Totally get it. You actually appear to have a handle on the complexity of S24, which is admirable given the challenges of your other kids. We had a similar situation in some ways: kid with complex medical issues that delayed attention to another kid who has ADHD and some other issues.
I am delighted your family caught on to Clark! None of mine went there but I love the school.
I’m just spitballing here because the information is of necessity limited. To flesh out his interests, you might want to consider having him fill out a Myers-Briggs questionnaire and see what fit is suggested by that. There are lots of short form questionnaires available on line.
He sounds to me like someone whose strengths are defined by creativity and curiosity, as someone who is good at seeing patterns and connections between and among disparate elements. As such, he can probably be successful with anything that piques his interest. Therein lies the problem; interests change. So his career path might lie in fields which are project oriented and provide the flexibility to change from one thing to another, such as consulting. Counseling and people management offer some of these same advantages.
For a college major, I’ll offer 4 examples of approaches more than majors with which I think he might thrive.
First is the “Organizing Theme” major at Union College (NY). Read it on their website and see what you think. Union College has the advantage of being one of the rare liberal arts colleges which includes a mature department of engineering. (They’ve been teaching engineering at Union since 1845.) STEM majors at Union are encouraged to combine their STEM program with another major or minor in the arts, humanities, or social sciences.
Second is the approach at Connecticut College. They organize each student’s 4 year experience around an organizing theme, which they call “Connections”. Within that, they then help students identify “integrative pathways” to pursue a major area of interest. Again, read about it on their website and see what you think about it as a fit for him.
Third is the program at Babson College. Known as a business school, Babson combines both business and the liberal arts. Their required courses are half of each. Their approach to learning is hands on (start & run your own business as a freshman), collaborative, and team oriented. Instead of majors, they do “concentrations”. Read about it on their website and see what you think.
Fourth is the highly individualized approach at Grinnell College. I’m unable to describe it in just 2-3 sentences, so I suggest that you visit their website and see what you think.
These are examples and there are lots more unique approaches out there to help students realize their potential. What these 4 have in common is that they work with students to provide them with experiences to explore the patterns and connections between and among disparate elements. They engage students’ creativity and curiosity. If that sounds like your son, then I suggest that you look for programs like these rather than traditional majors.
I’m just playing a hunch here because I don’t know your son, but I hope this helps.
I wish you good fortune in your explorations.
Sounds like he’d make a great attorney. Likes logic, projects, organization, thinking creatively.
These sound interesting! We’ll check them out.
You know, he has expressed an interest in law but I’ve discouraged it because memorization isn’t one of his strengths and I think law school requires a lot of memorization.
Your son’s interest sound like my H. His undergrad degree is in Operations Research and Information Engineering (and then an MBA).
Have him look at the course descriptions involved for different majors and the related pre-recs. I have found this helps.
He may enjoy a business program with entrepreneurship as a focus or finance and banking. Patent law also came to mind as I read your comments.
He has plenty of time. It is ok to go in undeclared.
I think a lot of the advice upthread has been really good. But just to throw out a few of my thoughts when reading your description of your son, a psychologist or educational diagnostician might be interesting to him, particularly with intimate experiences with how neurodiversity can appear. But helping to figure out what’s going on and how to help support families and figure out strategies that work for them? Could be very interesting.
Also, I don’t even know if this is still a thing, but professional research librarians, doing research on random things and collecting and classifying special collections for the library. Maybe some kind of archival work?
Anyway, I think that going in undeclared is totally okay. Also, one school that has an extensive core curriculum that is not highly rejective is St. John’s. It’s definitely a fit school, but thought I’d throw it out as a possibility in case it’s the right fit.
My impression is that business is a better fit for him than engineering, based on what you have said. I would say that it is possible (and in many cases more desirable) to obtain an undergraduate degree and then a master’s degree in business, so I wouldn’t worry too much about applying to business programs when you are an undergrad.
I think he might find he really likes Accounting, Business Analytics, or Supply Chain Management.
