Elite private schools and college admissions

[CooterBrown 18,034]

There can be a razor thin separation between the kids on either side of the top 10%. My daughter had pretty damn good grades her freshman year at McCallum and didn’t make the top 10%. This year I didn't think her grades were all that better, but she made the top 10% (modest humblebrag).

Do you know anything about taking electives pass/fail? I heard third hand you can do this and if you do, it’s a 4.0 for any passing grade. If so, that’s one way to game the system, since you could get a pass/4.0 instead of a 98/3.8. I have an email in to the counselor but haven’t heard anything back yet.

[South Austin 52,635]

8 minutes ago, CooterBrown said:

Do you know anything about taking electives pass/fail? I heard third hand you can do this and if you do, it’s a 4.0 for any passing grade. If so, that’s one way to game the system, since you could get a pass/4.0 instead of a 98/3.8. I have an email in to the counselor but haven’t heard anything back yet.

Never heard of that, but will ask my daughter.

[tx 3 putt 77,569]

On 4/3/2022 at 9:40 AM, Helobious said:

I don’t know. If you know you want to be an engineer, I’d want to get in school ASAP, graduate ASAP, and start making real money ASAP. 

if you can't get into the school of your choice, any ABET acreddited school is good enough for 99% of companies out there. Dow used to only hire from certain schools, they threw that out the window long ago. I'd be curious how many grads they're hiring out of UT RGV vs UT Austin. 

[Beau Vine 54,471]

On 5/19/2022 at 2:22 PM, CooterBrown said:

Do you know anything about taking electives pass/fail? I heard third hand you can do this and if you do, it’s a 4.0 for any passing grade. If so, that’s one way to game the system, since you could get a pass/4.0 instead of a 98/3.8. I have an email in to the counselor but haven’t heard anything back yet.

Shit, I did that in high school 40 years ago.  I told my daughter that she ought to do it and she ignored me.  Then when the first class rankings came out, she was #2 and a girl taking her electives P/F was #1.

[CooterBrown 18,034]

Do you know anything about taking electives pass/fail? I heard third hand you can do this and if you do, it’s a 4.0 for any passing grade. If so, that’s one way to game the system, since you could get a pass/4.0 instead of a 98/3.8. I have an email in to the counselor but haven’t heard anything back yet.

Heard back on this from the counselor. Any classes past the required credits for graduation, can be taken pass/fail.

Seems like you’d already be accepted to college by that point so it doesn’t seem like it matters much.

[Texas Jeff 1,946]

On 5/19/2022 at 2:22 PM, CooterBrown said:

Do you know anything about taking electives pass/fail? I heard third hand you can do this and if you do, it’s a 4.0 for any passing grade. If so, that’s one way to game the system, since you could get a pass/4.0 instead of a 98/3.8. I have an email in to the counselor but haven’t heard anything back yet.

Here is what I think I know of this as an AISD parent -- please confirm with your counselor:

Austin ISD class rank is a function of best grades in core classes.  Electives do not matter for class rank.  The core classes are English/Language Arts, Math, Science, and Social Studies plus two years of languages other than English.  I used to think it was top four in every core subject, but this document says it's  four English/Math/Science, three for Social Studies, two for languages other than English . 

As an example, let's make up some math grades for a kid and assume the top four grades count:

• Algebra 1 (Honors):  91 - weighted class - 8th grade
• Geometry (Regular):  95 - non-weighted - 9th grade
• Algebra 2: (Honors): 93 - weighted - 10th grade
• Pre-calc: (Honors): 87 - weighted - 11th grade
• Calculus AB (Honors): 90 - weighted - 12th grade

What is the lowest grade on that board?  It's Geometry ... the non-weighted class.  The other classes get a 10 point bump.  Grades get converted to a 4.0 scale (5.0 scale for honors), so those grades look like this for class rank purposes:

• Algebra 1 (Honors):  4.1 - weighted class - 8th grade
• Geometry (Regular):  3.5 - non-weighted - 9th grade
• Algebra 2: (Honors): 4.3 - weighted - 10th grade
• Pre-calc: (Honors): 3.7 - weighted - 11th grade
• Calculus AB (Honors): 4.0 - weighted - 12th grade

In this example, the first four grades would be used to calculate the math portion at the end of the 11th grade.  In the 12th grade, that Calculus score replaces the Geometry score.  Class rank for college admissions (Texas top ten percent, for example), is determined at the end of the junior year.  So this kid would have received a GPA bump during their senior year -- which might have mattered for final class rank -- but not for top 10% rankings for college purposes.

