Dropping out of engineering

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

If OP's kid is at MIT, that is one thing - quite another at a state school.

A lot of kids struggle in their first year at MIT. The level of rigor is intense and many kids who are used to getting all As in high school find it significantly harder to get high grades at MIT. But most will dig in, work harder, acquire better study skills and start pulling up their marks with grit and focus. There's a lot of growth that comes from that.

If OP's son has the grit and determination to become a stronger student, it's still a very doable to become a better engineering student if he also has aptitude for the material. If he's lacking in either of those (determination or aptitude), it may not work out. But I don't think it's wise to encourage a kid to quit at this point if he's determined to pursue it. They grow up a LOT when life throws them curveballs and they figure out how to navigate them; or equally so, give it all they've got and decide for themselves that it isn't the right path.

You can’t rely on grit and determination in engineering. That works only up to certain point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

If OP's kid is at MIT, that is one thing - quite another at a state school.

A lot of kids struggle in their first year at MIT. The level of rigor is intense and many kids who are used to getting all As in high school find it significantly harder to get high grades at MIT. But most will dig in, work harder, acquire better study skills and start pulling up their marks with grit and focus. There's a lot of growth that comes from that.

If OP's son has the grit and determination to become a stronger student, it's still a very doable to become a better engineering student if he also has aptitude for the material. If he's lacking in either of those (determination or aptitude), it may not work out. But I don't think it's wise to encourage a kid to quit at this point if he's determined to pursue it. They grow up a LOT when life throws them curveballs and they figure out how to navigate them; or equally so, give it all they've got and decide for themselves that it isn't the right path.

You can’t rely on grit and determination in engineering. That works only up to certain point.

It sounds like the OP DS hast to basically develop skills and knowledge in his free time in his sophomore year, to catch up to the four years of high school that his peers were actually learning things. That is a tall order, because these students are just as determined as he is, and will keep advancing

The test to harder than the material, to generate a distribution of grades, almost no one gets a full score, and that allows the grading to be distributed along a Gaussian curve. So he hast to actually perform better than his peers, not just ketchup to move up the curve.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My freshman engineering major took a chemistry exam today that was “really hard”. Said the average last year for this test was a 55 😳. Seems calm about the whole thing. Engineering is hard.

This is how you design an exam to get a good distribution that shows who knows the material. The average grade should be between 50-60%, with a distribution above and below. All of my exams in college were like this. It's intentional. If you make the exam easy you get bunching at the top and can't identify the top students.

--STEM major

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

If OP's kid is at MIT, that is one thing - quite another at a state school.

A lot of kids struggle in their first year at MIT. The level of rigor is intense and many kids who are used to getting all As in high school find it significantly harder to get high grades at MIT. But most will dig in, work harder, acquire better study skills and start pulling up their marks with grit and focus. There's a lot of growth that comes from that.

If OP's son has the grit and determination to become a stronger student, it's still a very doable to become a better engineering student if he also has aptitude for the material. If he's lacking in either of those (determination or aptitude), it may not work out. But I don't think it's wise to encourage a kid to quit at this point if he's determined to pursue it. They grow up a LOT when life throws them curveballs and they figure out how to navigate them; or equally so, give it all they've got and decide for themselves that it isn't the right path.

You can’t rely on grit and determination in engineering. That works only up to certain point.

You can learn to study smarter. Lots of kids are a bit lost at the beginning and figure out the format after a semester or two.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DS is a sophomore at an elite Ivy, and he is majoring in engineering field.

We live far from DC in a small town in VA, having moved here so I could SAH, the high school seemed well enough, but didn’t have any AP courses or such, and only about a 1/3 of kids go to college (most go to Old Dominion, JMU, etc).

I was talking to DS about declaring his major, and he got a B- in chem, C+ in calc, and C- in physics first semester, and then B+ in chem, A- multivar calc, and C+ in physics second semester. His best grade was an A- in a civil liberties course.

He claims he doesn’t care about grades, he is committed to engineering and even wants to go grad school!

I know the Ivy name might help, and maybe they have some grade deflation, but I think most people would take these kind of grades as a sign to switch to a humanities major, esp with the grade in Civil Liberties. This semester he seems on track for Bs and Cs still.

