Oh, okay, if we count Legos and fun circuits summer camps while in grade/middle school, then my kid qualifies (same curious, problem-solving mind).
My kid was in the city-wide math circle for three years, but is dropping it this year. Might seem like a college application faux-pas, but wasn’t fully participating due to increased sports training.
Personally, I view Makerspace stuff like milling, 3D printing, soldering and circuit boards as analogous to sewing, especially garment instruction. Sounds like Cal Poly had a lot to offer students in the hands-on regard.
Remember we’re talking two different things, what is correlated to success in engineering and what gets students into highly rejective schools.
Without question, facility with and level in math is the top correlate to success in engineering. Curiosity and drive, exemplified by any number of activities, is important to being a good engineer. Tinkering per se, is not a requirement. That can be done by techs in high level applications. It does show a problem solving drive though.
Now, highly rejective schools. That’s a bit of a game, one my son didn’t play. He had no interest in MIT or Caltech. They will dig deeper into things like math competitions, level of math, etc., but will still reject most of their applicants. There’s no evidence that they produce better engineers. Much of what makes one good at it is intangible.
These categories are only applicable to base-level UC minimum transfer admission requirements.
What you want to look for are pages like the following:
Articulation by campus and major. Note: these are courses required or recommended for transfer admission; they are not required for frosh admission, but the listings can help you understand which college courses taken while in high school will be useful for a given major at a given campus. Examples:
Articulation by campus and department. These can be used to check for subject credit for out-of-major courses (e.g. humanities and social studies). Examples:
Thank you. Initially, I was looking at Cal Poly just out of curiosity, but am trying to familiarize myself with the Assist pages in general.
So, associates degrees that cover some subject pre-reqs still mean the high school applicant is applying like any freshman for financial aid purposes, but can skip some of the lower-level courses should they wish to.
There are different considerations here that I am trying to dovetail as elegantly as possible.
Student graduates high school, hopefully with d-e associate math degree
Student has some pre-requisite courses in language, history, social studies that allow fewer of these courses in college, in exchange for some more tech/stem ones
Student enrolls in an ABET-accredited, well-regarded engineering school, most likely for their interest in mechanical engineering
Right now, it looks like the math courses all qualify; ironically, if my kid wanted to repeat some math courses for deeper learning, then that would be fine with me. It’s the history, art, foreign language that would be great for them to whittle down. I’d rather my student be a life-long learner of these (which my kid is; decent Spanish, even better French). A strong tech foundation at college would be the best use of our tuition money and strongly match their interests.
Yes, students who take college courses before leaving high school are generally considered frosh applicants. Students who take college courses after leaving high school are the ones who are likely to be considered transfer applicants.
Obviously, if the student’s college courses taken while in high school fulfill requirements that will be needed for the major or general education, that frees up schedule space for additional free electives (in or out of major). Hence, it can be advantageous to choose courses like calculus, linear algebra, English composition, calculus-based physics, general chemistry, various humanities and social studies, etc., but not take courses that do not fulfill requirements (like probably PHYN 100).
If the student enters as frosh with substantial math and English courses completed (leaving more space for free electives, technical or non-technical), and already has good Spanish and French skills, then there will be more schedule space to take additional higher level Spanish and French courses if desired.
Engineering majors in many schools do not have foreign language graduation requirements, although foreign language and literature courses are often options that can be used for humanities general education requirements.
There may be no deeper learning to have. He can determine this by using a @ucbalumnus technique, get old tests from classes he’ll test out of. If it’s easy, move forward. Rusty, brush up and move forward. Foreign? Repeat. It was super helpful advice for my son.
When you say useful, @ucbalumnus, in what way should that be interpreted? Useful as in:
-better prepared for course content of the desired major (ie. to not flunk the class)
-able to test out of that course (and take another class that is “more relevant”) ie. subject credit
Subject credit for either the major or general education requirements. For example, calculus, calculus-based physics, general chemistry, and various humanities and social studies courses are likely to be given subject credit so that the student can take more advanced courses or free electives instead. But something like PHYN 100 probably counts for no requirements.