Help me guide my son

[PinkTulip]

I posted this on the chat board, but it was recommended I post this here, so forgive me for the duplicate:

 

So DS15 is a sophomore at our public high school, and he is starting to think about colleges and careers. He is pretty sure he wants to do some kind of engineering – possibly aerospace, maybe mechanical, or civil? He also really loves physics. DH and I are both attorneys by training, so this is a whole new arena for us. I asked DS what he sees himself doing as a major in college, and as a career afterwards, and he said, “I really just want to design and innovate, go to graduate school, and own my own business.†He sees himself doing something tech-related, or inventing something, or designing a new airplane, car, or some other product. So maybe a minor in Entrepreneurship?

 

What colleges, majors, careers, or employers should I have him start looking into? He has always been interested in seeking an appointment to the Naval Academy, but isn’t sure how a graduate degree would fit in with the 5-year service commitment following. His dream would be a masters or Ph.D. from MIT, but I’m not sure if he is _that_ ridiculously smart.

 

How does Engineering graduate school work, exactly? I know the best programs are funded, but virtually nothing beyond that. Does having a graduate degree for Engineering make a difference salary-wise? Is it possible to own your own business, or would he be working for a large corporation like Boeing or Apple? Like I said, my background is in English and Humanities, so this is a whole new world for me!

[TheApprentice]

I'm not familiar with graduate school yet since I just dropped my college freshman of to school 3 weeks ago. But, he is also interested in engineering/computer science so here are some of the schools we looked at:

 

Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (which he is attending)

RIT

Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering

Harvey Mudd

Cooper Union

Carnegie Mellon

Stevens Institute of Technology

University of Maryland

Ohio State

 

All of these schools have excellent engineering programs, so hopefully this list is helpful has you begin your journey.

 

 

[Hoggirl]

Your son's desires scream Stanford, IMO. Full disclosure - my ds is about to start his junior year there, so I have a bias.

 

Here is the link to undergraduate degrees offered:

 

https://majors.stanford.edu

 

For what you describe, check out:

 

Aeronautics and Astronautics

Applied & Engineering Physics

Management Science & Engineering (ds's major)

Product Design

 

I think Stanford does an outstanding job with its hybrid degrees that combine disciplines. Of course, there are many straight engineering degrees offered as well. Students who obtain undergraduate degrees in engineering often choose to pair that later on with an MBA. I can't speak to the graduate school for engineering aspect, but Stanford does offer what it calls a co-terminal Masters degree in many disciplines which allows for remaining for a fifth year and obtaining a Masters. Not sure of all the areas that offer that. You might also look into the d-school at Stanford. The spirit of entrepreneurship is definitely alive and well there. There are many clubs and organizations (some of which are competitive to get into) that support entrepreneurship. The speakers that come to campus are unbelievable.

 

With all that said, Stanford is the most difficult school to get into in the country with the admit rate dropping below 5% this year. And, it is very expensive though very generous with aid. We did not qualify for any aid and there are no merit scholarships. You are wise to start thinking young. Work on getting standardized tests out of the way earlier rather than later if at all possible. PREP FOR THE PSAT THAT IS GIVEN FALL OF JUNIOR YEAR. Achieving National Merit status opens lots of scholarship opportunities at some schools. Track EC's, awards, community service hours, etc. it will make the application process easier.

 

I would suggest starting with determining at least one (and preferably two) safety schools. These are often your (or other) state flagship universities. A safety is a college that you know your ds can gain admission to, that you can afford, that he would be happy to attend. Run some net price calculators on some schools (Google the school name and the words, "net price calculator") and crunch some numbers. Determine what you are willing and able to contribute toward your ds's education. For I our ds, he had a "pile" of money available. It was enough to cover any undergraduate school in the country, but he could have chosen to attend an undergraduate school that gave him significant merit awards and had money left for grad school (or a down payment on a house or car or anything else within reason). That was how we approached the budget. He chose to spend the whole pile on undergrad, so we will. It be helping with graduate school costs if he chooses to go.

 

Good luck!

[JanetC]

For a high school sophomore, the most important thing is building a solid transcript and college application: Four years of the hardest math and science classes, plus at least one engineering-related extra curricular (math team, robotics, etc.)

 

It is much too soon to have him thinking about whether he wants to work for Boeing or Apple or start his own company. It is time to start thinking about building a college list, and his list of colleges needs to be finished by mid- to late- junior year so that he has the summer to start working on applications. Have him start researching engineering schools and going to college fairs. Be realistic about your final list - Stanford is awesome, but has the lowest acceptance rate of any school. His list needs to be balanced with realistic choices. Many state flagship universities have excellent engineering programs.

 

Not everything he is interested in needs to be a major or minor. There are entrepreneurship clubs and activities, so he wouldn't necessarily have to double-major in business.

 

Finally, educate yourself on how you are going to pay for college - Set a budget for how much you are willing to contribute per year to undergraduate education. The sticker prices on private colleges are pushing 70K per year!

