Don’t tell him then about a Boy Scout that wanted a badge related to nuclear science. Tried to build a nuclear reactor in his parents’ shed from materials procured (rather easily) through the post. Ended up poisoning his neighborhood and being arrested. Also died young, that nuclear stuff can be pretty nasty. My husband has a T-shirt that reads “Science: doing stuff in a lab that would be a felony if you did it in your garage.” Here’s to all the tinkerers. I’m not one but your son is definitely not an anomaly. What we’re trying to say is that engineering takes all types. Not just the tinkering type.
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Making it through an engineering program will depend on his upper level math and physics prowess. The tinkering will be a bonus, not what gets him through. Based on his previous success, I’m sure he’ll be fine.
The road is littered with those who thought engineering was tinkering. For a few it is, but they’re rare. My son is an example. He does very hands on electronics stuff, but also very complex fluids. It’s a rare combination of skills. Without the heavy lifting theoretical stuff he wouldn’t be where he is today.
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This is so true. My son was just home for fall break (four days), doing homework the entire time, and spent hours each day on one problem - and still couldn’t get it figured out.
And he’s a Junior. You think all the kids that dropped through two years were weeded out. But even as Juniors, they’re not done weeding out. He also dropped a class where he thought the professor was awesome and went to office hours weekly but was still concerned about passing.
Everyone says - I want to major in engineering - saying and doing successfully - very different things.
I was a history and journalism double major. The kids - lots of respect. I didn’t have 1/100 of their academic sophistication.
Tinkering and the class work these kids are going through - not related whatsoever that I can tell.
My son’t manufacturing internship last summer and classwork…also not related 
But we all experience that in life vs. school.
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Both of my kids are engineers, but I wouldn’t classify either one as a tinkerer. One has always been a builder, Legos are his outlet. Being able to learn on the job and problem solve are their strengths. Good math and physics skills were their foundation. Once they get exposed to building robots/devices, wiring up circuits, or designing things with SolidWorks, you never know where that will take them. As others have said, I think there is a broad range of engineers from tinkerers to non-tinkerers.
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re: engineering - I appreciate this post. my own kid is studying engineering, doesnt tinker; but he’s doing the math and physics well.
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It depends completely on what they’re majoring in and then who they work for. My son is a ME, but concentrated in mechatronics. It’s upper level tinkering, designing PCBs, stuffing circuits, building test apparatus, etc. They are so small they can hire techs to do that. Once they get through prototyping and troubleshooting, they have manufacturers build in quantity. The bulk of what he does though is design. That requires a graduate level of fluids, which is very deep math. That’s a pretty atypical combination of skills though.
The real take home message from his experience though is that he didn’t do ANY of that in HS. In fact, he sort of fancied himself as mechanically inept. He learned circuit design and small scale manufacturing. He learned to solder and reflow in the process and use a multimeter. Doing that now has nothing to do with his skill set in HS. He was accomplished in math and science, a multi sport athlete, and a musician. In short, he was a regular HS kid that liked math and had hobbies.
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There’re so many different disciplines in engineering, each requiring different level of math skills and knowledge of physics (and, in some cases, of chemistry and biology). The inclination and the ability to “tinker” isn’t a requirement but may similarly be helpful in certain engineering disciplines. There’re also different types of “tinkering”, so the degree of its usefulness may depend on the combination of the engineering discipline and the type of “tinkering”.
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Teleia, We know about that story of the kid messing with nuclear materials. Even my son knows not to try that. That said, we are glad he has not burned down the house or lost a finger.
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Regarding Clark and Worcester Polytechnic: they are in a consortium so she could conceivably attend one and take classes at the other, I actually know a young man who is graduating from WPI this year in Aerospace Engineering…
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It’s a LONG thread, so you probably missed that this was discussed in detail upthread. The biggest issue is that WPI is on a much different term schedule (7 weeks). Love WPI though even without considering classes at other consortium schools.
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No to diminish WPI but they’ve had four recent student deaths including two confirmed as suicides. Obviously we don’t know the full story but certainly anyone looking at the program needs to drill down extra carefully to ensure it’s a proper environment for their student.
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@compmom you didn’t have a few hours to read the entire thread?! 
Actually thanks to @eyemgh and others here, my D applied EA to WPI as it does sound like a good fit for her in so many ways.
Yes, I read about that at WPI, it is so heartbreaking. I’ve been reading a lot of student newspapers for the schools my D is interested in, and not surprisingly I’ve seen a lot of news about suicides and mental health distress across most campuses, but that does seem like an unusually high number for such a small school. We are trying to understand what was going on and, as importantly, what the school is doing to address it.
That news is actually part of what prompted me to start another thread trying to figure out how to gauge a school’s mental health/wellness supports: How to gauge schools' mental health supports -- figuring out the "wellness factor"?
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I am in no way trivializing the deaths at WPI, but it’s happening everywhere. Just search college suicides in 2021 and you’ll find a heartbreaking number of reports. There have been 4 at Dartmouth this year. UNC just cancelled classes after another student’s suicide. It’s a significant problem, likely multi-factorial and not just related to Covid. It’s not isolated to WPI though.
