HS Robotics team -> college major?

[Anonymous]

If your child was on their high school robotics team, what did they end up majoring in at college?

[Anonymous]

International Relations and Russian double major. Yes really.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:International Relations and Russian double major. Yes really.

And BTW, roomed with another FRC alum in college, who was a politics major.

[Anonymous]

One is a physics major and one is a political science major

[Anonymous]

I don't want to get too crazy, but there are many different roles on FRC robotics teams, and some teams have 50+ members. There are teams that literally have maybe 10-15 kids that actually work on the robot, but like 30+ kids that are in the stands cheering on the team and in theory taking notes on potential alliance partners. Archbishop Spaulding HS actually has a massive team like this...more power to the school/students.

The point is that there are many Robotics team members that are not actually particular technical, so it's hard to to make heads-or-tails of some of the responses. My kid's robotics team was maybe 25 members, and almost universally the kids that really worked on the robot ended up as engineering, CS or another STEM major, and the kids working on game strategy and alliance research majored in business or liberal arts.

Interestingly, there tends to be like 1 kid every other year that works on machining and mechanical things on the robot that chooses to skip college. One ended up going to an apprenticeship job down in SC I think with an auto company (maybe aerospace?).

[Anonymous]

To the PP - I’m curious what type of high school this was? My kids do vex. Their school limits the teams to 4 kids through 7th grade and then 6 kids in high school. With more than that, how could they actually come to a cohesive agreement on everything? And how is there enough work for everyone to do a a part? Ours allows 6 in high school bc almost all of these kids play jv/varsity sports, so when they’re in season, they can’t attend the after school sessions, just during school and weekends, but when they’re all there, it often feels like not enough for everyone to do something

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To the PP - I’m curious what type of high school this was? My kids do vex. Their school limits the teams to 4 kids through 7th grade and then 6 kids in high school. With more than that, how could they actually come to a cohesive agreement on everything? And how is there enough work for everyone to do a a part? Ours allows 6 in high school bc almost all of these kids play jv/varsity sports, so when they’re in season, they can’t attend the after school sessions, just during school and weekends, but when they’re all there, it often feels like not enough for everyone to do something

FIRST Robotics which is one of the main HS competitions and their FRC competitions. It may be the largest HS robotics competition in terms of number schools that compete (it's also not limited to schools as there are quite a few community teams). In the DMV area, GDS, Jackson-Reed, Mckinley, Whitman, Blair, Poolesville and many other HSs compete in FRC. If you do a YouTube search you will see many videos of FRC competitions. Robots tend to be maybe 40 - 45 inches tall and you compete in groups of 3 robots against other groups of 3 (you are randomly paired with 2 other robots during normal heats, but then the top performing get to pick their alliance partners if you are one of the top ranked after the heats).

Depending on the school and how competitive they take their Robotics team, usually there is not a ton of sports and robotics overlap during the main Spring season if you want to be a "core" member of the team. Again, there are many non-technical roles on FRC teams that don't require day-to-day participation, so athletes can do both.

[Anonymous]

Not PP, but my kids also attended a high with a large (50-80 kids) FRC team. It is very different than VEX. The team is broken down into various sub team (design (CAD), assembly, electronics, strategy and scouting, programming). Each sub team has its own leadership structure. There is also a student project manager that handles scheduling between sub teams. Yes, and there are kids that basically do nothing (although they are required to have a certain amount of work hours to attend competitions).

One of my kids that was on the design team is now in architecture school. Many kids go into engineering or CS.

For kids interested, it is a fantastic experience in so many ways. It can be very demanding particularly if the student is in leadership. Many, many nights and weekends.

[Anonymous]

Thanks to the PPs. That makes sense why my kids’ k-12 does Vex. They just wouldn’t have enough kids to do FRC, as they have ~120 kids/grade. We have gone to an FRC competition to watch a friend. The VEX structure is actually similar - but the way they do the interview process at competitions, all of the kids need to be familiar and involved in all aspects. My kids love it bc they are pushed out of their comfort zones and forced to learn and compete in parts of it they wouldn’t have automatically chosen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks to the PPs. That makes sense why my kids’ k-12 does Vex. They just wouldn’t have enough kids to do FRC, as they have ~120 kids/grade. We have gone to an FRC competition to watch a friend. The VEX structure is actually similar - but the way they do the interview process at competitions, all of the kids need to be familiar and involved in all aspects. My kids love it bc they are pushed out of their comfort zones and forced to learn and compete in parts of it they wouldn’t have automatically chosen.

