My son is taking several iDTech programming camps this summer – C++, Java, etc – and iDTech offers him the option of receiving continuing education units at the added price of $100 per unit. These CEUs would be certified thru Villanova University.
My question: Is there any admissions advantage at UW-Madison to shelling out for the official CEUs as opposed to simply listing the camps under extracurricular activities?
Additional note: it’s not like these camps will be his only programming experience. He took an Intro CS AP class his freshman year and he will take a Java AP class sophomore year. After that, if CS is still his passion, he will have the option to take actual UW-Madison programming classes his junior and senior years.
CEUs seem relatively unimportant by comparison, but if they would genuinely give his application a boost, I don’t mind paying the fee. I just don’t want to throw money at iDTech if there’s no real reason to do so.
Thanks very much for any light anyone can shed. I did contact the UW-Madison admissions office by email, but the response was quite formal and unhelpful – the person seemed to think my interest was in transferring the credits, which is not the case at all.
If your son can take UW classes while still in HS (Youth Options I presume) I see no reason he would not be admitted as a college student. I see no reason to waste money getting official credits from a lesser institution. He needs to pay attention to his overall gpa and total ACT/SAT test scores, not just math ones- the nonSTEM classes count as much as the others. UW students get admitted to the university as a whole, regardless of intended major. Your son will be competing with all applicants. He will not get in based on intensive knowledge in one field without showing a good knowledge base (eg grades) in other fields.
It is great your son has taken to the computer science world but be sure he also continues to learn other subjects. Remember he is a whole person and needs more than just the comp sci abilities. I read a comprehensive article my H emailed me that included math as important in the making of an elite programmer. The article also talked about how different programming languages come and go as fashionable in the field. My software developer/engineer (job title depends on the company) son’s email response to this 38,000 word article about his field was a succinct “yep”. Your son ultimately will want a lot more than just learning different programming languages- UW math and comp sci departments are excellent.
@SMadison From our experience, I think there is no real value in going for the CEUs. Also, as for the AP classes, I’m pretty sure there is only one AP comp sci exam/class, not two, and it’s just AP Comp Sci A (mostly Java)? After that, he might want to do dual enrollment classes at the college level (although not all DE credits transfer automatically). I do agree wholeheartedly that strong math foundations (AP calc AB at a minimum) will be highly beneficial in the admissions process.
Thank you both so much for the incredibly thorough and helpful responses!
My son is a solid all-round student so far, and hopefully will continue that way. He won’t have perfect stats by any means, but he took honors and accelerated classes his freshman year and ended up around a 3.7. Test scores may not turn out great – he is one of those kids who just does not test well. But he does love programming, and if he has to start at Stevens Point or somewhere else, that would be fine. There are many paths to success.
He took accelerated geometry as a freshman, so he’s on track to get some calculus under his belt in HS as well.
Leyland, regarding the APs – we were told that the class he took this year is getting AP accreditation soon, and he did participate in some special projects to that end. There should be two exams he can take before he graduates, if that seems worthwhile. (I will probably be back with AP related questions when the time comes, as I just don’t have a good sense of what’s valuable and what isn’t.)
My math comment was for advanced college math- not HS. There are several courses at UW that are cross listed in the math and computer science departments, for example. There are so many levels for developing computer software- from basic programmer to those who write new languages to… One thing to remember- the programming languages learned may not be useful in the area he ends up in- but new ones are easily picked up by people in the field. Knowing a lot of languages at this point can be fun/interesting but certainly is not necessary for a good future in the field.
Be sure your son continues to take most of the most rigorous courses available to him in all areas and try for four years of the same foreign language as most UW accepted students will have done that. His overall credentials will get him into UW, not having a lopsided set in one area. btw- it is not necessary to take any AP class to take any AP exam. Your son can take the comp sci AP exam if he chooses. btw, my son never took any comp sci in HS because the courses conflicted with others. One’s college path is not determined by how many classes one takes in a field before then. And UW courses offer more than AP versions.