 

If you and your spouse are attorneys, it is likely you will not qualify for financial aid, but you can run the College Board EFC calculator to find out:

 

https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/pay-for-college/paying-your-share/expected-family-contribution-calculator#

 

If there is a gap between the amount the financial aid formulas think you can pay, and the amount you are willing to pay, you need to look for in-state public schools (where the price tags are cheaper) and/or merit aid schools.

 

One way to start learning about merit aid is to read the old blog entries at thecollegesolution.com.

[Gwen in VA]

Webb Institute of Naval Architecture on Long Island.

 

The TINY school is tuition-free. Yup. Really. All you have to pay is room and board. Truly.

 

The school has a 100% placement rate for recent grads.

 

And the school provides an excellent engineering education in addition to the focus on naval architecture and marine engineering, so if your student wants to head to MIT for a S.M. in mechanical engineering once he graduates from Webb, he will be following in the footsteps of other Webbies.

[Gwen in VA]

And do remember to look at SAT-2's. Even if the colleges your son ends up applying to don't require any SAT-2's, having a few scores will make him a stronger candidate for admission and for merit aid.

 

Do consider classes in computer-aided design. CAD classes help students think in 3-D, which is an awesome engineering skill.

 

Also, while robotics and math team are probably the most common engineering-related extracurriculars, engineering experiences do come in all varieties. My son started designing and building kites in his teen years, got into the high-tech kite market, and ended up running a kite-building company for several years. (This involved CAD work, marketing, designing, and interfacing with suppliers and obviously customers.) The college admissions people LOVED this! Ds also worked at a sail loft, which involved working with all sorts of machines and doing 3-D drawings. Again, the college admissions people were really excited by his experience at that job. Parents I knew kept on telling me that his kite obsession was nice and employment was nice but he really should just get on a robotics team. In his college interviews the ad cons were so enthusiastic that I do want to remind people that there are ways of getting engineering and design experience other than robotics!

 

Many engineers graduate with a bachelor's and work for a few years. Getting a master's will most likely end up in higher pay, but it is not a preqrequisite for the job market.

 

Sometimes an employer will want an employee to further his/her education, so when I was in engineering grad school many of the students were being funded through their employer. An option worth considering!

Edited September 16, 2016 by Gwen in VA

[Grantmom]

 

 

The TINY school is tuition-free. Yup. Really. All you have to pay is room and board. Truly.

 

The school has a 100% placement rate for recent grads.

 

And the school provides an excellent engineering education in addition to the focus on naval architecture and marine engineering, so if your student wants to head to MIT for a S.M. in mechanical engineering once he graduates from Webb, he will be following in the footsteps of other Webbies.

 

What is the TINY school?  I am googling with no luck.  Thanks!

 

[Twigs]

Here is a thread from a couple months ago with some good info. Best wishes.

[amy58103]

Here are just some random thoughts I have after reading your post:

 

There’s not much “innovation†in Civil Engineering because most of what we design is heavily regulated by state building codes, department of transportation codes, etc.  However, starting one’s own Civil Engineering firm is not all that difficult/uncommon.  Although, the people that I know that own their own engineering firms do very little actual “engineering,†as most of their time is spent running the business side of things. 

 

Actual “engineering†is really hard to teach in a school setting.  To be a good engineer you have to know the theory (which is taught in school) but you also have to have good “engineering judgement†(which is gained through experience).  Most states require a minimum of 4-years of work experience before you can sit for the Professional Engineer exam and become fully licensed (which is similar to passing the Bar Exam).  So, even if he wants to start his own  company, he should plan on working for someone else for at least that amount of time, and probably a little more.  In Civil Engineering one generally reaches a “Senior Engineer†level after about 8-10 years and this is when people usually go off and start their own companies. 

 

If he hasn’t already done so, I would recommend he take a class in computer science.  This knowledge is useful for almost any area of engineering, and it might spark an interest in computer science itself (which has lots of “innovationâ€).

 

A master’s degree is becoming almost necessary in engineering.  Most engineers take one of two routes.  The “traditional†route is to graduate with a BS, go to work with an engineering firm, and take classes part-time to earn the MS while gaining work experience for the PE.  Most engineering firms cover at least part of the tuition cost, and you are usually making enough money to pay for the rest out-of-pocket.  After 4-years you have your MS, PE, and a huge jump in salary!  The other route is a 5-year BS-MS degree, which more and more colleges are now offering.  I highly recommend this option.  It might cost slightly more upfront, but it will make getting that first job easier and working full-time going to school part-time is hard. 

 

Aerospace Engineering is often seen as a sub-discipline of Mechanical Engineering.  Unless he really, really only wants to work on aerospace projects and nothing else will do, the general recommendation is to get the more general degree in Mechanical Engineering and focus electives around aerospace.  This gives you more flexibility post-graduation, if say the aerospace industry takes a sudden nosedive (no pun intended!). 

 

Engineers with a PhD are rare.  Usually if you have a PhD you either teach or work for a research company.  In civil engineering the salary difference between one with a MS and one with a PhD is often negligible … work experience usually drives salary.  Students in engineering PhD programs are almost always fully funded, tuition is either waived or paid with a grant, and a stipend is earned as a teacher/research assistant or a fellowship grant. 