Electives don't matter for calculating the class rank GPA, but they are included in the overall GPA.  There are also weighted and unweighted electives.  You can take an elective pass/fail, but only if it is NOT needed for graduation credit.

You need a certain number of electives to graduate, so you have to take some as numeric grades.  You can take the others pass/fail if you wish.  A weighted elective where your kid is going to receive a high grade is going to help your overall GPA quite a bit.  If your kid is making really high grades, a non-weighted non-pass/fail course can reduce their overall GPA, but it won't matter for class rankings.

[TwiceHorn 31,585]

On 4/29/2022 at 9:07 AM, Samson's Wig said:

That's interesting.  My experience has been the exact opposite.  While attorneys certainly have no lack of an inflated ego regarding their intelligence (myself very much included), on the whole most attorneys I've dealt with will readily admit when they don't know something and are comfortable outsourcing the issue.  Admittedly, and obvious to anyone who has practiced law for more than ten minutes, there are a boatload of dumbasses with law degrees, and I may very well be one of them.  However, I've met too many engineers who would fight to the death before acknowledging there is a subject they are not the master of, or capable of being the master of, if they just do their research.  Their world is binary and anything with shades of gray is a foreign language for them.  I think it comes down to one profession being filled with folks who focused on a narrow band of subject matter their entire education and working life, and the other profession involving people who tend to come from all kinds of backgrounds and often wandered in the desert before becoming a lawyer.  The educational aspect is more difficult and singularly focused for engineering, generally speaking, and that's going to lead to a bit of myopia. 

 

I'm going to guess that the engineers you deal with primarily are expert witnesses, and there can certainly be a level of arrogance there.  So also, perhaps, with "acclaimed" inventors.

Dealing with "workaday" inventor/engineers, I don't find that to be the case.  Yes, they frequently know their subject of specialty or expertise well and can't spell cat if you spot them the c and the t, but they aren't usually arrogant about it.  And, although lawyers tend to be "broad-based" in terms of knowledge an inch-deep and a mile wide, I find that engineers tend to be better-rounded individuals, probably due to work-life balance.

[South Austin 52,635]

Lawyers are the best people.

[chainsaw 9,878]

Nobody holds a candle to physicians if we talkin bout god complexes

[Bateshorn 9,942]

7 minutes ago, chainsaw said:

Nobody holds a candle to physicians if we talkin bout god complexes

Requisite:

 

[Guest]

9 minutes ago, chainsaw said:

Nobody holds a candle to physicians if we talkin bout god complexes

HOA presidents.

[Sbbruin 21,899]

Interesting article on colleges that have become that “next level” schools after the Ivies.  Somehow UT made the list.  And Northeastern jumped in there.  So the boy may have a future ahead of him after all.  
 

https://www.townandcountrymag.com/society/tradition/g40218780/best-alternative-ivy-league-colleges-2022/

[Beantown Express 2.0 6,559]

My son starts his Junior year of HS in a few months.  The wife and I are trying to get him to think about colleges but he has no idea what he wants to do for a profession or what school he wants to go to.  I am curious who will accept him as he has never not gotten an A in any subject (and he never studies) and most of his grades are 97 to a 100 in every AP/Honors course his school offers.  He will easily be in the top 20 out of 400 students in his class at a 5A school.  He hasn’t taken the SAT yet but I am sure he will get in the 1400+ range at a minimum.  Here is the negative.  He is lazy and won’t do any extracurricular activities, join any clubs, charitable work, nothing.  Hell, he was too lazy to join National Honor Society because he didn’t want to do the volunteer stuff.  He is on the varsity golf team and that is it.  We have been telling him he needs to get that other stuff on his resume but my wife feels at this point its too late and he is screwed when it comes to college.  

