(fwiw I've only read the OP, not the replies - sorry if I duplicate!)
I'm trying to help my teenager figure out a direction he want to go after H.S.? Yesterday we had a meeting with his school counselor to plan for the last two years of H.S. and the upcoming college search. When the counselor asked DS what he was interested in doing after H.S. he just shrugged.
This sounds so much like what my ds might do in a meeting with his counselor, yet he has a really strong sense of who he is and what he wants to study!
we had already talked about going to 4 year college to study some type of STEM and DS planned to take 2 more years of math & science in H.S. (I'm trying hard not to speak for him but we could have spend the whole meeting hemming and hawing.)
I still struggle with this but I agree, but not every meeting can be about helping our kids grow in communication skills, sometimes it's best just to keep the meeting moving when there's a different objective
The counselor brought up the results from a 'career inventory' that he has been asked to do. Recently he told me he thought this kind of thing was not useful as he had no idea how to rate any of the answers, the questions are all stupid and had no idea how to respond much of the time.
As a former smart student myself, can I just say that I probably would have felt the same way? I really think these career inventories are meant more for kids who are completely at a loss re what they want to do and are perhaps at risk of not going to college. It's clear from what you've said that your ds is a math/science kid. It's not all that unusual at his age or even older to not know *exactly* which math/science career you might want to pursue.
I see him more in math/computer science or engineering. And honestly he does better in Chem than Bio because it's more based on math. This survey that by his words he didn't try very hard on did identify computer programmer as another option for him so I'm not sure it's totally inaccurate.
It probably isn't, but it also isn't going to give any one magic answer to any student. Plus a capable student who is interested in math/science is going to be *able* to be a computer scientist, just as they are also *able* to be a biologist or *able* to be an engineer etc - the thing that usually helps students the most in realizing what they are interested in pursuing is either having an inspirational teacher, taking a higher level course that is fun, taking some kind of specifically oriented science camp/experience outside or inside school, or seeing how a certain job works in real life. A survey like this is just going to give generic ideas of what might work.
And if you ask what science he WANTS to take next year his topic choice is AP Biology over AP Physics or AP Chem, but I think that's partly because the other students say that AB Bio is a good class with a good teacher.
Which is a perfectly good reason to choose biology - if he takes biology over chem or physics next year, it's not going to put him out of an engineering career forever. It might be better to take biology with a good teacher and get, gasp, a good grade, have a good year, enjoy a teacher who is inspiring, and see how he feels about biology at the end of the year rather than suffer through a year of physics with a boring or difficult teacher. He'll still be able to get into engineering school if he's got the grades and the SAT scores etc. I'm not saying don't take the math/science etc that he needs - just saying that one science course vs another science course at this point isn't going to mean he's stuck.
Any idea's on how I can help him that don't involve filling out 'stupid' questionnaires. (His words) I don't think he needs to have a precise 'career" figured out at 16. And we can continue to plan around the fact he is interested in STEM. But to find a good fit college it really helps to know if you are looking in engineering, math/computer science or the biological sciences particularly if one is looking at smaller schools.
I think maybe letting him take AP Biology might be one way to go about this - you both have the sense that he'd enjoy engineering/physical sciences. Let him take biology and see how he likes it. If he can take physics at the same time, that's also an idea you might suggest. I'm a physical scientist, and physics in high school was the course that reeled me in because it was where I really saw how science truly explains things. Granted, I didn't grow up in the world of Every Day Math
(please ignore my EDM sarcasm lol).
In a search to see what colleges we might tour this summer it was very obvious that many schools don't have engineering programs.
Many don't, but many do. Our ds is headed into engineering, and he comes from a family of engineers. I realize we most likely don't live anywhere near each other, but I was very surprised how many more STEM/engineering courses were offered at schools which I wouldn't have expected to see them at back in the dark ages when I went to college. I'll also add - a significant portion of my graduating class in college (at a great STEM school) was made up of students who'd transferred in after 1-2 years at a different college because they'd entered college not really having a firm idea of what they wanted to major in. It's not all that unusual to not know what is going to inspire you when you're 18. I also have nieces and nephews (as well as friends) who weren't completely certain about career direction starting out in college who went to relatively generic state schools with all sorts of options for study, then as they realized what they were interested in as they went through college, focused on that and did well, they found amazing grad school opportunities in their area of interest.
And while you can find good CS programs in engineering schools, you don't don't need a good engineering school to find a good CS school.
In theory I agree with you, but I will be the first to admit I have a bit of a bias about this due to my own interests and career choices. I learned everything *I* need to know about computer science in my engineering school. OTOH, if your child is interested in computer science as a career choice (which I will admit I know really nothing about that's current), I'd suspect there must be schools that are better suited to computer science than others.
What classes is your ds thinking of for next year? What is his counselor recommending? What does he have on the horizon for this summer? Are there any opportunities for local internships or are there any local STEM programs for high school students? Local colleges/universities that offer summer programs for high school kids? My ds (who was probably born with engineering in his genes and has always shown a strong interest in math/science) has been most inspired by programs he's participated in run by our state university. One was a robotics camp, the other was a 3D modeling camp. The key for both that turned him on wasn't the actual camp subject matter, but for the first, he was working in a lab on campus for two weeks with grad students. It was like he'd landed "home" - he loved that experience and that got him very excited and comfortable about someday going to college. The 3D modelling class was, in his words, "BORING".. but there was a new engineering building under construction and the class toured it one afternoon - and heard all about the labs that would go in and heard about the types of things that would be studied there.
Hang in there - it's not easy to be a teen! Lots of expectations from counselors and parents as well as worries about moving on into the adult world all while you're trying to figure out who *you* are.
Best wishes,
polarbear