Will he be employable with these kind of grades? I assume grad school won’t accept him, so just care if he can lead to work. Did anyone stick it out in a hard major even with bad grades?

I went through engineering and often think about this. Take a lighter course load to help him find his footing. No more than 2 weed out courses a semester. Maybe fill in with summer school or plan on staying an extra semester. Those classes are no joke especially if you have 3+ hard STEM classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

If OP's kid is at MIT, that is one thing - quite another at a state school.

A lot of kids struggle in their first year at MIT. The level of rigor is intense and many kids who are used to getting all As in high school find it significantly harder to get high grades at MIT. But most will dig in, work harder, acquire better study skills and start pulling up their marks with grit and focus. There's a lot of growth that comes from that.

If OP's son has the grit and determination to become a stronger student, it's still a very doable to become a better engineering student if he also has aptitude for the material. If he's lacking in either of those (determination or aptitude), it may not work out. But I don't think it's wise to encourage a kid to quit at this point if he's determined to pursue it. They grow up a LOT when life throws them curveballs and they figure out how to navigate them; or equally so, give it all they've got and decide for themselves that it isn't the right path.

You can’t rely on grit and determination in engineering. That works only up to certain point.

You can learn to study smarter. Lots of kids are a bit lost at the beginning and figure out the format after a semester or two.

Yes, that's what "works only up to a certain point" means

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

If OP's kid is at MIT, that is one thing - quite another at a state school.

A lot of kids struggle in their first year at MIT. The level of rigor is intense and many kids who are used to getting all As in high school find it significantly harder to get high grades at MIT. But most will dig in, work harder, acquire better study skills and start pulling up their marks with grit and focus. There's a lot of growth that comes from that.

If OP's son has the grit and determination to become a stronger student, it's still a very doable to become a better engineering student if he also has aptitude for the material. If he's lacking in either of those (determination or aptitude), it may not work out. But I don't think it's wise to encourage a kid to quit at this point if he's determined to pursue it. They grow up a LOT when life throws them curveballs and they figure out how to navigate them; or equally so, give it all they've got and decide for themselves that it isn't the right path.

You can’t rely on grit and determination in engineering. That works only up to certain point.

You can learn to study smarter. Lots of kids are a bit lost at the beginning and figure out the format after a semester or two.

That’s interesting. Who provides those sort of lessons. I went to an Ivy and didn’t see any study strategy instruction, but that was an over a decade ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

If OP's kid is at MIT, that is one thing - quite another at a state school.

A lot of kids struggle in their first year at MIT. The level of rigor is intense and many kids who are used to getting all As in high school find it significantly harder to get high grades at MIT. But most will dig in, work harder, acquire better study skills and start pulling up their marks with grit and focus. There's a lot of growth that comes from that.

If OP's son has the grit and determination to become a stronger student, it's still a very doable to become a better engineering student if he also has aptitude for the material. If he's lacking in either of those (determination or aptitude), it may not work out. But I don't think it's wise to encourage a kid to quit at this point if he's determined to pursue it. They grow up a LOT when life throws them curveballs and they figure out how to navigate them; or equally so, give it all they've got and decide for themselves that it isn't the right path.

You can’t rely on grit and determination in engineering. That works only up to certain point.

You can learn to study smarter. Lots of kids are a bit lost at the beginning and figure out the format after a semester or two.

That’s interesting. Who provides those sort of lessons. I went to an Ivy and didn’t see any study strategy instruction, but that was an over a decade ago.

Usually students figure it out on their own and make the adjustments themselves. In STEM, that usually involves doing more practice problems rather than just "reviewing" without applying content.

[Anonymous]

Any of you studied engineering in college? I don't mean other STEM subjects, I mean real engineering majors?? I'd like to hear from real engineering majors/engineers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

If OP's kid is at MIT, that is one thing - quite another at a state school.

A lot of kids struggle in their first year at MIT. The level of rigor is intense and many kids who are used to getting all As in high school find it significantly harder to get high grades at MIT. But most will dig in, work harder, acquire better study skills and start pulling up their marks with grit and focus. There's a lot of growth that comes from that.

