You need a reality check.Kid one (HS Sophomore): definitely on a mech Eng or aerospace or robotics track. Not on the top GPA track. Think unweighted 3.5 ish.
How about doing dual majors (aero plus mech) such as at a college like University of Florida? Top colleges are out of the question I think.
You say that you do not think your kid will up for a top college but then you say that you expect for them to get a double major?????
That does not sound realistic since if they were a good candidate for getting a double major then they could likely get into a top college.
I would suspect that the pressure would risk them not graduating at all.
Your other 7th grader is way to young to be thinking about their major right now other than to help them get exposure to a lot of different things so they might find something that they are drawn to.
I am a retired software developer and over my career I saw way to many people who had gotten into computers because someone had pushed them into the field. They problem was that they often did not have much natural ability with computer and it did not fit their personality so they were pretty mediocre. It was not uncommon for end of getting out of computers by the time they were in their 30s either voluntarily or involuntarily.
By all means help you kids get exposure to STEM and computers but don't push them into it, those are not the right career for a lot of people.
One thing you might encourage them to do though when they start college is to plan on having a strong minor. Often very little if any thought is put into planning a minor.
It was decades ago but I was majoring in Geology with a very strong minor in Computer science.
It turned out that I actually was not very good at Geology and about halfway through college a periodic oil bust hit which made the job prospects for new geology majors really bad. It also turned out that I was pretty good at computers and enjoyed it. I was able to switch majors to Computer Science and I already had most of the lower class prerequisites so I was able to transition into the Compouter Science cirullicum pretty easilly.
I have seen various numbers but it sounds like around a third of college students end up changing majors anyway so trying you have to take any planning like with a grain of salt.
Statistics: Posted by Watty — Sun Mar 10, 2024 8:25 pm — Replies 19 — Views 873