I worked with high school students, and I saw how much pressure is placed on some of them to make major life decisions at a young age. You can push a 14-year-old to start thinking about college preferences, potential majors, careers, and even to give up a sport they love in order to focus on another in hopes of earning a scholarship. But just because they’re asked to make those choices doesn’t mean they’re truly equipped to do so. At that age, their sense of identity, values, and long-term perspective are still developing. While some may appear mature, most are still figuring out who they are. Expecting them to make decisions with lifelong consequences can place an unfair emotional and cognitive burden on them. Guidance and support are essential, but so is patience—giving them the space and time to grow into those decisions when they’re ready. A lot of 18 year olds aren’t ready to make these decisions. Engineering has a huge drop rate — 30-50% because it’s hard and because reality doesn’t match expectations. There are athletes that major in engineering but it’s very rare for a reason.
This article gives a glimpse of that chosen path, as well as offering schools that make the path easier ( Division 3 polytechnics and engineering schools):
FWIW, my son was recruited to row at WPI and was able to balance the time commitment for that with working on a double major (CivE and MechE). He ultimately decided to stop rowing because he wanted to focus more on some of the other clubs and activities he was shortchanging, but it’s very possible to balance sports and engineering there. (And competitive sports - his freshman year he was in the boat that came in second of the 2V (so like second string) boats in their national championship regatta, and he went with the team to London to row in the Royal Henley Regatta and a few other races.)
And since you mentioned international projects, I’ll also note that WPI’s junior year IQP project is a term long (seven weeks) project, most of which are outside of the US. Because this is a requirement for all students, the sports coaches are very understanding of this and comfortable with letting their student-athletes do this abroad project. They might ask you to avoid a specific term (like don’t apply for project centers that are only hosting projects during your sport’s main season) but it’s entirely possible to go abroad.
(And I know none of that is relevant to the project based v more traditional discussion, but I think you mentioned you already knew WPI and were planning a visit there soon, so I figured I’d throw it in. If you/your son ultimately have any questions about it, feel free to message me.)
I made some comment earlier and have been following this conversation with some interest. A couple of more comments:
I wouldn’t place hands on verses theoretical high on my list of deciding factors for a college. A minimum of hands on is required for any college program and there are usually more opportunities outside the required program to satisfy any desire for hands on.
Depending on one’s choice of career paths, there will be opportunities for more hands-on work as a professional in his chosen field, if that is the career path he wants. Although in some companies the work that engineers do is limited because union rules may prevent the engineers from actually do it. But, in those cases (as was for me for much of my career) you will be right there while the mechanic does the dirty work, and you will have some level of direct input.
Fit for an engineering program is the key. That is more dependent on how well you can handle the workload. You don’t want to be at the bottom of the class and always struggling but you do want to be challenged to reach your potential. Flexibility is also important as one refines one’s career objectives.
Time management, study skills and the ability to work well in group projects are the key skills necessary to survive engineering schools. Those same skills are what are important to the job you get after college and your career. Make sure he develops these during high school.
When you bring up the subject of playing sports in college, it is certainly doable. However, it can really test your time management skills. I played my sport at the D3 level and actually had better grades in season than out of season. In season I realized I needed to pay attention to time management. Out of season, I got lazy. You do have to consider the sport and how much travel would be involved and how many classes might be potentially missed. You also have to consider practice time, what time of day and how long. Practice time and engineering labs have a way of interfering with each other. The time commitment for sports may interfere with the time commitment for doing any hands-on type activities outside the classroom as they also be significant. All things to consider.
It is great to be thinking of these things at this point, but you don’t need to be making any great decisions right now. He should just follow his passion and have fun. Kids can sometimes change their mind when they see what other opportunities are out there. They can have burnout sometimes in their sport. I have a classic example I can give you where my friend was a college freshman All-American in his sport and changed sports completely his sophomore year. Following your passion, and documenting it, looks good on any college application.
D3 athletics may be the way to go - it could make a separate category for you to explore. Further, it may allow your son to continue with his 2 sports.
To get back to the “hands-on vs. more theoretical” question, a shortcut for now could be to check the 1st year curriculum.
