How can I get my child interested in a science major

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I completely understand the OP, and there is no way I would pay for college for a dance major and culinary school. However, I would also not have paid for 12 years of dance lessons. It's too late to chance her interests now - elementary school would have been the time to explore, but perhaps she was too busy taking dance classes.
In terms of practical recommendations: As others have said, it's easy to have multiple majors - so she can combine her "hobby" with a more lucrative major, if she wants your financial support. STEM is not necessarily it.
[/quote

So all those years of dance, which OP 's DD apparently enjoys deeply even if she's not a star at it, is to blame for her not becoming a STEM kid from the start? In elementary school she should have "explored" more and dumped dance even if she liked it? Or just done it a few years then been told it was time to stop?

i agree that kids should get exposure to varied activities. My own DD has done many science competitions in MS and HS while also dancing extensively. She's learned to use her time wisely. But I wonder if you'd find all our expenditures on dance were wasted since DD is not a superstar and won't make a living at it.

So...a kid should only be allowed to move up and invest years in dance or acting or a sport or art if the child demonstrates precocious genius (read: earning potential) at it from an early age, by that way of thinking. Or else the parents are throwing away money on activities a kid merely enjoys for the activities' own sake.

This will be a shock to my friend whose college student DD is pre-med at an Ivy with career-building summer internships in research labs. This super-STEM daughter danced from age 3 to 18 and still dances and performs at college. Her dance experience provided an excellent extracurricular that colleges liked to see on an application.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I completely understand the OP, and there is no way I would pay for college for a dance major and culinary school. However, I would also not have paid for 12 years of dance lessons. It's too late to chance her interests now - elementary school would have been the time to explore, but perhaps she was too busy taking dance classes.
In terms of practical recommendations: As others have said, it's easy to have multiple majors - so she can combine her "hobby" with a more lucrative major, if she wants your financial support. STEM is not necessarily it.
[/quote

So all those years of dance, which OP 's DD apparently enjoys deeply even if she's not a star at it, is to blame for her not becoming a STEM kid from the start? In elementary school she should have "explored" more and dumped dance even if she liked it? Or just done it a few years then been told it was time to stop?

i agree that kids should get exposure to varied activities. My own DD has done many science competitions in MS and HS while also dancing extensively. She's learned to use her time wisely. But I wonder if you'd find all our expenditures on dance were wasted since DD is not a superstar and won't make a living at it.

So...a kid should only be allowed to move up and invest years in dance or acting or a sport or art if the child demonstrates precocious genius (read: earning potential) at it from an early age, by that way of thinking. Or else the parents are throwing away money on activities a kid merely enjoys for the activities' own sake.

This will be a shock to my friend whose college student DD is pre-med at an Ivy with career-building summer internships in research labs. This super-STEM daughter danced from age 3 to 18 and still dances and performs at college. Her dance experience provided an excellent extracurricular that colleges liked to see on an application.

Oh come on: This pre-med Ivy student presumably also did science activities throughout her school years "in addition" to dance, just like your kid. I doubt the OP's kid did - based on her posts. Totally different. You can't focus on dance for 12 years and then be surprised the kid isn't interested in science at 16. And yes, I wouldn't pay for 12 years of dance lessons if I noticed that other interests were not being developed - unless perhaps there was clear evidence my kid was a superstar, or I thought that was their only hope at a career of some sort. Sorry for not qualifying my answer - not everybody has time for super long posts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Oh come on: This pre-med Ivy student presumably also did science activities throughout her school years "in addition" to dance, just like your kid. I doubt the OP's kid did - based on her posts. Totally different. You can't focus on dance for 12 years and then be surprised the kid isn't interested in science at 16. And yes, I wouldn't pay for 12 years of dance lessons if I noticed that other interests were not being developed - unless perhaps there was clear evidence my kid was a superstar, or I thought that was their only hope at a career of some sort. Sorry for not qualifying my answer - not everybody has time for super long posts.

