“Women are being recruited more heavily for STEM than men at some colleges. I’ve mentioned this before but for those parents whose girls are considering STEM, don’t be surprised if some of their male peers and male professors are not so supportive. They will need to be prepared to work harder and ignore the naysayers.”
@Agentninetynine - My D16 in ME - moving to IE has been struggling with Physics all year. She took an Honors Modern Physics senior year and AP Calc BC - but not AP Physics. She is in class with her BF, his roommate and a few other guys and they study together. They all took AP Physics but not the exam. She does great on the homework and labs but when it comes to the Tests/Exams really struggles. She’s passing - but with a low grade that is not to her liking since she was used to getting all A’s in HS. She says the guys she studies with are having a much easier time of it - but also feels the fact they took AP Physics is helping them a lot.
Lurking for awhile D18 was offered a nice scholarship to NYU Tandon and has accepted. She also applied to Rochester (waitlisted), UPenn (rejected), Carnagie Mellon (rejected) and Umass Amherst (accepted).
Shes on her senior class trip this weekend so we are missing weekend on the square. If anyone is going to the Tandon square, please share deets!
I keep saying that part of the job to recruit more women in STEM particularly computer science is all about educating the young men rather than making more Girls in Comp Science. I see this as a HUGE part of the equation that many are often missing. I’m all for those programs, it’s just I don’t think it’s enough. We have to change the culture of the intro to CS classes at universities. Many of which male students who have been tinkering with coding since they were junior high, don’t think someone who doesn’t think & dream CS all the time has a right to be in the field.
I would hope my son won’t be that way given that I am a programmer & we talk about this very issue. It’s been very fun this year to see how much he is learning so quickly. And he should be VERY aware that it’s a job women are good at and can be good at.
I had another quick chat with D17 last night. I think her heart is with UAH but she’s struggling because if she decides that engineering is not for her, there are obvious advantages to being at UMD – more majors offered, higher rankings, etc. She asked if it would be financially feasible to transfer to UMD if she changed her mind. As a transfer, she wouldn’t have the $12,000/yr scholarship currently on the table, so I had to tell her it wouldn’t work without taking a break to get a job and save $ for school. $-)
@Fishnlines29 - Great job with your D getting into a NY school. Dreams are to be chased. We will find out when our D comes back Monday late evening. Our plan is not to press her on the trip until after the Stanford admitted students days at the end of the month…were going to let her talk and just listen. Ultimately it is her life and her choice. Only concern is that we had a paperwork screw up at Columbia for FA and we still don’t know what they are offering. Not Columbia’s fault but FASA. Nine days and counting til decision day. Still, not a bad problem to have, choose Stanford or Columbia, we can’t complain especially with how many kids didn’t get into their first, second or even their third choices. Still waking up and still does not seem real. Thanks for your input.
@nerdmom88 Does her scholarship at UAH make it cost less than UMD? (I can’t remember details. Is she NM, have high enough test scores for tuition and room?) If so, if she stayed at UAH for 2 yrs, what would the saving be?
ETA: fwiw, my Dd also loved UAH. If the French chair had not told her flat out that they had nothing to offer her, she would have happily applied.
@Mom2aphysicsgeek Actually, UMD would be $1,000 - $2,000 less expensive per year. She has full tuition remission there plus the scholarship, vs. tuition + room for four years at UAH. She did apply for competitive engineering scholarships at UAH, but they haven’t announced those yet.
"I’m going to college!!!" Like @mominthemiddle’s D now that a decision has been made, mine gets occasionally giggly and awestruck at the whole thing, often with those exact same words. It happened again last night when we gave her an early birthday present of a Muhlenberg Tshirt we’d ordered for her. It’s fun to see.
@NerdMom88 If she’s unsure, it might make sense to consider UMD and they are also very highly rated for engineering. Was it a significant difference in price at this point? She asked you a good question, so that is something to consider. Was she able to attend the re-visit days? I know earlier you had some conflicts but can’t remember what was decided…
@Fishnlines29 Yes, she did visit both schools last month. They are (with our tuition remission from UMD) within a couple thousand dollars per year in cost. During our visits she really liked UAH, and she feels that her overall stress would be less there in terms of the coursework, the honors program, and getting around town to her medical appointments. BUT she also really liked UMD; I think the campus and the city were just a bit overwhelming for her, and we got the impression that the engineering program would be more intense. Lots of cool perks, though!
She needs to consider what will give her the best options and opportunities, but she also needs to think about her stress level, as it directly affects her Crohn’s symptoms. I really don’t know how to advise her on this…
@NerdMom88 With the cost being equivalent, that makes it more difficult. When it comes down to decisions that are purely on them, we leave it to them. We share our opinion once and the whys behind it, but then step back and let them take ownership over whatever they decide. In your dd’s case, part of the whys would be the inability to transfer at the same cost to us.
Story about education tech construction & spending in NYC, including NYU-Tech. My son commuted out to the NYU Tech campus two summers ago to conduct research. He enjoyed the prof & PHD/Masters students he worked with there. Congrats!
Thanks @ct1417 that’s a cool link. I’ve never checked out the schools in NYC in person. Walked right by but never stopped in. It’s interesting to see they are trying to keep pace with Silicon Valley and the 128 Corridor in Boston. The amount of high tech construction in Boston has been crazy for the 25 years I’ve lived here.
Looks like the kids in this thread going to school in NYC will be enjoying the benefits of the construction boom!
@NerdMom88 Well let me ask you this, if she were to go to UAH and change her mind on major, is there another major she has in mind? Yes, UMD probably has more options, but if she has something in mind, maybe UAH has it. It sounds like she’s really leaning toward UAH and quite frankly, if she feels more comfortable, she’s more likely to thrive. But you probably have to just commit to being a ‘sounding board’ and let her make the decision.
@CT1417 Cool article! Thanks for sharing. Glad to hear your son liked his experience there.
A comment about the female advantage for STEM. I’m sure that colleges are working super hard to get more applications from women. I’m not as convinced that they’re all giving them big advantages. Mainly based on the rate of change of the fraction of women at their campuses. If they still have about the same ratio as they did 5 years ago, or slightly improved, then they haven’t started giving women a big advantage in the past 5 years. At RPI, for example, they’re currently 69% male. 5 years ago, they were at 71%. So if they do give an advantage to women, it had to have started more than 5 years ago.
Olin and Mudd are about 50-50, so it’s somewhat clear that they are much more likely to accept a female than a male.
Unfortunately, regardless of the unknowns, I’m sure there a lot of males at all of these schools who will think the women got in only because of their gender…
Graduation Announcement question: Like many schools, our graduation announcements have a place for a “name card”. The normal thing is to put kid’s full name on there. Is it tacky to put “Valedictorian” on a second line? These will only be set to grandparents, aunts/uncles, and close family friends - people that I can reasonably expect to be proud of the kid. Nobody on “the list” has a kid who attends D’s school. (I hope you tell me that it’s not tacky, because we already ordered the cards. But now I have doubts.)
D18 was offered a nice scholarship to NYU Tandon and has accepted. She also applied to Rochester (waitlisted), UPenn (rejected), Carnagie Mellon (rejected) and Umass Amherst (accepted).