If he’s expressed an interest in Civil Engineering, I’d definitely start looking along those lines. Civil, along with Mechanical and Electrical are what I call the “primary 3” engineering disciplines. Pretty much any university that offers engineering degrees will offer these three. He can start with Civil as the intended discipline, but the first two years of engineering studies usually consist of university and engineering department core courses. It’s relatively easy to switch majors within engineering before Junior year. Additionally, it’s relatively easier to change majors from engineering to most other departments if he decides that engineering is not for him.
Civil Engineering is a broad area with lots of subfields, many of which are “desk jobs”. Some schools put Construction Management under the Civil Engineering degree as a specialty concentration. From your description, I would advise against a pure Physics degree. Degrees described as “Engineering Technology” tend to be more hands-on and less theoretical than pure Engineering degrees, although there tends to be a pay differential over the life of a career.
Definitely give suggestions but let him pick. I went into Electrical Engineering with a Biomed option because the school offered me good money to do it. I knew nothing about it. I did not do great in college because the engineering classes did not interest me and they started assuming we knew I log more than I did. 90% of my class at the time worked at Texas Instruments and this first class they said. So since most of you work there we will start in chapter 8. I was lost. I also got a math degree and love it and did really well in those classes. I should have looked more into my major but I let others decide for me.
Make sure you can pay for where he looks. I fell in love with Vanderbilt but my parents couldn’t afford it. That always made me unhappy about where I ended up.
@Themathaw I don’t see anything wrong with a parent assisting/advising their kids with career choices as long as it is done in a helpful and well intentioned manner and your child is open and appreciates your guidance. Seventeen year olds are children with little life experience and are really not knowledgeable about what careers consist of or even the multitude of careers that are available. My kid liked her criminal justice course and put that down on her list for possible areas of study. I asked her “Do you want to work with criminals for a living?”. They answer was no. Yeah, it’s fun to sit in a class and talk about crime and law enforcement, but it takes a special kind of person to deal with that environment, and she is not of that caliber. Lots of ignorance (lack of knowledge) and naivety in their age group.
That being said, you have received a lot of good info especially financial. Make sure you only consider schools that your son would be able/willing to attend or you are just wasting your time. Make sure the school offers a wide variety of majors if your son is unsure upon entry to college. My daughter turned down a nice scholarship offer with my blessing because the school had a very narrow range of majors they offered and she is unsure of her career path. And few of the majors the school offered were associated with jobs that created good income possibilities. There will be many considerations like this ahead in your son’s future and I think guidance from parents is very helpful.
He has Bs in AP physics and in trig/pre- calc which he is taking as a junior. This is why I think Cal Poly Slo would be difficult for him to get into. But, science still seems to be HIS comparative advantage, and he seems interested. He has to do something and he isn’t a real school boy that likes to read and write. I am considering the other more target schools, that seem he has a chance as per naviance (Northridge, Channel Islands).
He does seem into this. I hope that if he were to choose “enviornmental science” as a degree, he’d be employable with a B.S. no grad school. And that it would be enough to pay the bills.
@Themathaw: All the Cal States except Cal Poly SLO admit based on Eligibility index and major.
EI= (CSU/UC GPA x 800) + (SAT Math + CR) or (CSU/UC GPA x 200) + (ACT composite x10). Cal states in your local service area give applicants priority but impacted majors will still be competitive and usually require the above average stats (EI) to get an acceptance.
CSU/UC GPA calculator: https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/
Cal States and most UC’s use capped weighted GPA.
Cal State local service area: http://www.calstate.edu/sas/onestopkiosk/documents/CSULocalAdmission-ServiceAreas.pdf
First figure our your budget. How much you can pay each year towards his college? Then run the Net Price calculators on any schools of interest.
Then calculate out his Eligibility index to see where he stands for the Cal States.
For Cal Poly SLO, Engineering is the most competitive college and you are looking at need top stats for a solid chance. Cal Poly uses 9-11th grades in their CSU GPA calculation while the other Cal States and UC’s use 10-11th grades so this can have a significant impact negative or positive depending upon how well applicants do in Freshman year. SLO uses MCA points instead of the eligibility index. For SLO, you need to declare a major while many of the Cal States allow you to enter as Undeclared. Here is a link for MCA points, check post #52
I forgot link the impacted campus/major matrix for the Cal States: https://www.calstate.edu/sas/documents/impactedprogramsmatrix.pdf
How about Cal Poly Pomona?