[Surly Bevo 25,216]

My son starts his Junior year of HS in a few months.  The wife and I are trying to get him to think about colleges but he has no idea what he wants to do for a profession or what school he wants to go to.  I am curious who will accept him as he has never not gotten an A in any subject (and he never studies) and most of his grades are 97 to a 100 in every AP/Honors course his school offers.  He will easily be in the top 20 out of 400 students in his class at a 5A school.  He hasn’t taken the SAT yet but I am sure he will get in the 1400+ range at a minimum.  Here is the negative.  He is lazy and won’t do any extracurricular activities, join any clubs, charitable work, nothing.  Hell, he was too lazy to join National Honor Society because he didn’t want to do the volunteer stuff.  He is on the varsity golf team and that is it.  We have been telling him he needs to get that other stuff on his resume but my wife feels at this point its too late and he is screwed when it comes to college.  

[Beantown Express 2.0 6,559]

1 minute ago, Surly Bevo said:

Joel was an entrepreneur and a go getter at least.  My kid, not so much. 

[CooterBrown 18,034]

Just with those grades, he’ll get into most any school that’s not elite. Extracurriculars matter for the elite schools, not so much for the next tier filled with still excellent schools. The schools ranked 50-150 actively try to buy better students and just those grades will go a long way. He’ll be fine.

[Sam Lin 3,564]

What does he have a passion for? It doesn't have to be a conventional "extracurricular." As was mentioned a few pages back in Emory discussion, you just want something that gives your app an edge vs just being rounded.

[Sbbruin 21,899]

6 hours ago, Beantown Express 2.0 said:

My son starts his Junior year of HS in a few months.  The wife and I are trying to get him to think about colleges but he has no idea what he wants to do for a profession or what school he wants to go to.  I am curious who will accept him as he has never not gotten an A in any subject (and he never studies) and most of his grades are 97 to a 100 in every AP/Honors course his school offers.  He will easily be in the top 20 out of 400 students in his class at a 5A school.  He hasn’t taken the SAT yet but I am sure he will get in the 1400+ range at a minimum.  Here is the negative.  He is lazy and won’t do any extracurricular activities, join any clubs, charitable work, nothing.  Hell, he was too lazy to join National Honor Society because he didn’t want to do the volunteer stuff.  He is on the varsity golf team and that is it.  We have been telling him he needs to get that other stuff on his resume but my wife feels at this point its too late and he is screwed when it comes to college.  

Will Honestly if he’s not pursuing engineering he’s probably OK.  My son was pursuing biomedical England that put him behind the 8 ball.  Hell, even UT said no,, and he too never didn’t get an A in a class.  But what I know about him is he will crush it at Northeastern and  will be a good man.  And that’s all that matters to me.

[South Austin 52,635]

2 hours ago, Sbbruin said:

Will Honestly if he’s not pursuing engineering he’s probably OK.  My son was pursuing biomedical England that put him behind the 8 ball.  Hell, even UT said no,, and he too never didn’t get an A in a class.  But what I know about him is he will crush it at Northeastern and  will be a good man.  And that’s all that matters to me.

Biomedical England, huh?

And who’s Will Honestly? is he related to John Honestly?

[HenryJames 66,189]

9 hours ago, Beantown Express 2.0 said:

My son starts his Junior year of HS in a few months.  The wife and I are trying to get him to think about colleges but he has no idea what he wants to do for a profession or what school he wants to go to.  I am curious who will accept him as he has never not gotten an A in any subject (and he never studies) and most of his grades are 97 to a 100 in every AP/Honors course his school offers.  He will easily be in the top 20 out of 400 students in his class at a 5A school.  He hasn’t taken the SAT yet but I am sure he will get in the 1400+ range at a minimum.  Here is the negative.  He is lazy and won’t do any extracurricular activities, join any clubs, charitable work, nothing.  Hell, he was too lazy to join National Honor Society because he didn’t want to do the volunteer stuff.  He is on the varsity golf team and that is it.  We have been telling him he needs to get that other stuff on his resume but my wife feels at this point its too late and he is screwed when it comes to college.  

[Beantown Express 2.0 6,559]

4 hours ago, Sam Lin said:

What does he have a passion for? It doesn't have to be a conventional "extracurricular." As was mentioned a few pages back in Emory discussion, you just want something that gives your app an edge vs just being rounded.

