For SDSU, you are looking at an eligibility index of 4100+ SAT and at least a 1050+ ACT to be competitive. With over 85,000 applicants this year, a very competitive CSU.
Thanks Shrimpburrito. It is a big financial investment to pay for a university if the student lacks the mojo to do his own research. And, what’s a mom to do? Throw the hands up and just give up? I only had one kid. So, I try…maybe too hard. But, I have seen too many young men with out direction. I will continue to explore some of these vocational jobs. On a side note, something sort of funny, he told me he is interested in becoming an uber driver. Those will become replaced by self driving cars soon enough.
I think getting those grades in AP Physics with no calculus background is not a bad achievement. Is he lopsided in grades (getting higher grades in STEM and lower ones in English, social studies) or is he more of an overall B student?
Don’t be so sure. Friend applied to CU with a 3.1/ 34 ACT and was accepted to A&S but not engineering. Instate. Because it is a trendy school for California kids, CU’s pretty picky about which ones they take.
Well, that’s one reason why a lot of California kids start at their local community college. It gives them two years to think about what they want to do with their lives while getting core requirements out of the way.
There are very few undergraduate majors that are a direct path to a career, so for the most part it doesn’t really matter in the long run what the major was. I think more often than not, career goals and paths are influenced by work experience during college, especially for someone who wants something other than a desk job.
Twoinanddone- I simply looked at the data through naviance and see all the GPA along with ACT/SAT scores on the scattergram and didn’t know the majors. But, Boulder did indeed accept lots of low numbers that CSUs would turn down. Then I noticed that they’d way more $ from those Ca. parents.
Thanks, calmom- only problem is that those engineering degrees start pronto and many CCs don’t have the TAG program for engineering. There are some- but GPAs are required much much higher, maybe for good reason. But, it is something I thought about.
Surfcity- he is a stem type guy with his comparative advantage in that. He isn’t into the language arts at all.
There ARE engineers who started off at community colleges.
Someone mentioned that Forestry was a good field to look into - but as a forester (with 30 years experience), I disagree. It was very tough getting a forestry job when I graduated in the 80’s and it is even harder now. Many forestry graduates worked for many years in seasonal/temporary positions before acquiring permanent positions (with the fed government). After the environmental movement (spotted owl) and subsidized lumber imports from Canada, professional forestry positions have declined due to the drastic reduction of timber cut in the US and the closing of huge numbers of lumber mills across the country. Also, if you are lucky enough to have a job and move up the ladder, the less time you spend outdoors in the field and it essentially becomes a desk job. And contrary to popular belief, a forester is NOT the same thing as a Park Ranger. Forestry is basically growing and harvesting trees as a crop for a profit. The curriculum is tree and a handful of other natural sciences combined with business, economics, law and public policy, GIS/cartography, and a few other fields. It is not walking around the woods giving talks to kids about nature. Currently a better alternative to other outdoor careers would be as some suggested, environmental science (I think we are going to have huge issues to solve in this arena in the near future including climate change), wildlife/fisheries biology, outdoor recreation, botany, entomology, hydrology, soil science/agronomy (probably an area with job potential in CA due to the Ag industry along with other agricultural sciences), horticulture, landscape design, etc. Also, one doesn’t have to have a degree in the fields I suggested to work for land management agencies like the National Park Service, US Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service, etc. Lots of people in these agencies have degrees in business, history (especially the NPS) finance, human resource management, communications, public relations, etc. So one could study those fields with the hope of working in a setting with access to the great outdoors, but still have a degree that would offer more job flexibility in other settings. Hope that helps.
Forgot to add - in the past several years, because of the decline in the Forest Products industry, Forestry programs have morphed into a broader “Natural Resource Management” major. And yes some people in those agencies I mentioned about do go on nature/interpretive walks and teach people/kids about nature, or, for example, the Park Service, about the history of the Battle of Gettysburg, or Ellis Island, etc. But usually that is not the major function of most people above an entry level- most of those types of duties are performed by temporary and seasonal employees (which are very exciting and interesting summer jobs for those in still in college).
Actually, most bachelor’s degrees in the US are granted for majors that are overtly pre-professional (although not necessarily all of them are aimed at professions with good job and career prospects, and some who graduate in pre-professional majors do something else for job and career). These forums are mostly focused on highly selective colleges where less overtly pre-professional majors in the liberal arts predominate (although there is considerable focus on the pre-professional nature of certain colleges with respect to recruiting for elite jobs, and the fact that some liberal arts majors are commonly chosen for pre-professional reasons). But colleges which take mostly B (in high school) students like the CSUs tend to have a much heavier weighting of students in pre-professional majors than liberal arts majors.
