Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Disagree. Our hs has limited course offerings in stem.

So what? Khan academy, MIT OCW, textbooks all exist. If your kids balk at the idea of independently studying their intended major, that's a sign they might enjoy the idea of the major more than the major itself.

Many kids don’t have time. Between homework, sports, arts they have little free time.

the op is an IDIOT

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Disagree. Seems like you never took a literature class in college. I do think things like stem are more conducive to self study. My kids read a lot and write fairly well, but would benefit tremendously from being in a college level seminar. Older kid is now in AP lit.. it is not easy.

completely the opposite. Seems like you don't have a kid studying STEM.

Most people cannot self study STEM. SAT/AP scores bear this out. It's easier to get a higher score in humanities subjects, and SAT English, than STEM subjects. One can self study literature. Grading is subjective; it's not difficult.

My college aged STEM major student has an IBDP; they did not find the program difficult at all. My HS senior wants to major in science, but they struggle with STEM subjects, but not the humanities subjects, including AP lit/lang. They got As in those classes. Can't say the same for their AP Chem class. The average GPA in their AP lang/lit class is much higher than on their AP Chem class. They didn't even bother trying for AP Bio, which is notoriously difficult.

What are you talking about? My kid is a physics major and most of his degree is self study-all the textbooks are online and easily accessible, problem sets are shared and pulled across institutions and you can access most of them, MIT has content including upper division courses posted on YouTube along with a few others like Yale (who has a famous academic on faculty for teaching excellence and textbook writing) and Berkeley. The resources are all public and there, and you're only really missing the tests.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Disagree. Seems like you never took a literature class in college. I do think things like stem are more conducive to self study. My kids read a lot and write fairly well, but would benefit tremendously from being in a college level seminar. Older kid is now in AP lit.. it is not easy.

completely the opposite. Seems like you don't have a kid studying STEM.

Most people cannot self study STEM. SAT/AP scores bear this out. It's easier to get a higher score in humanities subjects, and SAT English, than STEM subjects. One can self study literature. Grading is subjective; it's not difficult.

My college aged STEM major student has an IBDP; they did not find the program difficult at all. My HS senior wants to major in science, but they struggle with STEM subjects, but not the humanities subjects, including AP lit/lang. They got As in those classes. Can't say the same for their AP Chem class. The average GPA in their AP lang/lit class is much higher than on their AP Chem class. They didn't even bother trying for AP Bio, which is notoriously difficult.

I have two kids studying STEM. Both successfully self-studied STEM APs in HS (their HS doesn't offer AP classes). One of my kids hates humanities, really struggles to write, and finds STEM much, much easier. My other kid likes discussions in English and history class, but you can't have discussions with yourself, so would never be able to or want to self study those subjects.

Neither STEM nor writing papers is intrinsically easier or harder -- it depends on each student's strengths.

PP here.. My kid self studied for the AP lang, AP physics, and another .. can't remember. STEM is usually harder for most students. Sure, there are those who are naturally good at STEM (like my kid), but generally, it's easier for a STEM person to self study AP lang than the other way around.

SAT

2022:
Average Reading and Writing: 529
Average Math: 521

2024:
Average Reading and Writing: 519
Average Math: 505

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Disagree. Seems like you never took a literature class in college. I do think things like stem are more conducive to self study. My kids read a lot and write fairly well, but would benefit tremendously from being in a college level seminar. Older kid is now in AP lit.. it is not easy.

completely the opposite. Seems like you don't have a kid studying STEM.

Most people cannot self study STEM. SAT/AP scores bear this out. It's easier to get a higher score in humanities subjects, and SAT English, than STEM subjects. One can self study literature. Grading is subjective; it's not difficult.

My college aged STEM major student has an IBDP; they did not find the program difficult at all. My HS senior wants to major in science, but they struggle with STEM subjects, but not the humanities subjects, including AP lit/lang. They got As in those classes. Can't say the same for their AP Chem class. The average GPA in their AP lang/lit class is much higher than on their AP Chem class. They didn't even bother trying for AP Bio, which is notoriously difficult.

I have two kids studying STEM. Both successfully self-studied STEM APs in HS (their HS doesn't offer AP classes). One of my kids hates humanities, really struggles to write, and finds STEM much, much easier. My other kid likes discussions in English and history class, but you can't have discussions with yourself, so would never be able to or want to self study those subjects.

