I have a current HS junior (female). She is interested in aerospace engineering. Our counselors are concerned as she does not demonstrate “experience” on her internship. School does not offer many STEM clubs, she is an athlete and her sport takes 15-20+ hours / week. She was late to the game on deciding this interest. She is applying for summer internships but they are highly competitive as well. Other than “pay to play” programs, what is out there? Will this really limit her ability to be accepted as an engineering student? Her grades,rigor, ACT, are all highly competitive and not an issue. Our son was a humanities major so we did not have to worry about this.
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You needn’t tie ECs to a major at all. Do sports or walking dogs at the shelter or working at a grocery store tie to major?
What you do need is a balanced list.
When you say top, make sure there’s an assured and affordable safety in there. Alabama and UAH kids will be working the same jobs as Purdue and Michigan. Easy to get into Arizona is strong in aero. Florida Tech kids are prevalent at NASA.
Not saying to not go for the heavies. But make sure you have two easy and affordable.
ABET accreditation is what matters and while less schools offer aero, MECHE is a great sub.
Mine turned down Purdue for Bama yet interned with Ga Tech kids who he outperformed given he was invited back a second summer and they weren’t. And works with Purdue/Michigan/Cal Poly but also W Michigan, Buffalo, Akron.
You’d be amazed at the where doesn’t matter to the level you think short of maybe a couple schools.
But she should do the activities she wants - and she should ensure a few safeties bcuz she can do just as well - and often times you save money over the big boys. The kid choosing a UAH over Michigan is saving $250k. So another thing to think about.
Best of luck. If you apply right, you have zero reason to be a nervous mom assuming she’s prepared academically to the rigors of engineering.
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thank you. Yes, she has a balanced list. She applied for the Ga Tech internship program - they took 71/1100+ kids… said most had the stats and they went with “skills and experience.” Which is funny because she wanted the internship to gain skills and experience.
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It’s late now but check into Purdue STEP and Rose Hulman Operation Catapult to see if she can get in. They are good for exposure.
I would not take a summer rejection as a no toward college AT ALL.
And a summer job will look better on a resume.
Those programs are good to validate interest. My son was turned down to STEP (Purdue) but then admitted when his ACT rose.
They’re unlikely getting you in. But if a kid is unsure, they do provide a validation or invalidation- ie maybe this major isn’t for me.
You should do a chance me.
If she’s strong in math and then physics, that’s the key. Getting into a small program like this or not - irrelevant.
Good luck.
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Don’t worry! ECs are secondary to rigor and grades, and all AOs understand the commitment it takes to be an athlete.
If your daughter is looking to maybe cement her interest, SWE (Society of Women Engineers) runs all kinds of summer programs for HS girls to expose them to topics in engineering. Many if not most are free and membership to SWE is also free: https://swe.org
Purdue runs a great week long summer program called STEP that still seems to be taking applications: Seminar for Top Engineering Prospects (STEP) — Engineering Honors Program. It’s a wonderful introduction to first year engineering at Purdue, very hands on learning, lots of interaction with current students and is run by the Honors Engineering professors and dean.
The one thing that I would recommend though is to make sure she has a well articulated answer to “why engineering”. My D was asked that question in nearly every interview and having some “experience” in HS was helpful in demonstrating and formulating that answer.
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thank you! I appreciate these resources. I had no idea SW has programs for high school girls.
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WPI also has a summer program. They have both in person and online. https://www.wpi.edu/academics/pre-collegiate/summer-programs
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The truth is that most applicants do not have meaningful internship or research experience. It is not a prerequisite to be accepted to any engineering program in the country.
With that being said, pretty much every decently sized university has summer programs in engineering. Some are geared specifically for high school girls. @momofboiler1 had a great recommendation with the Society of Women Engineers programs. If your daughter wants to explore deeper into engineering and what it might entail, she could attend summer programs anywhere. I wouldn’t do it to get a “leg up” on admissions though.
Good luck to her.
ETA: could you share your geographic location so that posters could help find programs close to you?
