engineering for females

eyemgh
Sat, 15 Jun 2019 15:44:22 +0000

For years the answers to those questions have been the same for nearly everyone, something along the lines of “I have an affinity for math and would like to creatively apply it in my career. Engineering, applied math and physics, would allow me to do that.”

My son is just finishing his MS at a very competitive school that’s one of the biggest in the nation. With 1000 or so MEs, nearly every one falls into the category above. I have a family full of engineers. They all fall into that category. The number of students with any, let alone extensive HS experience in engineering are so rare that they are memorable at his school. With roughly 5000 engineering students, he personally knows of two that went to STEM magnate schools. FIRST didn’t even exist at his college prep HS until after he graduated. He was on the math team, his only STEM EC, yet he was the Rensselaer Medalist.

The notion that high school students will have some sort of distinguishing activity beyond the above love of math doesn’t comport with the limited distribution of STEM EC programs.

@KLSD hit it on the head “I’m not sure why a 17 year old should understand “what engineers do”.” Most engineering students don’t really develop an inkling until about third year. Only then do the blocks really begin falling into place.