He has a passion for playing X box. We thought he would be interested in engineering based on how easy math and science have always been to him but he said no bueno to that.  Now he is saying maybe business (not accounting) or computer sciences.  My wife feels that if you are going to be in computer sciences you need to be doing coding and shit by his age but I don’t think that’s true.  My nephew was kind of a f up (but a good kid) and he graduated from FSU with a computer science degree 4 years ago.  He just turned down an offer from Amazon starting at $300K+ a year so he must be doing something right.  The only Texas school my kid says he is interested in is UT Austin but he won’t get into business school I don’t think with few extracurriculars on his resume other than golf and I am sure as hell not sending him there to get a Liberal Arts degree like my parents were dumb enough to do with me.  The History major didn’t help me much in life but I also turned out OK financially.  Mentally not so much.

[Vegas64 678]

Tell us your kid smokes a ton of pot without telling us.

[Js1 85,614]

5 minutes ago, Vegas64 said:

Tell us your kid smokes a ton of pot without telling us.

CU Boulder it is! 

[Captainant 27,853]

17 minutes ago, Js1 said:

CU Boulder it is! 

Man, Dead and Co just played a banger of a show there on Saturday at Folsom Field too

Edited June 20, 2022 by Captainant

[Beantown Express 2.0 6,559]

4 hours ago, Vegas64 said:

Tell us your kid smokes a ton of pot without telling us.

You referring to my kid?  No weed or drinking.  He is just a nerd but he does have a girlfriend so not a total nerd.

Edited June 20, 2022 by Beantown Express 2.0

[Vegas64 678]

3 hours ago, Beantown Express 2.0 said:

You referring to my kid?  No weed or drinking.  He is just a nerd but he does have a girlfriend so not a total nerd.

If your kid is the really smart but super lazy and directionless one who plays a lot of video games to the short term detriment of his future plans that was mentioned up thread, then yes your kid smokes a ton of pot I would wager. I could be wrong if things have changed so much that this behavior pattern isn’t a good correlation anymore and parents are no longer painfully naive…

Aint nothing wrong with smoking pot though. 

Edited June 20, 2022 by Vegas64

[Beantown Express 2.0 6,559]

1 hour ago, Vegas64 said:

If your kid is the really smart but super lazy and directionless one who plays a lot of video games to the short term detriment of his future plans that was mentioned up thread, then yes your kid smokes a ton of pot I would wager. I could be wrong if things have changed so much that this behavior pattern isn’t a good correlation anymore and parents are no longer painfully naive…

Aint nothing wrong with smoking pot though. 

Dude, I was smoking weed when I was 12 years old so I am not against it but a lot of kids these days are different than when I grew up.  Not just him but a lot of them really don’t “party” like the old days.  I know a few kids he knows do smoke but the crowd he hangs around are nerds.  Play soccer all the time, go to Kumon after school to study type of kids.

[Mach 1 1,677]

22 hours ago, Beantown Express 2.0 said:

My son starts his Junior year of HS in a few months.  The wife and I are trying to get him to think about colleges but he has no idea what he wants to do for a profession or what school he wants to go to.  I am curious who will accept him as he has never not gotten an A in any subject (and he never studies) and most of his grades are 97 to a 100 in every AP/Honors course his school offers.  

Same exact situation. He has friends on the east coast and has tooled around NYC a few times, so NYU is on his radar. Told him no chance unless you get something that sets you apart from thousands of other applicants.  Wife hired a counselor that recommended applying to a Summer Immersion program to U Miami (daughter did same and accepted to UCLA).  Dumbass submitted paperwork on the last day - yeah, that will look impressive.  Still havent heard back and it starts in August.

I'm on the classic car thread and I bought the TR6 because he loves cars, driving (he takes my stick M3 out on weekends), and said he wanted to work with me on a restoration. (He was too young to really help much on the Mustang)  So this may be naive of me, but I'm hoping this might be a unique interest that helps him out. Muscle wrenching shit isn't impressive, but maybe rewiring an entire harness and getting engine heads upgraded (and understanding why) might be.

Failing that they go to a fallback school, then go to grad school, whatever they decide to pursue.  Worked for me.

