My S, a sophomore, is talking about doing engineering or business in college – says he’s leaning to engineering. He talks about designing computer hardware – but has also mentioned automotive and aerospace. Has also said that he might want to do engineering in college but end up on the business side of the house. Says you have more credibility that way.
When I think of my son he doesn’t come across as an engineering ‘type’ but I wonder if I just don’t know enough. The only engineer in our family is my niece who finished her honors engineering degree at Purdue but ended up not wanting to be an engineer. 
My ‘concerns’:
– He’s not very detail oriented, precise, nor neat which is my stereotype of an engineer.
– He’s not great with concentration and is more of a divergent thinker (this is my nice way of saying he’s a little ADD, though not ‘officially’)
– While he’s going great in math now, when he was younger he didn’t (tho that may partly have been b/c he was in a new dual language program so 1/2 his math instruction was in Spanish and they were working the kinks out on curriculum, etc.)
– He’s talked about setting up a space in our garage to ‘tinker’ but has yet to follow through despite our support.
– While he’s doing really well in school he works really hard – which is good of course – but I worry given how hard engineering is if the difficulty will catch up with him? He’s bright and a hard worker but not effortlessly brilliant.
– He’s an extrovert who needs a lot of social interaction.
On the other hand:
– He loves technology, reads about it all the time and is a fountain of knowledge about tech companies and products. He gives advice to customers when we go to Best Buy b/c he knows more than the guys who work there. He watches product launches on live stream and can tell you why components are better than others, understands how the technology works, is up to speed on the financials of all the major tech players, etc.
– He’s doing rocket club and PLTW and is excelling at both. His PLTW teacher told us at open house how well S. is doing.
– He pulled off straight As last year including a consistent 97 or so in math. Says math is his easiest class and doesn’t have to work very hard to do well in that class; however, he won’t take Calc until his senior year so he hasn’t gotten to the ‘hard’ math yet.
He will apply to some pre-engineering summer programs this coming summer which should help him get more exposure.
Would love any suggestions on how to help him figure this out. Or, maybe it’s me who needs the education on what an engineer looks like??
What your son does is good. He does not need pre-engineering summer program. Your concerns are unfounded.
My daughter actually got a lot out of engineering summer programs. Helped her to solidify that that she was on the right path. She also took a series of pre-engineering courses in high school and did some shadowing.
FWIW, I don’t think there really is an engineering “type”. Engineering is such a broad field and other than being strong in STEM, I have seen all kinds of personalities going into the field.
Engineering undergrad coupled with an MBA can be a very marketable combination.
Sounds like he is on the right path. Don’t worry about being an “engineer type”. I was definitely not one of those people growing up and I’ve been doing fine in engineering. It’s really more about just being good at math and science than loving to tinker though that helps. Many engineers work in business or in program management after some time in technical work.
Yeah, I was not a tinkerer type, but ended up getting a PhD in EE, then became essentially a software engineer for my career. I think the strongest indication is liking to do math problems quite frankly. And not necessarily deep deep math; just liking to visualize the solutions to a problem and being able to follow through finding a way to answer them. A logical mind, basically.
There is no one “engineering type.” so don’t worry about that. The biggest issue with many entering engineering students is not actually knowing what engineering is. As he progresses through the PLTW curriculum, he will being a better knowledge of what engineering is, and what engineers do.
You say he earned all A’s lest year. how did he do an the PTLW end of course exam(s)? What was his stanine score? I would give him time to explore more classes, before making a decision. I think he’s wrong about the business side having more credibility. Some people are more suited to the business side, others toward the design side. He will need to find his own way. If he chooses engineering, he will also have to choose which sub field. He will take his basic engineering courses which apply to all fields, but most of the advanced courses are more specific to the individual fields. It helps to have some exposure to the other fields, because you are likely to end up working on a teach with a variety of specialties, and will need to be able to communicate will with all of them.
My potential engineer attended Operation Catapult at Rose-Hulman. It was very helpful for her to decide whether engineering was for her or not (it wasn’t, she ended up as a Physics major). I’d recommend it as a good option to explore engineering projects and careers.
While there’s no one type, there are common attributes.
What’s interesting is the interest in business. Lots of people with an engineering slant (not necessarily a degree) are highly successful in the tech business realms. You get to have all the interests, dig down into nitty gritty details, without engineering responsibilities, per se, 40 hours/week. And can make a lot of money.
I do think a summer program is a good idea.
“On the other hand”… the first bullet point could be a non-engineering passion, a product manager or some other area.
Is he not taking calculus in high school because it is not offered by the school? It might need explaining as to why he didn’t take calculus when applying to engineering programs. Multiple HS college councilors have suggested talking calculus if possible to help get kids into undergrad business programs, let alone engineering. Not impossible by any stretch of the imagination, just be aware as to be prepared.
What is PLTW class?
@CTScoutmom – I don’t know how he did on the PLTW exam; I just checked his online grades portal and it’s not on there, and I don’t recall anything coming home. This year I’ll be sure to find out. He was one of a few kids in his class who got a Certificate of Excellence from his teacher though.
@lookingforward – Yes, he has said he’d love to end up in a tech company, and I think the business degree with some engineering slant would be a great path for him, but I don’t know that that actually means. Can you take some engineering courses w/o majoring? Are there tech industry-oriented business programs? I think of engineering as ‘all or nothing.’ This will merit more investigation.
