<p>DS has developed a passion for product design and reverse Engineering. I am looking for recommendations where he could pursue his passions. </p>
<p>Reverse engineering, LOL. My boss was visiting our facility in an unnamed country where there was a huge freighter sitting on the dock with a 1 meter by 1 meter grid painted everywhere on the ship. If that was not reverse engineering I don’t know what it was…</p>
<p>For product design (look and feel) there’s industrial design, for the engineering/build part of it mechanical engineering, and there’s a few programs that combine the two where you study both the design and engineering parts of it. The only one that comes to mind is Stanford but there’s likely to be others.</p>
<p>Don’t worry about reverse engineering…</p>
<p>Now he is thinking about manufacturing engineering. I am wondering if this is too narrow of a field. It is not a discipline a hear much about. I am looking for feedback.</p>
<p>Ah, a plant rat (that’s how we office engineers call them. My wife was a plant rat for a while)</p>
<p>It is specialized, usually as part of industrial engineering. Lots of opportunities usually as factories become more complex. Does he have any specific schools in mind? Industry sectors? automotive is very different than semiconductor for example.</p>
<p>He is a sophomore in high school and still trying to decide what area of engineering he wants to go into. He is in an engineering program in high school (PLTW). In state, Virginia Tech and Liberty offer Industrial and Virginia State offers Manufacturing. He is interested in the University of Miami because their Industrial program has a manufacturing track. He is definitely a STEM student. He just has not figured what he wants to pick as a major. </p>
<p>Give him time. Many engineering students head off to college without knowing. Others specify a choice and then later switch. . </p>
<p>Son want to explore IE programs in Florida during Spring Break. Tomorrow he plans to talk to his guidance counselor about dropping Spanish 4 for Economics or another businees class. Will high school business classes have much of a an impact in preparing him for college course work in Industrial/manufacturing or engineering managment. He says he would like to own his Engineering business one day. </p>
<p>I believe China has some good reverse engineering programs.</p>
<p>It’s great to have language skills. Some colleges do give credit for AP Spanish, but I have heard it can be tough to score high since so many taking it are native speakers. </p>
<p>Business classes would probably vary by hs. DS was put into a basic business class his freshman year (taught by the asst football coach). He thought it was worthless. </p>
<p>DD adored her hs Econ class. She’d often draw supply/demand curves in the air to illustrated a point. We should have paid more attention to that. She headed of to engineering college but eventually switched gears to be an Econ major. </p>
<p>Your son has plenty of time to figure this out. Since you are in Virginia,you might want to take the general engineering tours at places like Virginia Tech, UVa, and George Mason. Virginia Tech has Industrial and Systems Engineering, UVa has Systems Engineering and Information Technology, and GMU has Systems Engineering and Operations Research. But kids start out in General Engineering (at least I know they do at UVa and Virginia Tech) and then you later move into a particular department. He may very well change his mind once he actually gets to college and has exposure to different areas. I don’t think I would worry about taking a business class in high school in terms of that giving him much , if any, help with his college work.</p>
<p>Also in Virginia, JMU has an Integrated Science and Technology Program that offers a concentration in Engineering/Manufacturing. They also have an engineering program that I believe has been fairly recently accredited… VCU also has engineering but I don’t know anything about specifics.</p>
<p>Different ways you can go, Industrial Design or Engineering, I would say Engineering ala a BSME degree would open many doors as a Industrial Design degree would be tougher with limited opportunity but focuses more on the Artistic side of Product Design. </p>
<p>Most if not all Engineers working against the competition, reverse Engineer. Ford buy’s GM cars and tears them apart and etc, Apple buy’s Samsung phones and does the same thing and vice versa, there are patents but you can learn a lot from it. </p>
<p>Thank you for the replies. </p>
<p>Some days it is like I am raising Sheldon Cooper because he only sees STEM related classes as important. However, unlike Dr. Cooper he enjoys playing his sports. Although he has done well in Spanish, he did not enjoy it and view it as an inconvenience he had to endure to earn an advanced diploma. </p>
<p>I think in the end he will choose Virginia Tech. I believe it is the best fit for him. He is familiar with the campus environment at most State schools in Virginia from visiting other family members who are enrolled. He still needs to explore engineering options at the schools. He attended UVA’s Engineering Open house last spring. He was not excited about the opportunities to take courses outside of the School of Engineering and having a well rounded academic experience. This fall we will attend open house at JMU and Tech. He talks about going to school out of state. I remind him the more money I pay to the school, the less money I have to send to him. It is more important for me that he finds a school where he has the best chance to succeed so if it is OOS, I will deal it. As we know engineering is not an easy major. I guess business or another STEM field would be his second choice if needed.
He several things in his engineering notebook from his experiences of tearing things apart. So right now he is all in for engineering. </p>
<p>Even kids at Virginia Tech in engineering have to take some courses outside of engineering. I assume he already has great grades and SAT’s if he is looking at UVa and Virginia Tech engineering. Good luck and have fun on your visits to Virginia Tech and JMU.</p>
<p>He cruised through Elementary and Middle School with straight A’s. Once he started taking advanced classes in high school it became much harder for him. He is always willing to do what it takes to get an A in the classes he likes. Other classes I have to push. It is frustrating because I know he can do the work at a high level. Currently his uw gpa is 3.7. He has a 4.0 in all STEM and PE classes. This is his Junior year so it is really his last change to apply himself in all subjects. He will take the SAT in October. </p>
<p>GPA is important but after graduating and entering the workforce, it carries little weight, post academics. Problem with many Engineering schools is they are staffed with Profs that have little to no Professional work experience in the corporate world, many were perpetual students and went through the motions to gain their degrees and jumped right into the teaching mode and push things based on textbooks and theory, they do not teach good communication skills, how to deal with difficult people, how to take constructive criticism and etc. Much of which is a daily part of being an Engineer and there is more to it than that. </p>