Edited June 21, 2022 by Mach 1
Forgot to add that it wasn't so much about my situation, but there are avenues to find something they're interested in that might be unique and interesting

[Samson's Wig 3,195]

Is it still the case that a kid can transfer to just about any damn school they want to so long as their grades are decent and they're willing to pay for it?  As I recall this was due to the ranking systems not giving two shits about anything but the incoming freshman class.  Has this changed?

[tx 3 putt 77,569]

On 4/2/2022 at 8:17 AM, Sawbonz said:

My daughter (no pics) just told me that the elite DFW privates had an abysmal acceptance rate at Ivy League schools, Stanford, Duke, and Vanderbilt. One of her friends going back to elementary was rejected by her top 3. She was accepted by her 4th choice, still a competitive out of state public, but this is a girl who was near the top of her class, multi sport varsity athlete, tons of extracurriculars  and close to perfect on sat and act. 
 

Is this a fluke or are we looking at a sea change in how prospective students are evaluated at these universities?

 

she'll make more than she can imagine on only fans, with the right marketing 

[TwiceHorn 31,585]

On 6/20/2022 at 8:50 PM, Mach 1 said:

Same exact situation. He has friends on the east coast and has tooled around NYC a few times, so NYU is on his radar. Told him no chance unless you get something that sets you apart from thousands of other applicants.  Wife hired a counselor that recommended applying to a Summer Immersion program to U Miami (daughter did same and accepted to UCLA).  Dumbass submitted paperwork on the last day - yeah, that will look impressive.  Still havent heard back and it starts in August.

I'm on the classic car thread and I bought the TR6 because he loves cars, driving (he takes my stick M3 out on weekends), and said he wanted to work with me on a restoration. (He was too young to really help much on the Mustang)  So this may be naive of me, but I'm hoping this might be a unique interest that helps him out. Muscle wrenching shit isn't impressive, but maybe rewiring an entire harness and getting engine heads upgraded (and understanding why) might be.

Failing that they go to a fallback school, then go to grad school, whatever they decide to pursue.  Worked for me.

Seriously late response, but for some reason, my Mom had me aptitude tested while I was in middle school.  At this place in Dallas. https://www.aimstesting.org/

It identified some kind of unusual aptitudes in me, namely spatial perception and reasoning that indicated I might be a good engineer or architect.  Which surprised everyone except maybe me.  But it was good information to have.

[CoTex 1,162]

Maybe this is the wrong topic but I'm not sure it warrants a new one.

I am mentoring a young man who I think has a bright future.  In high school, he took all the mediocre classes, had a 2.9, and a 23 on the ACT.  His shop teacher encouraged him to be a welder.  Literally said "I'm going to help you get a welder job at ______ company.  

My wife saw a spark and told him to take an ACT prep course.  He bumped his score up to 29, with just a little prep.  Encouraged him to apply to colleges, he got into OK state and a few others.  He ended up attending Texas A&M Texarkana because he can live with family there and they gave him money.  Basically paying him to attend.  He majored in Mech. E. and just finished his first semester.  3.8 gpa.  He told me "I can do better, I played too many video games this fall." 

The whole time he was working part time at a local business basically as a gopher.  This young man was a quiet but good high school athlete who, for whatever reason, never had a ton of ambition.  Sort of just puttered through.  Family are good people, all auto mechanics.  No discipline issues.  To make extra money this young man finds broken gas string trimmers/weed eaters, fixes them and sells them on social media.  Can turn out 1 or 2 per weekend.  

So, I personally think that, with his grades and apparent drive, I need to help and encourage him transfer to the best possible school that will take him.  If you're going to major in engineering, better school is ... better.  But, I understand there is an argument for "if kid is succeeding, why would you mess with that."  Yes, I understand a 3.8 at tamu-txk is not the same as splitting the atom, but I think it's a showing that he takes it seriously.  These are the best grades he's ever made.

Assuming he doesn't discover beer this spring, and makes another round of grades, I think I can get him into UTD, Tech, ousux or maybe aggy.  I feel like Austin is a stretch but will likely apply.

My basic questions are:

1.  How big of an advantage would it be to graduate from UTD over TAMU-Texarkana?  I assume that UTD's career services is going to put its grads into places like Texas Instruments and Toyota.  I assume it's just better than a regional aggy school. 