If OP's son has the grit and determination to become a stronger student, it's still a very doable to become a better engineering student if he also has aptitude for the material. If he's lacking in either of those (determination or aptitude), it may not work out. But I don't think it's wise to encourage a kid to quit at this point if he's determined to pursue it. They grow up a LOT when life throws them curveballs and they figure out how to navigate them; or equally so, give it all they've got and decide for themselves that it isn't the right path.

You can’t rely on grit and determination in engineering. That works only up to certain point.

You can learn to study smarter. Lots of kids are a bit lost at the beginning and figure out the format after a semester or two.

That’s interesting. Who provides those sort of lessons. I went to an Ivy and didn’t see any study strategy instruction, but that was an over a decade ago.

Usually students figure it out on their own and make the adjustments themselves. In STEM, that usually involves doing more practice problems rather than just "reviewing" without applying content.

The concepts you are deal with build on each other from course to course and even within the course. It’s not it’s rote computation and practice problems alone won’t necessarily give you understanding, and definitely won’t in time to use concepts for the next lessons.

OP, you need to get your some a tutor for all the failing courses so he can fill in the obvious gaps in his college preparation and catch up to be on level. I’m surprised the college didn’t recommend a college prep year prior to starting, given that record and major.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Any of you studied engineering in college? I don't mean other STEM subjects, I mean real engineering majors?? I'd like to hear from real engineering majors/engineers.

At my Ivy, most of the engineers went into banking and consulting or maybe Big Tech (which doesn’t really require engineering expertise selling ads etc).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Any of you studied engineering in college? I don't mean other STEM subjects, I mean real engineering majors?? I'd like to hear from real engineering majors/engineers.

I have a kid who is a CE major, which at his school leans heavy EE. Bright but a bit of a slacker going into college. Had a 2.9 at the end of sophomore year. Not ideal for getting internships, many of which have a 3.0 cutoff; we'll see what this (junior) semester brings, though from what I'm hearing, it's going well so far. And kid may want to head in a CS direction instead, but plans to finish the CE degree for maximum flexibility. While I'm a little annoyed that he let it fall below 3.0, honestly I'm not worried in the big picture.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Any of you studied engineering in college? I don't mean other STEM subjects, I mean real engineering majors?? I'd like to hear from real engineering majors/engineers.

Yes, aero. A C- in calculus is fine, and a C average will get you a job. I would probably have him figure out which concepts he struggled with and find a tutor for those, though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

If OP's kid is at MIT, that is one thing - quite another at a state school.

A lot of kids struggle in their first year at MIT. The level of rigor is intense and many kids who are used to getting all As in high school find it significantly harder to get high grades at MIT. But most will dig in, work harder, acquire better study skills and start pulling up their marks with grit and focus. There's a lot of growth that comes from that.

If OP's son has the grit and determination to become a stronger student, it's still a very doable to become a better engineering student if he also has aptitude for the material. If he's lacking in either of those (determination or aptitude), it may not work out. But I don't think it's wise to encourage a kid to quit at this point if he's determined to pursue it. They grow up a LOT when life throws them curveballs and they figure out how to navigate them; or equally so, give it all they've got and decide for themselves that it isn't the right path.

You can’t rely on grit and determination in engineering. That works only up to certain point.

You can learn to study smarter. Lots of kids are a bit lost at the beginning and figure out the format after a semester or two.

That’s interesting. Who provides those sort of lessons. I went to an Ivy and didn’t see any study strategy instruction, but that was an over a decade ago.

Usually students figure it out on their own and make the adjustments themselves. In STEM, that usually involves doing more practice problems rather than just "reviewing" without applying content.

The concepts you are deal with build on each other from course to course and even within the course. It’s not it’s rote computation and practice problems alone won’t necessarily give you understanding, and definitely won’t in time to use concepts for the next lessons.

OP, you need to get your some a tutor for all the failing courses so he can fill in the obvious gaps in his college preparation and catch up to be on level. I’m surprised the college didn’t recommend a college prep year prior to starting, given that record and major.

Oh, shut up. OP's kid isn't failing. Are you a gender studies major or something?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any of you studied engineering in college? I don't mean other STEM subjects, I mean real engineering majors?? I'd like to hear from real engineering majors/engineers.

At my Ivy, most of the engineers went into banking and consulting or maybe Big Tech (which doesn’t really require engineering expertise selling ads etc).

You must have went to Harvard, Yale or Dartmouth then...