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Talked to a friend last night whose son is at WPI. They mentioned the suicides, also a bunch of shootings (included bullets embedded in the kid’s apartment building). While he’s enjoyed the course and doesn’t seem overly bothered by this sort of thing, they are keen for him to go to a less “rough” area after graduation rather than staying there for a masters.
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Some updates and a request for more info on the schools D is considering please!:
D finally took the SAT and got a 1560.
She is still very much Undecided with a capital “U” but does seem more interested in Neuroscience and Computer Science these days. Yet still hasn’t ruled out Engineering (despite the need to pick a major for the Nov. 30 UC/CSU deadlines! 
).
Thanks to all the input here, we added a few schools to her list (instead of cutting!), so I’m back to my original goal of trying to help her shorten it because there are still way too many schools, especially reaches, and I don’t want her to burn out on essays.
Our current focus: If you have recent experience/knowledge of these schools, can you tell me what the stress/mental health culture is like, particularly for those studying in STEM fields? I realize across the globe students are more stressed than ever right now, but even before Covid, what is life like for these kids?
Are they cutthroat/competitive, or truly more collaborative/supportive of each other? Are they all taking insanely heavy courseloads because the school expects it or it’s otherwise the norm? Do they balance their academics with downtime, fun extracurriculars (or are the extracurriculars themselves competitive?!)?
When I read Niche reviews, some students are described as not competitive with each other, but with themselves – I think that’s supposed to seem less stressful, but I wonder if that instead means the students feed off each other’s intensity and stress themselves out? Other schools are described as intense academically, but the students help each other get through it together and have fun in the process (that’s more what she’s hoping for 
).
In addition to student culture, I’d love more info on these aspects of the school’s infrastructure/priorities and how they promote a healthy environment (or don’t)?:
Physical Health: Access to gyms, health clinics. Classes/workshops on Sleep, Nutrition, Alcohol/Drugs. Healthy Dining options.
Mental Health/Wellness: Classes/workshops: Yoga, Meditation/Mindfulness, Stress Management, Time Management. Support Groups.
Intervention: Crisis Line, Counseling Services (low student:counselor ratio), Outside Referrals. Accommodations Policies for Leave of Absence, etc
Sexual Violence: Prevention Education/Training. Strong School/Title IX Policies/Enforcement. Survivor Support
Academic Balance: Manageable Course Workload. Academic Advising, Peer Advising, Tutoring.
School Culture: Administration Support/Prioritizing Student Wellness. Collaborative, Supportive Student Culture. Support for LGBTQ+, URM etc. Reduced Stigma for academic & mental health help.
Her current list:
Most Enthusiastic
MIT (applied EA)
Yale
UChicago (applied EA)
Pomona College
Case Western (applied EA)
Very Enthusiastic
Stanford
UCLA
Harvey Mudd
Tufts
UC San Diego
University of Rochester
UC Santa Cruz
Somewhat Enthusiastic
Brown
Barnard
Carnegie Mellon
UC Berkeley
Occidental
Boston University
Scripps
UC Santa Barbara
Cal Poly SLO
WPI (applied EA)
Less Enthusiastic
UC Irvine
UC Davis
UC Riverside
Cal Poly Pomona
CSU’s (San Diego, Long Beach, San Jose, Sacramento)
Schools considered but removed from list: Princeton, CalTech, University of Southern California, Northwestern, WashU, Haverford, Northeastern, Wellesley, Vassar, Brandeis, Reed, Santa Clara, Univ of San Diego, Whitman, RIT, UC Merced, Lewis & Clark.
I will likely post these questions to individual school threads, but thought I’d start with all of you who already know so much about these schools and my D.
Again, many thanks for your time and help!
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Yes, I’m reading about it at so many colleges, it’s so heartbreaking. With WPI – and all the schools D is considering, I’m trying to get a sense of what the culture is more generally like (I remember you described your perception of WPI as being happy students), as well as what supports are at the school and what the admin is doing about this.
I can understand that. Lots of recent homicides at UChicago too. So hard when we want to protect our kids. 
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I’d be moving Brown to the top of the list if your concern is balance, mental health, etc.
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Congratulations to your daughter! The 1560 is going to help a great deal with admissions. 
Given her desire to explore potential majors, I’m going to suggest Yale (most enthusiastic), Tufts (very), and Brown (somewhat) for her—lots of room for exploration and quirky kids, but no aeronautical engineering.
If she’s not into the pre-professional vibe, I’d suggest moving UCLA down the list.
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And adding on to the comment from @blossom I’d move the CA publics down the list, if balance, mental health, etc. are important. And my D21 is a freshman at Cal Poly SLO.
I’d go small(er). Big classes, competitiveness, housing, crime, and on and on are not good for a kid’s health.
I will say in SLO’s defense, it’s mostly undergraduates and smaller than most of the UC’s and they do a terrific job with their WOW (Welcome Week) program transitioning kids to college.
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You might want to read about the class action suit happening right now before fully accepting that endorsement.
As for safety, there are several on the list with long histories of crime. It’s simply the nature of where they are.
There are also several schools with reputations as being a grind, essentially overwhelming students in volume. For fear of getting into a flame war, it’s up to you to suss those out. There are enthusiastic alumni and parents of said alumni from every school on your list, so do take it with a grain.
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