2.  Of those schools, how do you rank the engineering/computer science departments (UTD, aggy, ousux, Tech, Okie lite).

3.  How much weight do you put on "aint broke, don't fix it... a degree from a mediocre program is good enough... if he wants more go to grad school somewhere better."  

4.  He's thinking about changing to ee instead of mechanical engineering.  I think ee or computer science would likely be better but, any thoughts?  I'm not trying to tell him what to be but, he really doesn't know - likes to build things and fix things.

5.  He's got 1 month until classes start again, and I am thinking about challenging him to something.  I'm thinking "take a google class on how to program Python and, if you can show me some proficiency, I'll give you $250."

I can be an asshole and this kid may be the only one that comes to my funeral.  I want to help him as best I can.

Please comment - any advice is appreciated.

 

Edited December 15, 2023 by CoTex

[tx 3 putt 77,569]

Sounds like he’s doing great where he’s at. Unless his engineering program isn’s an accredited program, he’s fine. He should be more focused on internships. If he’s that mechanically inclined, any rotating equipment oem would want to talk with him. His 2nd focus should be graduAting with as little debt as possible 
 

I went to a small state university / engineering college - he’ll be fine: I have many extremely successful classmates, with careers that any ut or am grad would kill for. Vp’s of top 100 companies, owning their companies, retiring at 50 and so on …

Recent example - a lot of companies that recruited at ut and am this year, also recruited the smaller / less ‘prestigious’ texas engineering programs in the same week. 

 

[tx 3 putt 77,569]

Mechanical engineering is a great degree, I’d stick with it over ee 

 

Edited December 15, 2023 by tx 3 putt

[tx 3 putt 77,569]

What is python going to do for him ?

The craft, knowledge and skills of being a machinist is a dying skill. Being able to just think in that manner is a huge asset to have. 
 

how does he feel about welding ? Thats a high demand field. all my customers have subject matter experts with engineering degrees to cover welding projects 

[CoTex 1,162]

6 minutes ago, tx 3 putt said:

Sounds like he’s doing great where he’s at. Unless his engineering program isn’s an accredited program, he’s fine. He should be more focused on internships. If he’s that mechanically inclined, any rotating equipment oem would want to talk with him. His 2nd focus should be graduAting with as little debt as possible 
 

I went to a small state university / engineering college - he’ll be fine: I have many extremely successful classmates, with careers that any ut or am grad would kill for. Vp’s of top 100 companies, owning their companies, retiring at 50 and so on …

Recent example - a lot of companies that recruited at ut and am this year, also recruited the smaller / less ‘prestigious’ texas engineering programs in the same week. 

 

He is doing great.  I literally teared up when I heard his grades.  I figured he would pull down b's and c's and would need a little encouragement.  "Don't quit, now you know what to expect, just graduate - your grades won't matter after you get your first job."

I guess I can save that speech for one of my own kids.

 

 

[tx 3 putt 77,569]

3 minutes ago, CoTex said:

He is doing great.  I literally teared up when I heard his grades.  I figured he would pull down b's and c's and would need a little encouragement.  "Don't quit, now you know what to expect, just graduate - your grades won't matter after you get your first job."

I guess I can save that speech for one of my own kids.

 

 

as a 2.8 career student, i salute him  😁

[orange dream 1,256]

So what would the financial plan be if he moved from A&M-TXARK to any of the other schools you mentioned?

Going from a free place to live and net positive cashflow while getting his degree to anything that involved cash outflow and / or debt would have to be looked at skeptically based on the situation you described.

Good on him (and you) for efforts to date though.

[SimonBolivar 10,961]

3 minutes ago, tx 3 putt said:

as a 2.8 career student, i salute him  😁

2.33 undergrad and 4.0 grad worked fine for me....other than ending up on Surly of course.

[CoTex 1,162]

2 minutes ago, tx 3 putt said:

What is python going to do for him ?

The craft, knowledge and skills of being a machinist is a dying skill. Being able to just think in that manner is a huge asset to have. 
 

how does he feel about welding ? Thats a high demand field. all my customers have subject matter experts with engineering degrees to cover welding projects 

I don't know what python is going to do for him but, along the lines of CS or EE, he may to need to code sooner or later.  He's going to sit around for 30 days over the holiday break, and I thought this might be a nice line to add to his resume "Google Professional Certificate - Python."  I guess I could tell him to watch Breaking Bad reruns or play Assassin's Creed but I thought I would challenge him and throw him some cash for a little side gig.