"You're not very good at dance, so I'm not paying for dance unless you also do robotics camp."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Oh come on: This pre-med Ivy student presumably also did science activities throughout her school years "in addition" to dance, just like your kid. I doubt the OP's kid did - based on her posts. Totally different. You can't focus on dance for 12 years and then be surprised the kid isn't interested in science at 16. And yes, I wouldn't pay for 12 years of dance lessons if I noticed that other interests were not being developed - unless perhaps there was clear evidence my kid was a superstar, or I thought that was their only hope at a career of some sort. Sorry for not qualifying my answer - not everybody has time for super long posts.

"You're not very good at dance, so I'm not paying for dance unless you also do robotics camp."

I mean, sort of yes. My parents kept pushing me to try new extracurriculars growing up. Back then, I didn't realize it wasn't because I was just average (or worse) at all the things I'd tried up to that point except one, but I'm sure that was part of it. I ended up being very good at an academic HS extracurricular in addition to the one I was good at growing up (acting), so I'm glad my parents pushed me to shop around a bit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not making the competition team is not at all indicative of how she will do as a dance majors. Most dance programs have all freshman in beginning level classes to "unlearn" all of the horrible competition habits

And yet they are much more likely to recruit someone who won the competition than someone who lost it eight years in a row. Not much of a resume builder.

That's not true. College dance programs would prefer you not compete before coming to them. They "recruit" at high school dance festivals, never EVER at competitions. Cruise ships and Broadway dancers get started on the completion circuit Everyone else needs the depth a Dance degree provides.

You've said it yourself - college dance programs may prefer applicants who do not compete before coming to them, but I doubt they see applicants who weren't even good enough to win these competitions as their top of the pile.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not making the competition team is not at all indicative of how she will do as a dance majors. Most dance programs have all freshman in beginning level classes to "unlearn" all of the horrible competition habits

And yet they are much more likely to recruit someone who won the competition than someone who lost it eight years in a row. Not much of a resume builder.

That's not true. College dance programs would prefer you not compete before coming to them. They "recruit" at high school dance festivals, never EVER at competitions. Cruise ships and Broadway dancers get started on the completion circuit Everyone else needs the depth a Dance degree provides.

You've said it yourself - college dance programs may prefer applicants who do not compete before coming to them, but I doubt they see applicants who weren't even good enough to win these competitions as their top of the pile.

Many serious dancers don't participate in those competition teams at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not making the competition team is not at all indicative of how she will do as a dance majors. Most dance programs have all freshman in beginning level classes to "unlearn" all of the horrible competition habits

And yet they are much more likely to recruit someone who won the competition than someone who lost it eight years in a row. Not much of a resume builder.

That's not true. College dance programs would prefer you not compete before coming to them. They "recruit" at high school dance festivals, never EVER at competitions. Cruise ships and Broadway dancers get started on the completion circuit Everyone else needs the depth a Dance degree provides.

You've said it yourself - college dance programs may prefer applicants who do not compete before coming to them, but I doubt they see applicants who weren't even good enough to win these competitions as their top of the pile.

Many serious dancers don't participate in those competition teams at all.

You're not answering the question. Is a track record of LOSING competitions seen as an asset by dance programs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
You're not answering the question. Is a track record of LOSING competitions seen as an asset by dance programs?

Do you think that the OP's child is going to put, on her application, all of the times she tried out for x, y, and z, but didn't get accepted?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://www1.jwu.edu/admissions/paying-for-college/scholarships-and-grants/

I attached scholarship info for Johnson & Wales university. It's important for your DD to know that keeping her grades up and studying for the SAT's will help her get scholarships for culinary school. She might also study at L'Academie de Cuisine while living at home.

HA!!!!!

I'm the PP who's been saying that a cooking school degree is an utter waste of time and money. Now that I see someone has trotted out the name of the actual school...I'll have you know what the chefs say when they see this name on the resume:

"No one fails at Johnson & Wales. Next!"

OP, inna name of the lord, don't waste your money on a culinary degree for DD.

[Anonymous]

Can you afford a bachelors degree followed by more training?

Culinary school is VERY EXPENSIVE.