Is the 1st year
Physics, calculus, chemistry (or other relevant science)+ Freshman English and 1 Gen Ed… Or does it include something called Engineering Design, Engineering seminar, Engineering project…
You can look up “civil engineering” + academic plan" + “name of college” ,
You can compare the first year here
Or
Or
With
Or (scroll down to Undergraduate students)
(Examples used at random, many others could have been chosen)
OP- I think the end result is very similar, particularly for Civil. But how a student gets there (and their personal learning style, preferences, etc.) can vary and these comparisons are particularly helpful.
One caveat-- a lot of prospective Civil engineers assume that a hands-on program is going to be amped up “makers labs” (and for sure, there is that element-- nobody wants to drive on a bridge designed by someone who hasn’t fiddled with the physicality of structures and materials and loads and all that). BUT- it’s still math. Math and math. And in my experience, what knocks kids out (and gets them turning to a business major, or construction management, or urban planning, or hotel/real estate development) is the math.
So as he maps out his HS experience- keep that in mind. The language of engineering is math, and he needs to “speak it” fluently.
To reinforce that : go for depth&mastery, not acceleration. If the path that ends with calculus in 12th grade seems too light, add Art of Problem Solving classes or useful side classes that are open to his math level (these may have different names but would often include discrete math, statistics, cryptography..)
Great advice! Let’s pin this for EVERY prospective engineer please… sometimes the parents and kids are so anxious to be “ahead” that they get to college and realize they never really “nailed” geometry- they just memorized, plugged and chugged, got an A and moved on.
So much of engineering will rely on really mastering basic HS math, chem, physics. The exotic stuff is a lot more exciting and enticing, but it will assume tremendous mastery over the building blocks!
As far as “great decisions” go, I was referring to decisions as far as which college to attend and which area he should get his degree. Sports decisions may need to be made now.
You can usually do that through an AO, but they are not going to do that are someone so young. It happens closer to application time. One of our schools didn’t do it until you were admitted.
Besides the coaches’ commitment to academic success, one of the other reasons it’s easy to be an athlete at WPI is how geographically limited their conference is. There is very little travel. That is also a big difference between D1 and D3.
Don’t mean to upset OP - so I’m asking a general question for those with knowledge in the athlete/academic arena:
I can’t predict four years from now but even if a future athlete decided now on a major, why would that necessarily change the classes taken in HS.
In other words, a future engineer would want math and science.
But even an English or a History major would do well in admissions with those courses, etc.
and we don’t know about injuries and other things that derail a plan today and force Plan B - which might be the alternative that isn’t pursued - so if someone said, I won’t pursue engineering…but at 16 got injured, engineering could come back.
From a HS academic preparation POV, why would anything necessarily change at 14 is what I’m wondering…for those who are parents of athletes.
I keep thinking of Josh Dobbs - the former QB at UTK - aerospace engineer
And the upper level math courses are actually application, not just doing problems. My engineer kid wasn’t thrilled with calculus, but she loved differential equations and the like. She loved the math.
But at the end of the day, she pursued a career other than engineering (even after completing the major) and that could happen to the OPs son.
Statiscally, per the Washington Post, 75% of engineering graduates don’t work as engineers - so it’s actually more common that she isn’t an engineer in her career as opposed to if she was.
That’s quite interesting…but makes sense. I know engineers in sales and sales management. My VP was an aero engineer…selling vehicles.
Crazy…but one of my son’s two internships wasn’t an engineering role but they wanted an engineer. As he said, they wanted someone who thinks like an engineer in the role.
So you’re correct - for any engineering student, we don’t know how they’ll likely end up - but it is likely that one day, sooner than later, their role will be, not of an engineer.
As I understand it, OP’s son needs to make some decisions about athletic participation and recruiting in the next year or two, and his academic interests might drive some of those decisions. That’s why the exploration is coming early.
It makes sense to me having read some of the other threads. There’s no unusual parental pressure or anything like that going on here.
@Sportsball the examples I always hear on this are Princeton on the theoretical end of the spectrum and WPI on the other. Since you mentioned PA, Princeton is NJ but pretty close and a very easy train trip from Philly or anywhere along the northeast corridor.
On the conflict between D1 sports and engineering, that hasn’t been my experience. There are challenges and it’s a no go with a few coaches. But there are ways to make it work and sometimes it’s easier, not harder, at the bigger schools because scheduling is easier.