I majored in business and went to law school.  I know dick about engineering or computer science other than you'll probably like the women in the college of education or nursing better than you'll like the women in the cs building.  Journalism and Social Work can pay off too.

I also know dick about welding other than there seems to be a lot of it in small towns, and his high school shop teacher thought he was good at it.  I don't think there's anything wrong with being a welder but I think this kid has some horsepower to burn.

 

[Spaulding Smails 1,556]

1 hour ago, CoTex said:

Maybe this is the wrong topic but I'm not sure it warrants a new one.

I am mentoring a young man who I think has a bright future.  In high school, he took all the mediocre classes, had a 2.9, and a 23 on the ACT.  His shop teacher encouraged him to be a welder.  Literally said "I'm going to help you get a welder job at ______ company.  

My wife saw a spark and told him to take an ACT prep course.  He bumped his score up to 29, with just a little prep.  Encouraged him to apply to colleges, he got into OK state and a few others.  He ended up attending Texas A&M Texarkana because he can live with family there and they gave him money.  Basically paying him to attend.  He majored in Mech. E. and just finished his first semester.  3.8 gpa.  He told me "I can do better, I played too many video games this fall." 

The whole time he was working part time at a local business basically as a gopher.  This young man was a quiet but good high school athlete who, for whatever reason, never had a ton of ambition.  Sort of just puttered through.  Family are good people, all auto mechanics.  No discipline issues.  To make extra money this young man finds broken gas string trimmers/weed eaters, fixes them and sells them on social media.  Can turn out 1 or 2 per weekend.  

So, I personally think that, with his grades and apparent drive, I need to help and encourage him transfer to the best possible school that will take him.  If you're going to major in engineering, better school is ... better.  But, I understand there is an argument for "if kid is succeeding, why would you mess with that."  Yes, I understand a 3.8 at tamu-txk is not the same as splitting the atom, but I think it's a showing that he takes it seriously.  These are the best grades he's ever made.

Assuming he doesn't discover beer this spring, and makes another round of grades, I think I can get him into UTD, Tech, ousux or maybe aggy.  I feel like Austin is a stretch but will likely apply.

My basic questions are:

1.  How big of an advantage would it be to graduate from UTD over TAMU-Texarkana?  I assume that UTD's career services is going to put its grads into places like Texas Instruments and Toyota.  I assume it's just better than a regional aggy school. 

2.  Of those schools, how do you rank the engineering/computer science departments (UTD, aggy, ousux, Tech, Okie lite).

3.  How much weight do you put on "aint broke, don't fix it... a degree from a mediocre program is good enough... if he wants more go to grad school somewhere better."  

4.  He's thinking about changing to ee instead of mechanical engineering.  I think ee or computer science would likely be better but, any thoughts?  I'm not trying to tell him what to be but, he really doesn't know - likes to build things and fix things.

5.  He's got 1 month until classes start again, and I am thinking about challenging him to something.  I'm thinking "take a google class on how to program Python and, if you can show me some proficiency, I'll give you $250."

I can be an asshole and this kid may be the only one that comes to my funeral.  I want to help him as best I can.

Please comment - any advice is appreciated.

 

What does he want to do after college?  If he wants to get a graduate degree or go work for a big engineering firm, then I think the conversation around UT-D, etc is warranted.  If he's leaning more towards doing his own thing, then why upset the apple cart?  Graduating with an engineering degree and minimal debt sounds pretty sweet, regardless of where the degree is from.  

I own a blue collar business, so my perspective is absolutely biased.  But, a kid that is obviously disciplined and a self-starter, has some technical skills like welding and graduates with an engineering degree from anywhere sounds like he's going to kill it.  Throw in some business basics and some experience after college, and that's a recipe for a killer career with an opportunity to own your own company doing something he really enjoys.  

 

[CoTex 1,162]

2 minutes ago, orange dream said:

So what would the financial plan be if he moved from A&M-TXARK to any of the other schools you mentioned?

