@stencils I have a cousin at Hofstra now. She loves it, and has a summer internship in the city. She’s moved off campus for next year and has an apartment in Queens. I think it’s a nice way to get near the city for someone who isn’t sure if they want the real urban, NYU type of school.
Also - congrats to everyone done with testing! We’re waiting on that June SAT, seems to take forever
@stencils Temple is just too big for my son. We looked at NJIT as well. I didn’t find the neighborhood around it to be too bad. I called Hofstra with the ABET question; I’m waiting to hear back.
Funny that Temple came up. We just returned from our college tour in Philly. We visited Temple, UPenn, and Lehigh, and drove through Drexel and Lafayette.
We went straight from the airport to Temple last Friday. Google maps took us thru some sketchy neighborhoods, and did not give us a good first impression of Temple. But we drove around the campus and then parked and walked around, and it was a very nice campus. We then took the Engineering tour, toured the building and saw the labs. And this is where D20 started to question whether she really wants to be an engineer. She is really good in math and science and loves physics, so people are telling her she should be an engineer. But I think she just couldn’t picture herself doing the kinds of engineering things our tour guide described. That, and the fact that the Engineering curriculum is so intense, there’d be no time for other things (theater).
After the Engineering tour, we went to the general info session. They did a good job with the info session. it was the best of the 3 schools. The AO that did it talked really fast, but her presentation was enhanced by some AV segments, highlighting some Temple students. Then, we did the general tour. Our tour guide was a theater major. Again, the best of the 3 schools, just because she was animated and…not dry and boring. Just before we left for philly, D20 had said she may want to minor in theater. So having a chance to talk with a theater major was great.
Overall, we really like Temple. We liked the urban campus and the proximity to Philly. Even if D20 doesn’t go Engineering, seemed like they had a strong science program, as well as a theater program. Temple is staying on the short list.
More on other visits later…
@momzilla2D - that reminds me of my S15 who toured an engineering college, and I noticed him tapping his fingers the whole time. Like he wanted out of there. He’s now starting a job as an actuary; he likes math but not the engineering process.
@bgbg4us He made a great choice. We keep telling D20 she should be an actuary. Temple was on the list to begin with because it has both engineering and actuarial science. Seems the more we push actuarial science, though, the more she resists. (Similar story with cognitive science.) I’m trying to keep my mouth shut, but DH cannot quit bringing it up. For now, we’re continuing to look at schools that have 2 or more math/science majors that might interest her, so she can decide on a major later.
We are in the same boat regarding engineering. The fact that every engineer in my family has felt over worked and underappreciated and has either changed careers or opted for early retirement doesn’t help.
My D17 is currently an Electrical and Computer Engineering major. One thing I’ll add to the engineering discussion is that any young woman considering engineering (especially certain ones like EE) needs to be really comfortable being the only woman in the room. For group projects, she’s almost always the only female in a group of engineering dudes and has to be willing to endure some occasional man-splaining. She’s dealing with it just fine, but it does wear on her sometimes.
My youngest (S22) had been talking about doing mechanical engineering, but although he’s a bright kid, he’s not a ‘knuckle down and study’ kid… at least, not yet… he’s a little young for his grade. Anyway, he has recently started saying he’s thinking computer science rather than ME and I think that suits his interests a lot better. I know that’s still pretty academic and competitive but also seems more up his alley.
My dad did his undergrad in ME and had an internship in which he learned he hated the work. By that point he was far enough along that he decided to complete the degree but then he went to seminary for his Mdiv… talk about a major switch in career path.
DS knows that he could never be an engineer, pretty bad hand-eye coordinations (though not on music instruments apparently).
I think it is really hard for kids at this age to know (and to decide) the direction of their future career, which is why DS is mainly looking at finding a good college with strong liberal art education.
@ikg4answers
Engineers are underpaid imho, very unfortunately.
