Hi everyone,
I’m a junior in high school and get very good grades in my math/science courses and pretty good grades in the other ones. I enjoy math and science much more than English and social sciences. But on the ACT, I scored a 34 on English and reading, 35 on science and 32 in math. I’m not sure if I should go for applied math and sciences or if I should apply to a college of arts and sciences. My math score (32) isn’t high for many engineering schools. Also, how stressful is engineering school compared to arts and sciences? Thanks
@perspectivestude the ACT is only 1 part of the entire application. If you like math the best, apply to the math schools. The transcript is more important so as long as you have excellent grades in math fields, you will be ok. You are still a junior so you can always retake the ACT if you want also.
Test scores do not tell the whole story. In fact, admissions “validity” studies have shown that grades in a 'rigorous" secondary school count more than SAT scores when predicting university grade success within the first two years of college. Before you let your test scores make the choice for you, read the admissions explanation process described here: http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/there_is_no_formula.
Scoring higher on your verbal than your math score does not mean you should change your career direction based on that evidence alone. What you enjoy counts! If your math and science grades and interest are strong, go with it. There is plenty of room in the professional world for literate scientists and engineers. An ACT spread of two points is not a huge problem. Great, your well rounded!
Engineering is a demanding field. To be good at anything, it helps to like what you are doing. Ask students at universities where you have an interest how many hours a day they spend on studies and in the classroom. Some athletic and/or other outside activities can actually make the academic load lighter… but you will be busy.
Pick a school that offers a wide range of applications for your math interests. Engineering, science (including biology), social science and even music are just a few of the applications.
Thanks @acron611 and @retiredfarmer. I definitely enjoy maths and sciences the most, but I’m not positive if engineering is the right path. My grades are better in math and science classes. What majors would you reccomend for someone who likes math and sciences other than engineering?
@perspectivestude hmmm
Ill say some of the most popular majors involving math are computer science, chemistry, and biology.
Next year in college (im a senior), I am majoring in environmental geoscience. Basically every science has math in it.
you can always take a pure major.
What type of career are you interested in? That should be a big factor in choosing your major, then tweaked according to your ability. My daughter, for example, wanted to be a teacher. She considered early elementary but knew that her spelling and reading comprehension abilities were not her strong suit. She can’t spell well at all. She has outstanding math skills and loves calculus. So she majored in high school math education.
My math interests took me from engineering into economic studies in transportation (behavioral mathematics) and later into better understand the reasons behind the college selection process. For example, who really makes the decision, the student or your parents? How well do high school test scores really predict success in college? These all involve an application of linear algebra which is really the mathematics of computers (they can’t really do calculus). Data is collected by carefully designed questions which are developed in a manner which double or triple checks the consistency of the results. It is nothing like “fake news.”
An actuarial undergraduate helped me work on this. Statistics is a big part of it all. “Big data” is another big application today.
Thank you for the question. One thing kind of leads to the other as the world is really interdisciplinary.
Engineering is solving design problems using math and science. Does that interest you more or less than studying pure math or science?
Math and many math-related fields, like physics, chemistry and occasionally computer science, are often hosted in the college of arts and sciences and not in the engineering school. For example, at Columbia, the applied math, astrophysics, biophysics, chemical physics, chemistry, computer science, data science, information science, mathematics, physics, and statistics majors are all in Columbia College (although you can also major in computer science, applied math and applied physics at SEAS). As another example, at Duke, the following majors are all in arts & sciences: chemistry, biophysics, computer science, math, physics, and statistical science.
Even at universities with bigger, more formal divisions between schools have this. For example, at UW-Madison, the College of Letters & Sciences has majors like applied mathematics, engineering, and physics; astronomy-physics; atmospheric and oceanic sciences; cartography and geographic information systems; computer sceinces; environmental sciences; geology and geophysics; math; physics, and statistics.
Really, it kind of depends on what your intended major is from school to school. For example, if you were interested in majoring in computer science, at some schools that major is in arts & sciences and at others it’s in the engineering or science school (and at some universities, you can choose which school you want to major in it in). If you’re undecided on your major but just know you want it to be in some kind of math or science field, just check out which of the university’s schools has the most majors you’re interested in.
Thanks guys!