Going from a free place to live and net positive cashflow while getting his degree to anything that involved cash outflow and / or debt would have to be looked at skeptically based on the situation you described.

Good on him (and you) for efforts to date though.

The plan would be to go to the financial aid office fortified with our prayers and ass-kissing.  It would cost more in tuition, dorm, everything, and he would be farther from his people/alone.

Maybe a plan is to try to finish on time, and see what you've got - $0 debt and paper in hand.  Look at jobs and, if nada, look at grad school.

I'm asking this today because I'm seriously at a loss.  I kind of figured I had handed this deal off to fate, but now I feel like the stakes are high.  He did exactly what he was told which is rare with 18 year olds.  Drug/alcohol free kid in college that works and, for his hobby, fixes shit.  If someone had gotten to this kid 4 years earlier and encouraged him in high school, he likely would have gotten a scholarship somehow/somewhere.

I feel pressure to give him good advice.  His parents are good people but have no experience in this arena.  Apparently I don't either.

[tx 3 putt 77,569]

A good welding shop that can get qualified with the right customers, can do $10mil a year 

Edited December 15, 2023 by tx 3 putt

[CooterBrown 18,034]

1 minute ago, CoTex said:

The plan would be to go to the financial aid office fortified with our prayers and ass-kissing.  It would cost more in tuition, dorm, everything, and he would be farther from his people/alone.

Maybe a plan is to try to finish on time, and see what you've got - $0 debt and paper in hand.  Look at jobs and, if nada, look at grad school.

I'm asking this today because I'm seriously at a loss.  I kind of figured I had handed this deal off to fate, but now I feel like the stakes are high.  He did exactly what he was told which is rare with 18 year olds.  Drug/alcohol free kid in college that works and, for his hobby, fixes shit.  If someone had gotten to this kid 4 years earlier and encouraged him in high school, he likely would have gotten a scholarship somehow/somewhere.

I feel pressure to give him good advice.  His parents are good people but have no experience in this arena.  Apparently I don't either.

So, you want to change a set up that has all the components that sets him up for debt free personal/academic success for off chance that a "better" university, with unknown support and financial burden, will net him maybe $10K in his first job?

 

[tx 3 putt 77,569]

It sounds like he’s In the right place and the debt / money factor is in his favor. He still a kid, let him figure things out and live 

me / ee - I was a chem e major and we had a petro e program. Of the people I graduated with, i never saw near the success with ee’s as I did chem / petro e’s, and it’s not even close. The most successful ee I knew was a good friend and she went to work for a large company. She was young, columbian, drop dead gorgeous and damn smart: she got high end fake tits within 6 months of hiring on. Locked down a sr vp at her company and became a stay at home mom: maid, nanny, they travel the world. 

[CoTex 1,162]

3 minutes ago, CooterBrown said:

So, you want to change a set up that has all the components that sets him up for debt free personal/academic success for off chance that a "better" university, with unknown support and financial burden, will net him maybe $10K in his first job?

 

I want to set him up to succeed as best I can.

[tx 3 putt 77,569]

14 minutes ago, CooterBrown said:

So, you want to change a set up that has all the components that sets him up for debt free personal/academic success for off chance that a "better" university, with unknown support and financial burden, will net him maybe $10K in his first job?

 

i know for a fact, exxon and shell offers the same to ut / am grads, as they do to grads from smaller / lesser schools. Im sure smaller companies handle things differently. I know people that were on the engineering hiring teams at both companies  at one point in time 

*colorado school of mines and purdue are handled differently  

Edited December 15, 2023 by tx 3 putt

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, CoTex said:

I want to set him up to succeed as best I can.

Sounds like you are already. 

What does the kid say about your ideas?

[tx 3 putt 77,569]

4 minutes ago, CoTex said:

I want to set him up to succeed as best I can.

3.8 in engineering = he's already on the path to success

And he thinks he can do better ?  << let hiIm be 

 

 

Edited December 15, 2023 by tx 3 putt

[SimonBolivar 10,961]

It isn't like Texas A&M - Texarkana is unaccredited. I'm not in STEM, but I would assume that plenty of good graduate schools would be plenty happy with a 3.8 GPA in ME when looking at his application, if he chooses that direction.

Edited December 15, 2023 by SimonBolivar