Question for the parents of STEM kids

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is a long and comprehensive thing, involving clubs, competitions, essay brainstorm, etc. I am afraid my kid may fall into love with humanities and forget the ultimate goal. I don't take this risk.

What's the ultimate goal?

Suppress one's humanity in service of a high-paying job?

[Anonymous]

It’s harder as they limit the number of students to each program to make it more selective for better ratings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If some people believe that it is more difficult as a so-called "STEM" major to get into schools like Harvard, Yale, Princeton, etc.--schools that do not admit based on major and do not require students to declare a major until after sophomore year--why not just apply as an easy humanities major? I am assuming that like most applicants to these schools, the Verbal and Math sections of the SAT are both stellar. I am also assuming that the APs in high school were both STEM and Humanities.

So, why torture yourself?

Because STEM kids often want to do a lot of stem things in high school. Plus, the system works for the vast majority: true top unhooked stem kids can get into at least ONE ivy/T15 stem private (Stanford, MIT, JHU CMU Rice Northwestern Duke Chicago...)or at least one of UCB /GT /Michigan OOS. It really is not that hard for the true top ones. Most get into more than one among this vast group.

I don't know if this is true. I know of a truly amazing top unhooked STEM kid at my kid's school who was going for chemical engineering. He was deferred and then rejected from Penn. Was waitlisted at Harvard, Cornell, UMich, GT, UCB and rejected from the other schools you listed. He is attending Univ. of Washington (in Seattle). He was not one-dimensional either - he was concermaster of the orchestra and also played Bass in a popular school band and was part of a group that won a STEM competition.

An anecdote to counter yours. My STEM kid was admitted to MIT, Harvard, Rice, GT, Michigan and many others. Was also offered a full ride at one school and lots of merit at Rice, etc. so what might have been the difference? I noticed you said your kid’s classmate was part of a group that won a STEM competition. Mine placed in a few competitions INDIVIDUALLY. Had other interests like music etc as well but a clear interest in STEM and kicked b*tt in their field.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If some people believe that it is more difficult as a so-called "STEM" major to get into schools like Harvard, Yale, Princeton, etc.--schools that do not admit based on major and do not require students to declare a major until after sophomore year--why not just apply as an easy humanities major? I am assuming that like most applicants to these schools, the Verbal and Math sections of the SAT are both stellar. I am also assuming that the APs in high school were both STEM and Humanities.

So, why torture yourself?

Because STEM kids often want to do a lot of stem things in high school. Plus, the system works for the vast majority: true top unhooked stem kids can get into at least ONE ivy/T15 stem private (Stanford, MIT, JHU CMU Rice Northwestern Duke Chicago...)or at least one of UCB /GT /Michigan OOS. It really is not that hard for the true top ones. Most get into more than one among this vast group.

I don't know if this is true. I know of a truly amazing top unhooked STEM kid at my kid's school who was going for chemical engineering. He was deferred and then rejected from Penn. Was waitlisted at Harvard, Cornell, UMich, GT, UCB and rejected from the other schools you listed. He is attending Univ. of Washington (in Seattle). He was not one-dimensional either - he was concermaster of the orchestra and also played Bass in a popular school band and was part of a group that won a STEM competition.

An anecdote to counter yours. My STEM kid was admitted to MIT, Harvard, Rice, GT, Michigan and many others. Was also offered a full ride at one school and lots of merit at Rice, etc. so what might have been the difference? I noticed you said your kid’s classmate was part of a group that won a STEM competition. Mine placed in a few competitions INDIVIDUALLY. Had other interests like music etc as well but a clear interest in STEM and kicked b*tt in their field.

Congrats to you for finally finding a thread where you could brag about this.

[Anonymous]

Immigrant parents go bananas if, for one day, their DCs are not doing math, engineering, or physics related. Not gonna happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If some people believe that it is more difficult as a so-called "STEM" major to get into schools like Harvard, Yale, Princeton, etc.--schools that do not admit based on major and do not require students to declare a major until after sophomore year--why not just apply as an easy humanities major? I am assuming that like most applicants to these schools, the Verbal and Math sections of the SAT are both stellar. I am also assuming that the APs in high school were both STEM and Humanities.

So, why torture yourself?

Because STEM kids often want to do a lot of stem things in high school. Plus, the system works for the vast majority: true top unhooked stem kids can get into at least ONE ivy/T15 stem private (Stanford, MIT, JHU CMU Rice Northwestern Duke Chicago...)or at least one of UCB /GT /Michigan OOS. It really is not that hard for the true top ones. Most get into more than one among this vast group.

I don't know if this is true. I know of a truly amazing top unhooked STEM kid at my kid's school who was going for chemical engineering. He was deferred and then rejected from Penn. Was waitlisted at Harvard, Cornell, UMich, GT, UCB and rejected from the other schools you listed. He is attending Univ. of Washington (in Seattle). He was not one-dimensional either - he was concermaster of the orchestra and also played Bass in a popular school band and was part of a group that won a STEM competition.

An anecdote to counter yours. My STEM kid was admitted to MIT, Harvard, Rice, GT, Michigan and many others. Was also offered a full ride at one school and lots of merit at Rice, etc. so what might have been the difference? I noticed you said your kid’s classmate was part of a group that won a STEM competition. Mine placed in a few competitions INDIVIDUALLY. Had other interests like music etc as well but a clear interest in STEM and kicked b*tt in their field.