Here is CPSLO’s career survey: https://careers.calpoly.edu/search.php
While CPSLO is selective enough that a B student in high school is unlikely to be admitted, its mix of majors is somewhat more similar to that of other CSUs than the mix at some more highly selective universities which make career survey results available to the general public.
While he (not you) needs to choose his major, the career survey results may help him make a more informed decision.
@Themathaw If your son isn’t interested in researching schools, majors, and the like maybe that’s your sign that this isn’t the time to spend precious resources ($) on college. I’m going to be honest here - in my experience the kids whose parents did a majority of the college/career INITIAL planning are the ones who don’t finish college or took their time doing it. He may just have his own timeline for coming up with his path in life and no amount of forcing will make that path known to him earlier…
And engineering is a TOUGH major to get through, even at a less competitive school. It would be very challenging to get through that program if he’s not terribly invested in the end outcome. And he needs to be really confident of his math background going in. Good luck!
OP- one of the problems with your approach is that you are trying to predict the labor/employment markets 5 years from now- and if you could do that accurately, you’d be a billionaire and wouldn’t need to worry about your son becoming self-supporting. There are huge swings in certain parts of the job market which are very tough to observe even a year out- let alone five years out.
What major will lead to secure employment? good question. But I think it’s fallacious to think you’re going to answer it for your son despite your best intentions.
Few people predicted the rapid fall in the price of oil- which has led to a very difficult hiring environment for all the petroleum engineers who started college when new grads with a degree in petroleum engineering were getting 85K offers right out of college. You start a program when there is a shortage- it hits you like a ton of bricks once you graduate and you can’t get a job.
So better to focus on something your son is going to love to study (and to do… even if they aren’t completely linked). I remember at the height of the “nursing shortage” several hospitals in my region merged. So everyone’s kid who had gone off to a nursing program expecting to “waltz” into a job when they finished discovered that nurses with 10+ years experience were being downsized from the hospitals which then led to a glut of nurses further down the food chain- school systems, nursing homes, etc. So sure- move to Des Moines or Boise (both of which were experiencing nursing shortages that year) and get a job. But don’t expect to stay where you thought you were going to stay- because there were no jobs.
Like I said- tough to predict a labor market!
I don’t fault the OP for trying to help steer her child. I have two who didn’t really know what they wanted to study. One ‘discovered’ engineering and that was it. She took a general engineering course her first semester, picked civil, and has never wavered (and that’s unlike her as she always changes her mind a million times). The other really thought she wanted theater. Then art history. Finally I said ‘history.’ It’s not that she doesn’t like school, she loves it, but she loves everything. If there was a major that involved no math, she’d pick that (alas, math is part of the core).
Will she get a job with ‘just a history’ degree? Of course. It may pay $10/hr, but she’ll have a job. My niece and all her friends with fancy degrees from Notre Dame, USD, flagship, Chapman all started at the bottom too. After a year, niece got a ‘real’ job but it is not in her major of International Relations.
How about becoming a teacher in one of his favorite Stem subjects?? Engineering is rigorous everywhere which may be a challenge given his grades to date. Teaching may give him the lifestyle he wants. Target the mid tier CSU’s as Slo and SDSU not likely with his grades but lots of other good options available.
my2caligirls-teaching is something that I thought he would do if getting a BS in physics doesn’t have a lot of employment prospects. Problem is that in this area, teachers don’t get paid a living wage, and I am not exaggerating, unfortunately. But I appreciate the suggestion!
He doesn’t have to teach in the area you live in.
Physics teachers are in high-demand, as are male teachers. If he likes Colorado, I believe they have a program to train STEM teachers where students are paid to get their Master’s.
And Colorado State is WUE, isn’t it?
http://www.denverteacherresidency.org/
Those also exist in California
http://aspirepublicschools.org/join/atr/
http://www.mathforamerica.org/
Blossom- yes, tough to predict the labor market and many of us had problems during the great recession in 2009. And, I appreciate learning about what happened to the nurses and petro engineers in your area. I am trying to research and predict the future labor market and welcome any insight others may have in their careers. I believe it is a responsible thing a parent can do. DS will end up choosing his path, but I can inform him of what I have learned and attempt to make an educated decision.
Least complicated- this info regarding your personal knowlege of your field is really good to know, since I know no one in your field and this can help dodge a bulet.