Note this is Lit and not Lang
@stencils - your daughter’s major: " Electrical and Computer Engineering major." Is is a double major? or a combined major? What’s her end goal?
My S20 is looking at Electrical Engineering; and Computer Engineering, or Software Engineering; interested in what you mentioned.
S13 majored in ECE with a concentration in EE so it was just one major. He said that females had a much easier time getting internships and jobs than he and his male friends.
@bgbg4us Some schools have an ECE major, or a flavor of EE they call ECE. At Temple, this is an EE major with a couple more software/programming classes and a couple less circuits classes. It’s sort of like an EE major with a CS minor.
Edited to add: the programming tends to be “closer to the hardware” for ECEs. Think of software embedded in a device and controlling the electronics as opposed to writing web-based user interfaces.
My D16 is an ECE major and at her school, there is a required EE component and a required CS component. Lots of the students get pure CS internships. She’s done both CS and EE internships. She intentionally only looked at schools that let her go either way – she was unsure what she wanted to focus on when she started.
The college matriculation list for the seniors (2019) at D20’s high school came out recently – always interesting to see where the older kids are headed (class size ~80). I was looking for some signal about “worse” (less selective) outcomes for this year given all the buzz nationally and at school but it’s hard to make that claim overall Maybe fewer kids headed to T20 universities and T20 LACs than in prior years but still a strong list. It’s funny how much the LAC matriculation can swing year-to-year. Last year Haverford was the big destination, this year it looks like Vassar and Smith. HYPSM = 4 total, plus another 12 Ivies. Food for thought.
Continuing with our Philly trip…
We had a great weekend in Philly. Stayed right in the historic district, across from Independence Hall and Liberty Bell. Saturday we went to the Reading Terminal Marketplace, then down to the waterfront, where there was a festival going on with performers and street vendors. Had a nice dinner near the hotel and then went to a local theater performance of Legally Blonde. Sunday drove over to see Drexel, then did a little shopping on South Street. Dinner at a farm-to-table place near the hotel. Such a nice weekend.
Monday morning went to the info session and tour at Penn. Ran into a former classmate of D’s (pK-8). The info session was kind of dry, with one AO talking for an hour. BUT, it was like he was talking directly to D20. He said, don’t start with a major, start with your interests. You do not need to declare a major freshman year, just do the things that interest you. He profiled students who started in one thing, had interests in other areas and found a way to integrate all of their interests. D fell in love!
Penn is now her dream school! She understands that it’s a lottery. Her stats are decent, within their mid-50 range, but of course with acceptance rates in the single digits, that’s not enough. She is seriously considering applying ED. From what the AO said, the ED acceptance rate is higher than the RD rate.
More on our Philly trip to come…
@stencils your explanation was very helpful. D21 is leaning towards majoring in EE. So I would love to keep up with your D17’s progress.
Hey @momzilla Thanks for the description! My S20 told me just learned today about a friend of his who is a stellar student, national merit finalist, national award winner and student leader who did ED to Penn and didn’t get in. He was shocked. Even though he knew that it is a lottery even for the best, this really brought it home for him.
Agreed, thanks for the EE, ECE etc info @stencils @BingeWatcher DS20 is planning to apply for EE to his college picks but wants to do Computer Eng as well as a second major or minor so maybe look instead at a combination program which I’m pretty sure we’ve seen in some of our investigation ( it all blurs together after awhile! )
I am in the camp that ED/EA for top colleges might not be helpful IF the applicant is not a recruited athlete, legacy, or has other hooks, and I think the ED/EA pool might be stronger (more competitive) than the RD pool because of the perceived “bump” they have and thus more and more very qualified but unhooked students are applying early. Then there is the potential added whammy that earlier applications might not be as “polished” as later ones.
Pure speculations on my part, but just read this post by UVA AO @“Dean J” http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-virginia/2147132-how-to-know-when-to-apply-ed-ea-or-rd-for-uva.html#latest stating UVA EA pool is stronger than RD pool.