In high school, I’ve had a decent counseling department, but there were definitely things they could’ve done better. A major topic that they missed was opportunities we have as students outside of school (i.e. USAMO, ISEF, research, heck I barely knew was an SAT subject test was, much less that they were required to apply at some schools [still salty about this, though it’s partly my fault]). I was wondering, what are the opportunities like this in college? Is all clearly defined things like research and internships? Or are there opportunities beyond that which are helpful for either employment or grad school? Thanks. (I’m an intended MechE major btw)
The list could potentially be very long–academic support services, career services, mental health counseling, sororities and fraternities, clubs, organizations such as engineering societies or engineers without borders, summer research internship programs like NSF and others at other colleges, etc. They won’t all be laid in front of you though. Figure out what you want to do and seek things out.
I don’t know why you would expect your GC to find ECs outside school for you.
For college:
** Co-ops:** these are paid internships that engineers can choose to do. You work with your college coop office to find a position. You work for a year. It takes 5 years to finish college but you already have a years worth of experience.
** Research** Your college may have an office that helps match students with professors for research. Otherwise if you are interested, talk to a professor in a class you like.
** Professional Engineer:** Some types of engineering require you to get a Professional Engineer license. You may need to study for this license.
** GRE:** If you are thinking about grad school, the GRE is the SAT for grad school.
** Career Services Office** This is a wonderful resource to get info about summer job and permanent job opportunities
** REU:** A national program for undergraduate research https://www.nsf.gov/crssprgm/reu/
** Honor societies** Tau Beta Pi is the honors engineering fraternity. If you do well you may be invited to join. There are also major specific honor societies
** Society of Women Engineers** If you are female, a group that provides opportunities to female engineers
Industry organizations SAE for MechEs, IEEE for EEs, etc.
Study Abroad Studying abroad for a semester (or more, or less)
Volunteer opportunities E.g., Engineers without Bordershttps://www.ewb-usa.org/programs/community-engineering-corps/
** College-specific** At Case Western Reserve University, for example, they have the think[box] which is a “maker space” lab for anyone on campus to invent things. You can also talk to your professors about any other opportunities.
Read the website for your department…they will talk about what current students are doing. So if they have an article about the robotics team, then you can see where to get involved with that.
What @OtterOverlord is saying s/he doesn’t know what s/he doesn’t know, and would like to find out some of this before college instead of after.
Thank you @NorthernMom61 and @bopper for the help!
@intparent What @bopper said about me was correct. In terms of high school opportunities, the fault was definitely partially, if not almost entirely on me, but I guess what I’m getting at was that IMO a GC would be in the best position, out of anybody, to help guide students and let them know about opportunities like these.
I’d say the individual, the internet, and maybe individual teachers are the best sources for HS students. GCs don’t really do much in the EC space. They aren’t there to “mold” you into the idea college candidate – not their job. It just feels like you are looking for someone to blame that you didn’t have the get up & go on your own to get engaged in interesting ECs. I don’t disagree about asking questions about college – just the attitude toward your HS GC bugs me.
@intparent I guess I have a different idea of the GC’s job, which is possibly it’s an incorrect one. What would you consider the main duties be in the position? I also wouldn’t say that I expect anybody to “mold” a student into the ideal college candidate-- I don’t think that should even be the goal of the student, but instead focus on things that interest them (cliche, I know). I was more just thinking that it would be helpful for a GC to mention these things to students, not guide them on how to do them or anything like that. (I do like my counselor btw, great guy)
I think it’s also a little quick to assume a personal lack of “get up & go” would lead me to this idea that counselors should do this. I’d more say that I just see it as the most efficient way for more students to learn about EC programs.
Their job is to make sure that your transcripts and school reports get sent, that Naviance is updated if the school uses it, that any issues with recommendations get resolved, and that if students seem to be shooting too high, they are encouraged to includes matches and safeties. If a student wants suggestions for colleges to apply to given their stats and ECs, they certainly can help them consider different schools that might work for them (but GCs rarely know, nor should they know, what a student’s financial situation is, so parents & students need to be the ones to really make these decisions on their own). A GC should help if a student needs to submit school paperwork for accommodations on standardized tests. But it really isn’t their job to tell you how to spend your time outside of school.
@intparent Of course you are right, but how do students learn about opportunities that they don’t know exist? Should there be some guidance from anyone in HS?
I’d say there is nothing wrong with a math teacher talking about math competitions, a bio teacher mentioning USABO, a history teacher or quiz bowl coach mentioning history bowl. But no one is obligated to do this for kids.
For example, my kid’s teachers and GC didn’t tell her about USABO – she found it on the internet, researched if she could do it without a team, and asked her bio teacher to proctor for her if she studied for it. I helped by paying the small team fee when she asked me to. She asked other kids if they wanted to donit, but no one was interested. So she just did it alone.
Two of her classmates heard about FIRST Robotics on the local news. They talked a nearby HS with a team into letting them join as frosh, spent 2 years learning the ropes, then came back and asked our school to give them space for a team and provide a teacher to supervise it as a club. Then raised funds and got tool donations, corralled other kids into joining the team (small school, 60 kids in a grade, and everyone already busy), and found adult mentors. They won the Rookie Inspiration Award at a large FIRST competition that year, and made it to nationals a year later. They did it because Robotics sounded fun to them, not because they thought it would be good for college admissions.
That is one reason I don’t think the GC owns telling kids about EC ideas. Colleges want kids who are interesting, interested, and genuine. It isn’t very genuine if your GC gives you a list of things to pick from. They don’t owe you inspiration, energy, and elbow grease to follow up on your own interests.