Originally Posted by polarbear
(fwiw I've only read the OP, not the replies - sorry if I duplicate!)

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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.

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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.

polarbear
Thanks polarbear. Yes I know that it doesn't really matter what science class he takes next year as long as its one of those three. I want him to take Physics because I think he is more likely to get a better grade in it. Biology involves more short answer writing and that is his weakness. But I'm letting him make this decision because I know it doesn't really matter as long as he enjoys it and gets a good grade. And I know one of the teachers is excellent. Right now AP Biology is his first choice and AP Physics 1 his second. The issue is I know he meets the qualifications for AP Physics (based on math grades) and it's less clear he has good enough grades to get in.

For next year we agreed on a slightly lighter scheduled that many of the top kids. AP Calculus, AP Science (Bio or Physics), English, Spanish 3, Band. Marching Band in the fall & in the spring either a ROP Engineering course or Jazz band, or a PE class.

As I posted last night. DS is probably going to do a CIT program at his wilderness camp. This leave out doing an internship or class this summer. He might still just to one session of the camp & if he does that I could find him a computer science/robotics camp. My son has done robotics camps and other science camps when he was younger.

As for computer science schools, I do have an inside track on what makes good computer science program. (I'm not going to say more than DH & I are both computer scientists.) There are many good CS programs at schools that don't have Engineering programs.