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And many colleges don’t even look at ECs.
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For a high school student who is interested in engineering, my primary concern is that the student is doing well in the normal math classes in high school. I think that it would be very desirable to at least get as far as algebra, trigonometry, and pre-calculus, with good grades. Some calculus might be nice, but universities can teach this for students who don’t get that far in high school. Doing well in physics would also be a good sign.
In terms of ECs, students should IMHO do whatever is right for them. I would not worry about it. The ability to focus on a sport and do well over time with a significant time commitment and a consistent effort suggests to me that your daughter can do well in other areas that require a long term focus and consistent effort, such as engineering.
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Internship in engineering for a 16 year old seems highly unlikely TBH. As they told us at USC Viterbi presentation — most of you will not have engineering experience because you are focusing on getting foundations skills like calculus and physics, etc. Not to worry. We will teach you engineering; that’s our job.
Side note I think my daughter will end up choosing USC.
If looking for a summer program for daughter to explore her interests (different from “getting experience”) I would recommend Michigan tech — some supported programs available even later in the cycle (meaning not all are pay to play).
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Couldn’t agree more with this post. My kid(CompE) turned down Purdue, WI, and Cal Poly to attend his lesser ranked State flagship(MN). Now, as a junior, he has had great, highly paid internships all three years due to a combination of his grades(least important), involvement in club(very important), connections(mainly from clubs), and good ol hustle.
In talking to other students in other schools like Michigan and Purdue, he’s found out that the ABET programs are more alike than different. He also got a scholarship this year knocking down the tuition to 3G’s- he jokes that he paid for our recent trip to Greece. The main thing is to go somewhere that you can fit in, and that has good clubs(i.e. Rocket/Solar car/Formula/etc.), as they are a great way to attract the notice of companies. S2’s GF is in Aero… I would echo the above poster in that Aero companies/NASA hire all sorts of Engineers, not just Aero.
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We are in Atlanta. And you’d think there would be more opportunities, but other than Ga Tech, there’s not much from what I’ve researched. And yes, the goal here is experience, so she can back her “why engineering” other than I like solving problems.
You could also look into shadowing opportunities at companies near you - find out if there is somewhere she could at least get exposure to the field and see what they are doing.
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I whole heartedly agree with that sentiment. If only I were an AO ! Also now have her checking out USC’s website.
University of Georgia has several, including one for girls.
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Hopefully she won’t have many ‘why engineering’ type questions but a school or three may ask.
Maybe she can get a zoom call with a junior or senior student at one of the schools - ask to speak with a student ambassador in engineering. Or really one of the programs mentioned are great -pay to play to play but often selective and are more for the student than admissions.
95%+ of the kids probably had zero experience with some maybe in hs clubs - if the hs even has a related club.
Some of the schools are not direct admit - for this reason. You spend your first year exploring - Purdue, U Wash and more. Others allow you to go engineering undeclared - although in your case the initial thought is aero - which already limits your choices.
Really not to worry other than ensuring the student is ready academically.
She’ll be fine.
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Ps there’s only 80 aero schools in the us on the ABET list. Only Ga Tech in Georgia.
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Zero.
But there are some really good programs. My son did some I guess pay to play programs and found them excellent. Michigan State had an amazing one in Robotics. It was about a week. Milwaukee School of engineering had several but he did one in Computer Science. There was one at Berkeley through a third party which he found fantastic. Different summers.
He also did Ace Mentoring during his senior year. He found it fun and it was a mix of engineering and construction. It showed how engineers work in groups together to build a project. It’s an after-school program. Free program
Many of the above have financial aid and scholarships but actually were really reasonable at the time he did them.
My sons advisor didn’t think he had enough “engineering” stuff since he didn’t follow this schools cs track they had. But yet he took the highest math and science with Physics BC and Multivariate Calc. He was a peer to peer tutor in math and was on the chess and track team. He had a very tiny business online. But learned a lot with it.
Just have your child do what they are interested in doing and don’t do anything things you “think” will help to get them in.
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