son started out this year planning to study biophysics/possibly premed. He took introductory economics first semester out of mild interest, and to balance out his math/science schedule, and LOVED it. He did fine in the first half of organic chemistry, but dropped it after the first semester. He is now planning to double major in econ and math and he is considering a career in law. Big changes!</p>
<p>Interesting to see all the econ students! D added economics major to her international affairs major recently (end of freshman year) and informed me it would probably keep her study abroad down to one semester (she had been planning a whole year abroad).</p>
<p>From the table of contents of Michael Sipser’s Theory of Computation Book</p>
<p>Automata and Languages
Regular Languages
Context-Free Languages
Computability Theory
The Church-Turing Thesis
Decidability
Reducibility
Advanced Topics in Computability Theory
Complexity Theory
Time Complexity
Space Complexity
Intractability</p>
<p>Our son was three when I was getting my MSCS so I gave him some problems to do from the early chapters of the book that I used way back when. It’s funny to see him going through a formal class right now. He read all of the material before the course started and went through Shai Simonson’s lectures on it from Ars Digita University and he just absolutely loves the subject.</p>