Yes. CPP is one I am taking him to drive around during the Summer. I know it would be better to go while students are there; but we will be in that area anyhow. Also, Northridge.
Thanks for the responses. I hope I can reciprocate by being a good ear and putting in my 2 cents, for whatever its worth!
So, anyhow didn’t want to give you the wrong impression that I am trying to pick his major. I am trying to guide him and help with researching careers and college majors. I didn’t have anyone to help or guide me when I was in his stage and if I could go back in time I would’ve tried for the RN program. But, that’s me. I ended up sort of aimless and naiive during that stage of my life. I just want to help him and not waste my money since I will be the one funding his education. He doesn’t really know exactly what he wants. But, he does know that he doesn’t want CS ,despite the high salary and high employment prospects nor does he want to do medical. So, those of you whom mention geoscience and or enviornmental science or even industrial engineering could be on to something. I will need to research those further. The enviornmental science BS is supposed to be good for park rangers, but that isn’t enough to go for that field. There would need to be much more employment than gov’t jobs.
I did notice that many of the state schools jump right in from start of freshman year with the specific major requirements, especially in the engineering departments.
His test scores for ACT was 27 in math and hold your breath…17 in the language arts. So, he just took the SAT and test scores haven’t come back yet. He claims that the reading passages were just too boring on the ACT to keep him focused. Yes, there has been some history of ADD, and that sort of thing when he was in elementary school, common theme for many of our boys these days. I didn’t spend the $100 per hour test tutoring. I had him use “kahn accademy”. The $100 per hour is what I earn in a whole day after taxes.
to sylvan8798- what is it about a pure physics major that concerns you? It concerns me as well, but I am interested what you think regarding this.
An issue is that the CSU’s require students to apply for a specific major.
It may be better for him to apply to WUE schools such as NAU, Montana State, WWU, UWyoming… which would allow him to apply to a whole college (not a major) or just “undecided”.
Run the NPC to see whether it’d be cheap enough (with merit or WUE). You need to know how much you can afford - most universities now consider 25K is the “normal” cost for a public university.
Then, you can run the NPC on some private universities - Chapman, UofPacitic, CalLutheran, LaVerne, Lewis&Clark, PugetSound, UPortland, USeattle.
Look into Food science - lots of applied chemistry and good job prospects.
Forestry is a good major to look into (Humboltd, Monterey, and SLO should have it, and probably others).
The “less commuter” CSU’s would be SDSU, Chico, and Sonoma. CPP is not as bad as Northridge or Fresno in that respect.
I like the idea of starting out as engineering and then having the option to switch to a broader science if he drowns with the engineering courses. That way, he knows he attempted that. And, when the sciences have much more wiggle room than engineering in terms of electives.
To Gumbymom, thanks for the info. I have been studying the matrix, etc. Seems like nursing and engineering are impacted. Folks know what is marketable. The non-impacted schools offer BS in the sciences, but that is why I am thinking about the employability of a science major.
I like the “learn by doing” motto CPP has. I would love to hear anyone with any knowledge about that. When applications open, he will apply there.
to momocarly- yes I have been screening universities before bringing them up to DS. His GPA and test scores won’t get him merit at a private. He does have URM going for him, but when I look at naviance, many of those big name privates don’t seem to have anyone in his range. That’s why I am bringing up Northridge, etc. He came home from school with the idea of SDSU. That one seems out of reach for him accademically. I would never pay that $$$ that those privates want, even if I could afford it. I am too cheap/ practical/ poor or whatever to pay $100 per hour for the tutoring that the other parents here pay for SAT improvement. He is going to need to be practical with options. He suggested University of Colorado at Boulder, which is the trendy school for students from our neck of the woods. They would take him, because they’d charge me the OOS tuition with NO WUE. I told him no for that.
To momocarly, I bring up schools that offer the WUE or in-state publics.
HE needs to research these majors…not you!
Give him the ideas…and let him look for what they mean, what they entail in terms of education, and the like.
HE is going to college.
It’s nice to give him suggestions of options to research… but, in my opinion, HE needs to own this…not you.
In addition to traditional four-year colleges, you may consider encouraging your S to look at a big tech/vocational school website to see the variety of programs it offers. There are lots of hands-on careers out there with big income potential. Welding, automotive mechanic, electrician, aviation tech, construction, etc. Lots of applied math and science, and there’s a big demand for skilled jobs like these right now. Of course you don’t get the “fun” college experience, but you get the fun of having a solid, lucrative career without a big time or monetary investment.