Which school did your kid choose?

[Anonymous]

That is a horrible strategy!

They can't afford to only think about reach schools, but also need to focus on their targets, which include many state flagships having separate admissions for engineering or CS.

Great if they could get into ivies and switch major to CS. What if they didn't get into ivies? Then they will end up at state flagship majoring in philosophy??? There is no way they can switch to CS at these state flagships.

[Anonymous]

Just because a school “does not admit by major”, that doesn’t mean that having an indicated major that aligns well with the applicant’s ECs and essays isn’t the best move possible. If your student is trying to get into a pre-med path at a top school and the ECs and best versions of their essays strongly support that interest, who would applying as a humanities major be the right move?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If some people believe that it is more difficult as a so-called "STEM" major to get into schools like Harvard, Yale, Princeton, etc.--schools that do not admit based on major and do not require students to declare a major until after sophomore year--why not just apply as an easy humanities major? I am assuming that like most applicants to these schools, the Verbal and Math sections of the SAT are both stellar. I am also assuming that the APs in high school were both STEM and Humanities.

So, why torture yourself?

Because STEM kids often want to do a lot of stem things in high school. Plus, the system works for the vast majority: true top unhooked stem kids can get into at least ONE ivy/T15 stem private (Stanford, MIT, JHU CMU Rice Northwestern Duke Chicago...)or at least one of UCB /GT /Michigan OOS. It really is not that hard for the true top ones. Most get into more than one among this vast group.

I don't know if this is true. I know of a truly amazing top unhooked STEM kid at my kid's school who was going for chemical engineering. He was deferred and then rejected from Penn. Was waitlisted at Harvard, Cornell, UMich, GT, UCB and rejected from the other schools you listed. He is attending Univ. of Washington (in Seattle). He was not one-dimensional either - he was concermaster of the orchestra and also played Bass in a popular school band and was part of a group that won a STEM competition.

An anecdote to counter yours. My STEM kid was admitted to MIT, Harvard, Rice, GT, Michigan and many others. Was also offered a full ride at one school and lots of merit at Rice, etc. so what might have been the difference? I noticed you said your kid’s classmate was part of a group that won a STEM competition. Mine placed in a few competitions INDIVIDUALLY. Had other interests like music etc as well but a clear interest in STEM and kicked b*tt in their field.

Gender of your kid?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If some people believe that it is more difficult as a so-called "STEM" major to get into schools like Harvard, Yale, Princeton, etc.--schools that do not admit based on major and do not require students to declare a major until after sophomore year--why not just apply as an easy humanities major? I am assuming that like most applicants to these schools, the Verbal and Math sections of the SAT are both stellar. I am also assuming that the APs in high school were both STEM and Humanities.

So, why torture yourself?

I wouldn’t ask my kid to lie about who they are for someone else’s approval, that’s why.

[Anonymous]

A lot of schools don’t allow or drastically limit transfer into popular STEM majors or colleges. So what’s the point?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Harvard and Yale are generally not where top STEM students go. But to your point, every admissions officer can tell what a student is likely to major in. Someone that has won poetry prizes and does theater is not likely to choose engineering. Someone that is president of the math club and has won science awards is not likely to be a gender studies major. And so on and so forth.

Selective schools have decades of data. They generally know what they are doing as they put together a broad and varied class. There really aren't a lot of humanities students trying to sneak into engineering or business.

Not always true. We know a kid who had his picking between Princeton, Stanford, Yale and Harvard and it came down to the later two.

For STEM?!?!?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Harvard and Yale are generally not where top STEM students go. But to your point, every admissions officer can tell what a student is likely to major in. Someone that has won poetry prizes and does theater is not likely to choose engineering. Someone that is president of the math club and has won science awards is not likely to be a gender studies major. And so on and so forth.

Selective schools have decades of data. They generally know what they are doing as they put together a broad and varied class. There really aren't a lot of humanities students trying to sneak into engineering or business.

Not always true. We know a kid who had his picking between Princeton, Stanford, Yale and Harvard and it came down to the later two.

I mean, of course it's not true. Harvard was the original silicon valley school.

They actually ended committing to Yale.

For STEM!?!?!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Harvard and Yale are generally not where top STEM students go. But to your point, every admissions officer can tell what a student is likely to major in. Someone that has won poetry prizes and does theater is not likely to choose engineering. Someone that is president of the math club and has won science awards is not likely to be a gender studies major. And so on and so forth.

Selective schools have decades of data. They generally know what they are doing as they put together a broad and varied class. There really aren't a lot of humanities students trying to sneak into engineering or business.

Not always true. We know a kid who had his picking between Princeton, Stanford, Yale and Harvard and it came down to the later two.

For STEM?!?!?

Likely an Olympiad gold medalist or some such.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Harvard and Yale are generally not where top STEM students go. But to your point, every admissions officer can tell what a student is likely to major in. Someone that has won poetry prizes and does theater is not likely to choose engineering. Someone that is president of the math club and has won science awards is not likely to be a gender studies major. And so on and so forth.

Selective schools have decades of data. They generally know what they are doing as they put together a broad and varied class. There really aren't a lot of humanities students trying to sneak into engineering or business.

Not always true. We know a kid who had his picking between Princeton, Stanford, Yale and Harvard and it came down to the later two.

I mean, of course it's not true. Harvard was the original silicon valley school.

They actually ended committing to Yale.

For STEM!?!?!

Yes! Engineering.