@donnaleighg – Appreciate your comments on math. He’s just said the other day he likes math b/c there’s always more than one way to figure it out. He is very logical – like his lawyer father that way!
@intparent – will check that program out – tks!
Appreciate all this great feedback. Honestly, my biggest concern is that he gets into the really high level math and science courses for engineering and lose interest and/or not do well. Esp. those notorious weeder classes. I don’t mean to underestimate him, but I know it’s not an easy path, and it’s something I don’t know much about. I suppose once he gets some standardized tests in and he sees how he’s doing on those national PLTW tests then we’ll have more information. He still has time to figure it out!
@knightclub – He will take AP Calc as a senior in high school. Some kids take it as a Junior but b/c of some shaky math instruction/performance in late elementary school he’s on the track that has him taking it as a senior (much to his chagrin)
PLTW is Project Lead the Way. It’s a national pre-engineering curriculum that is increasingly common in public schools. He takes one course each year as an elective.
My daughter never took calc in high school because she took Algebra as a freshman, geometry as a soph, etc. Just never got to calc.
She’s an engineer. Took Calc 1&2 as a freshman, calc 3 as a sophomore, etc. It all works out.
@AlmostThere2018
Believe it or not, there are engineering majors in colleges who NEVER took calculus in high school. They never attended a summer engineering program. They never did some special engineering HS program…and they still got college degrees…in engineering.
The best thing your kiddo can do now…keep an open mind. He may or may not stick with engineering as a college major. He may or may not actually ever get a job as an engineer even with a degree in engineering. That happens too.
Anyone who has read my posts for a long while knows that one of my kids never took calculus in HS. She still got a degree in engineering from a school with a fine engineering program. Imagine that.
But they also know that she picked up a double major in addition to engineering because she just realized it wasn’t something she wanted as a career.
In my opinion, the best thing your kiddo can do is do some significant shadowing with some folks in a variety of engineering fields…to get a real idea of what the jobs are really like.
I will add…my kid did this…her dad is an engineer. Still…she realized that the field want for her but did decide to complete the degree requirements.
I never took calc in hs or any math in college and I ended up working in an engineering field. Sure. Not as an engineer but with all the satisfying aspects. Not needing calc for an engineering or other stem admit depends on the colleges you aim for.
That’s good perspective re: Calculus in high school. We live in a high achieving public school district where not taking Calc as a Junior is almost considered being behind! At least in my son’s friend group it is. And whether or not you do is based on a single test you take as a 5th grader which determines your middle school, and hence, high school math path. My S was the very first cohort of a small dual language program in elementary that had some shaky math instruction so he didn’t do great on that 5th grade test, nor did his peers, so pretty much everyone in the program is on the math track where you can still take Calc but only has a senior. Which is fine, I know, but it is crazy how the ‘normal’ here is out of step with what is normal in a other places. That said, he’s lucky to attend good schools overall. And he’s fluent in Spanish!
I think it is becoming more common for high school kids to take calc in high school, but it is not the end of all hope for a stem major if one doesn’t take it. My daughter was in a calc 1 class as a college freshman where more than half the class had had calc in high school, and of course many other freshmen were placed into calc 2 or 3. It was fine.
In one of the admissions sessions the AD did tell a story of two guys who had only had algebra 1 and geometry in high school, and he couldn’t admit them until they took more math at another college. This was a STEM school and they just didn’t offer enough remedial math to cover what should have been covered in high school, like algebra 2 and pre-calc.
@thumper1 – Your D’s story sounds similar to my niece’s. She picked up Chinese as a double major as she grew less enamored with engineering. Finished her double degree, moved to China to pursue graduate degree in computer science. Didn’t finish that but is still living and working there – but not as engineer.
If your son wants to combine engineering and business then have him explore Industrial Engineering. My son’s at Michigan doing just this. His thinking is taking engineering to get him to the tech business side. He actually loves the way engineers think and learn. He did do 3 summer programs for engineering and they really opened up his mind to how engineering professionals think and work together. He loves the process. Have him check out https://www.acementor.org/
He did this in his junior year in Chicago and worked side by side with engineering mentors at world class firms. This was a fun, great experience. If you want information on the summer programs PM me… There is financial aid and scholarships for all of them and they were at Universities and they stayed in dorms.
Also… Adhd… Many kids tend to either hyperfocus and use their Adhd creativity to think out of the box… This is great for engineering.
And lastly… And please take this tongue in cheek… But yes… There really is an engineering type. Not to stereotype and it’s not negative but you put 20 people in a room at a party with 3 engineers and I will tell you who they are… 
@Knowsstuff – thanks will check out that summer program! And that’s a good tip about exploring industrial engineering.
@twoinanddone – my D took Calc BC as a Junior and several of her friends too multi-variable as seniors but she didn’t. She took Finite Math instead as something different and b/c she didn’t love Calc. and had to work really hard and had a hard senior year schedule already.
She planned to start with Calc 2 as a freshman in college this year b/c she wasn’t highly confident. But her advisor told her Calc 3 was easier than Calc 2 (how odd, riight?) and encouraged to go ahead but use the math center, go to office hours, as needed. She’s holding steady with a A-/B+ and is thrilled!! Esp. since she’ll be done with math except for stats and maybe some other applied math.