Makes sense. I will say with FRC that the core team members are easily working 20+ hours per week on the robot, and closer to 40 hours per week when it gets down to crunch time. All-nighters are not out of the question either.

That said, GDS has a team and maybe they are 150 kids (?) a grade? There are plenty of private schools that compete.

[Anonymous]

My son did programming for his high school VEX team. He then majored in Computer Science at Virginia Tech. His friends on the team that built robots did mechanical engineering and aerospace engineering.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't want to get too crazy, but there are many different roles on FRC robotics teams, and some teams have 50+ members. There are teams that literally have maybe 10-15 kids that actually work on the robot, but like 30+ kids that are in the stands cheering on the team and in theory taking notes on potential alliance partners. Archbishop Spaulding HS actually has a massive team like this...more power to the school/students.

The point is that there are many Robotics team members that are not actually particular technical, so it's hard to to make heads-or-tails of some of the responses. My kid's robotics team was maybe 25 members, and almost universally the kids that really worked on the robot ended up as engineering, CS or another STEM major, and the kids working on game strategy and alliance research majored in business or liberal arts.

Interestingly, there tends to be like 1 kid every other year that works on machining and mechanical things on the robot that chooses to skip college. One ended up going to an apprenticeship job down in SC I think with an auto company (maybe aerospace?).

I have a IR major from a large FRC team. That kid was on a highly technical sub team with a lot of electronics and some CAD programming/3D printing. They contributed in a sit there with a screwdriver or soulderer or other piece of machinery type way and in programming CAD. They were also the go to trouble shooter on 3D printing.

One of the many problems with high stakes college admissions is the assumption that STEM kids must do a STEM EC, and, conversely, that only STEM kids have the competence/ interest/ ability to do STEM ECs. My kid came up through FLL, loved robotics, and never left. They learned “on the job”. We don’t expect athletes, or drama kids or members of the band to necessarily major in those areas of college. Why assume that a kid who enjoys the technical aspects of competitive robotics must be a budding CS/Engineering major?

[Anonymous]

One of my FIRST kids is a CE major. I have another kid involved in BEST robotics who will probably be something like a physics or other natural science major. I have a high school freshman who is doing FIRST and is into CS. Another FIRST kid I know handled the video aspect and has a major in the humanities.

As discussed above, some teams are very large, to a point where students may not get to do the things they want for the team. Sometimes there's teenage club politics, for lack of a better term.

Overall, if a kid likes robotics, I'd say the majors to consider would be various types of engineering and CS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't want to get too crazy, but there are many different roles on FRC robotics teams, and some teams have 50+ members. There are teams that literally have maybe 10-15 kids that actually work on the robot, but like 30+ kids that are in the stands cheering on the team and in theory taking notes on potential alliance partners. Archbishop Spaulding HS actually has a massive team like this...more power to the school/students.

The point is that there are many Robotics team members that are not actually particular technical, so it's hard to to make heads-or-tails of some of the responses. My kid's robotics team was maybe 25 members, and almost universally the kids that really worked on the robot ended up as engineering, CS or another STEM major, and the kids working on game strategy and alliance research majored in business or liberal arts.

Interestingly, there tends to be like 1 kid every other year that works on machining and mechanical things on the robot that chooses to skip college. One ended up going to an apprenticeship job down in SC I think with an auto company (maybe aerospace?).

I have a IR major from a large FRC team. That kid was on a highly technical sub team with a lot of electronics and some CAD programming/3D printing. They contributed in a sit there with a screwdriver or soulderer or other piece of machinery type way and in programming CAD. They were also the go to trouble shooter on 3D printing.

One of the many problems with high stakes college admissions is the assumption that STEM kids must do a STEM EC, and, conversely, that only STEM kids have the competence/ interest/ ability to do STEM ECs. My kid came up through FLL, loved robotics, and never left. They learned “on the job”. We don’t expect athletes, or drama kids or members of the band to necessarily major in those areas of college. Why assume that a kid who enjoys the technical aspects of competitive robotics must be a budding CS/Engineering major?

I agree no one needs to assume what major a kid "must" do. Maybe OP can clarify, but I think OP was simply wondering what majors a robotics-loving kid might be inclined toward.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If your child was on their high school robotics team, what did they end up majoring in at college?

Ha! 5th - 12th grade robotics team, regional wins.....majoring in Biology (probs molec/genetics).

Kid always enjoyed the part of designing and building the robot more, than the actual coding.