Neither STEM nor writing papers is intrinsically easier or harder -- it depends on each student's strengths.

Anonymous wrote:Disagree. Seems like you never took a literature class in college. I do think things like stem are more conducive to self study. My kids read a lot and write fairly well, but would benefit tremendously from being in a college level seminar. Older kid is now in AP lit.. it is not easy.

completely the opposite. Seems like you don't have a kid studying STEM.

Most people cannot self study STEM. SAT/AP scores bear this out. It's easier to get a higher score in humanities subjects, and SAT English, than STEM subjects. One can self study literature. Grading is subjective; it's not difficult.

My college aged STEM major student has an IBDP; they did not find the program difficult at all. My HS senior wants to major in science, but they struggle with STEM subjects, but not the humanities subjects, including AP lit/lang. They got As in those classes. Can't say the same for their AP Chem class. The average GPA in their AP lang/lit class is much higher than on their AP Chem class. They didn't even bother trying for AP Bio, which is notoriously difficult.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teenagers can and should change their minds. Perhaps they take an intro class as part of distribution requirements and have a particularly great professor who makes them fall in love with the subject?

But taking a distribution requirement is different from majoring in something.

Of course. But you can take a class as a distribution requirement, realize you really like it, *and then decide to major in it.* Even if it's a subject you weren't interested in when in high school. Even if it's different from what you thought you were going to major in. Even if it's not what your parent would have chosen.

Anonymous wrote:bGame design. BCreative writing. Heck, literature at all. There are some majors where all the pieces are out there and available to everyone for self-study, and if your kid hasn’t taken advantage of any of that before college then doing it for a major is a waste of time and money. Most computer science degrees are also in this category.

Strongly disagree. Game Design is a very tough field to break into and get a job. It’s unlikely your kid can enter the field with a solid company using yoir method. Your kid needs to go to an institution that gets their majors internships and jobs. My DS went to GMU for its Game Design major. He had internships every summer. His last internship was at VSGI (Virginia Serious Games Institute) at GMU’s high tech campus. He had an offer from Bethesda SoftWorks before graduation, and has been employed by MicroSoft (it owns Bethesda) ever since.

How could a kid not have studied literature in high school? English is a required course everywhere.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teenagers can and should change their minds. Perhaps they take an intro class as part of distribution requirements and have a particularly great professor who makes them fall in love with the subject?

That early doesn't rebut to what OP said.

The OP said that students shouldn't be allowed (!?!) to major in something they didn't show an interest in while in high school.

I am not OP, but it seems to me that OP is saying that there are certain careers where you really need to be passionate to make it work. For those careers, if a kid isn't showing a sign of passion they probably should be steered away.

So, if your kid wants to be an accountant, but has never done taxes for fun as a hobby? That's fine. Or if your kid wants to be a plumber but doesn't get excited when the sink clogs? That's also fine.

But if your kid doesn't write spontaneously, and wants to major in creative writing; or if they don't even attend the plays in HS, much less try out for them, but wants to major in theater; or if you had to force them to practice their instrument, and suddenly they want a music major? That's kind of a red flag, because the people who do well in those fields are the kids who can't imagine doing anything else.

Now, if your kid wants to go to medical school, or law school, or into another field where undergraduate major doesn't matter, and chooses a liberal arts degree in a field they are interested in but not passionate about? I think that's fine too.

Anonymous wrote:Teenagers can and should change their minds. Perhaps they take an intro class as part of distribution requirements and have a particularly great professor who makes them fall in love with the subject?

But taking a distribution requirement is different from majoring in something.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teenagers can and should change their minds. Perhaps they take an intro class as part of distribution requirements and have a particularly great professor who makes them fall in love with the subject?

That early doesn't rebut to what OP said.

Yes it does. If a student doesn’t discover an interest in something until college, that’s fine. No one should have to stick with their middle school or high school answer to “what do you want to be when you grow up?” College is for exploring and discovering.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teenagers can and should change their minds. Perhaps they take an intro class as part of distribution requirements and have a particularly great professor who makes them fall in love with the subject?

That early doesn't rebut to what OP said.

The OP said that students shouldn't be allowed (!?!) to major in something they didn't show an interest in while in high school.