Based on what you said, look at Information Security/Cyber Security. Maybe you take one coding class, but lots of projects & problem solving in the other classes. Also, there is a HUGE need for Cyber Security analysts. There aren’t enough students majoring in these fields to fill all of the openings. Many schools have MIS in their Business school with an Information Security minor.
I’m a parent of a newly-minted lawyer. I got to “sit in” on their law classes because of covid.
I too thought law would be a good fit for your ds. There’s a lot of logic, research, working with other people and creativity involved. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of memorizing in law school from what I saw sitting in on law school classes during covid. It was certainly not anywhere close to the memorizing I did as a stem major. The bar exam, on the other hand, does have a lot of memorizing.
I think you are asking the wrong question. While it is good to know what subject your son may enjoy taking 8 or 10 classes in, it is important to figure out what type of career he might like, and then figure out what classes he may need to further that career.
Many people love studying law but hate the actual practice of law, which is highly detail oriented, for example. First-destination surveys can give students an idea where other kids end up, and whether those exits are appealing. Job shadowing can give a sense of what types of people work in different fields and what different jobs entail on a daily basis. Entrepreneurship is marvelous–if you have the personality for it, however. It is always easier to transfer out of an impacted major than transfer into it.
Contrary to some other posters, I would definitely consider applying to business programs as an undergrad. Your son may have neither the desire nor the additional $225k needed for a graduate MBA ( HBS COA for a degree this year) and employers are increasingly favoring undergrads who are cheaper to hire.
Many people have no love for biology or chemistry, but need to study it to fulfill their wish to be a doctor. Sometimes people study subjects to help them achieve other goals besides learning about the subject.
So much good advice in this thread!
Business major is what came to my mind as I read your description of your child. It can be broad starting out and they can look into concentrations in Finance or Supply Chain, etc., which are all about problem solving.
If you have your child take an assessment like Strong Interest Inventory, Myers Briggs, etc. you want to make sure to take it through somebody that does in depth debriefing of these instruments. The value of these is in the debriefing with a knowledgeable professional.
The Strong for example can be useful, because they expose kids to a lot of occupations they have previously never heard about and can serve as good starting point for career exploration.
I agree with a few pp’s that having your son do an assessment could be really helpful, and I’d recommend the Strong Interest Inventory over the Myers Briggs. It’s career focused, where it compares the subject’s responses to a series of questions to elicit likes and dislikes (everything from, “do you like to go to the opera” to “do you enjoy having pets”, and then compares those responses to thousands of other people employed in 100s of different careers. It then will provide you with the data based on those comparisons, in the form of a “top ten list” of potential careers, and also a lengthier chart that shows dozens of other possible career options. It’s not meant to set anything in stone or provide a definitive answer for what career would be a good fit, but it is really useful as a tool for exploration, as often some of the potential careers that pop up are not ones that you would have thought of before. It’s also great to help winnow out fields that are likely to be a bad fit, as it provides data for the careers where the subject’s responses were least similar to those who are in those careers.
I think it’s fine to explore options. But this kid is 16 or 17 years old. His likes, interests, and career ideas will likely change multiple times before he actually settles on anything.
Many students choose a major when a professor or course piques their interest in college…enough so that they want to explore it further.
At this point, I think ideas are fine…but really, this kid doesn’t really need to think about a potential major…now.
I did the Meyers Briggs myself. It’s not flawless. The results said I would be great as a nurse or other direct health care professional. Let’s just say…I’m not fond of the sight of blood…so these careers were never on my personal radar screen.
I’m thinking Industrial Engineering. Not necessarily building or designing but has a foundation in how engineering works. Applies to business, law, organizational processes or VC.
Yes, that’s what I thought as I read this. She’s describing the type of person who could do business process management, project management/program delivery, logistics or a host of business-oriented functions.
That said, he is still young and he should be OK with being undecided.
Or someone who could work as a profiler for the FBI, or manage a large city’s Teach for America program, or run a network of food pantries which pick up excess meals from restaurants and supermarkets, or develop recyclable containers for beverage companies… why are we trying to stick this talented kid into a pre-professional box?