 

If starting a company is a definite goal, I would highly recommend some sort of business minor … something that covers marketing, accounting, and managing (people and projects). 

 

When it comes to finding a college, I would look for ones that have strong internship programs … just in case you missed it, work experience is really crucial for engineers.  I would also try to attend a college in the area you want to live-in post-college … engineers tend to hire engineers from their alma mater because they know what they are getting.  (This is somewhat nullified if you attend one of the more “famous†engineering schools, ie. MIT, Stanford, etc.)

[Sebastian (a lady)]

I posted this on the chat board, but it was recommended I post this here, so forgive me for the duplicate:

 

So DS15 is a sophomore at our public high school, and he is starting to think about colleges and careers. He is pretty sure he wants to do some kind of engineering – possibly aerospace, maybe mechanical, or civil? He also really loves physics. DH and I are both attorneys by training, so this is a whole new arena for us. I asked DS what he sees himself doing as a major in college, and as a career afterwards, and he said, “I really just want to design and innovate, go to graduate school, and own my own business.†He sees himself doing something tech-related, or inventing something, or designing a new airplane, car, or some other product. So maybe a minor in Entrepreneurship?

 

What colleges, majors, careers, or employers should I have him start looking into? He has always been interested in seeking an appointment to the Naval Academy, but isn’t sure how a graduate degree would fit in with the 5-year service commitment following. His dream would be a masters or Ph.D. from MIT, but I’m not sure if he is _that_ ridiculously smart.

 

How does Engineering graduate school work, exactly? I know the best programs are funded, but virtually nothing beyond that. Does having a graduate degree for Engineering make a difference salary-wise? Is it possible to own your own business, or would he be working for a large corporation like Boeing or Apple? Like I said, my background is in English and Humanities, so this is a whole new world for me!

 

[Disclaimer.  I am a USNA alumna and am still surrounded by the Navy.]

 

Naval Academy grads and officers commissioned through other sources like the Navy ROTC college program have opportunities for grad school both while they are in the Navy and after they serve.  

 

Some go to grad school immediately, before their initial training for their specialty.

 

Some go to the Navy Post-Graduate School in Monterrey CA as a shore duty rotation. 

 

Some attend grad school at a civilian school as a shore duty rotation.  (A good friend of ours did a double MS at MIT under such a program.  He earned a Nuclear Engineering and Computer Science degree, if I remember correctly.)

 

Some attend grad school on their own time, but using tuition assistance (Navy pays for part of the costs, with an additional service commitment).  (DH did this many years ago to earn his MA.)

 

Some go to the Naval War College and earn an MA through their studies there.  (However, the MA is tied to the NWC curriculum, which is pre-set.  No engineering MS through this path.)

 

 

Some go to grad school after getting out of the military.  They often find that grad school is less stressful than their military responsibilities were and that they are more mature and ready to study than they were in undergrad.  On the other hand, many people are also balancing the time demands of a family at this point.  (It used to be that USNA and NROTC scholarship alum were not eligible for GI Bill benefits.  This was changed with the Post 9-11 GI Bill, which is tied to a certain number of years on active duty.)

 

Some are able to start work on a grad degree while hey are still midshipmen.  At USNA, this is through the VGEP program, where students who have completed their BS requirements start at a local university for their MS, and continue immediately after graduation.  There might be an option for this for some NROTC students, but I'm less familiar with that path.  (What I've seen discussed more often is NROTC students receiving permission for extra time on scholarship in order to complete their BS in Engineering.)

 

My personal take is that the time in the military isn't wasted.  Often they are in positions to see engineering applied, through ship's systems or aviation.  They learn a lot about team leadership, time management and the delta between plans on paper and actual execution.  

 

 

 

On the undergraduate degree front, I'm partial to programs in which the student starts as a general engineering student, has exposure to many types of engineering freshman year, and then declares a major.  I've seen enough students who don't know exactly what they are most interested in and enough differences in how colleges define majors and what they teach, that I think a little college exploratory time can be of benefit.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

I'm not familiar with graduate school yet since I just dropped my college freshman of to school 3 weeks ago. But, he is also interested in engineering/computer science so here are some of the schools we looked at:

 

Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (which he is attending)

RIT

Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering

Harvey Mudd

Cooper Union

Carnegie Mellon

Stevens Institute of Technology

University of Maryland

Ohio State

 

All of these schools have excellent engineering programs, so hopefully this list is helpful has you begin your journey.

 

Some other schools that DS applied to:

 

Purdue University

Worcester Polytechnical Institute 

Virginia Tech

(All of these, btw, have NROTC units.  On the above list, Carnegie Mellon, University of Maryland, RIT and I think Ohio State also have NROTC.)

[Sebastian (a lady)]

[Disclaimer.  I am a USNA alumna and am still surrounded by the Navy.]

 

Naval Academy grads and officers commissioned through other sources like the Navy ROTC college program have opportunities for grad school both while they are in the Navy and after they serve.  

 

Some go to grad school immediately, before their initial training for their specialty.

 

Some go to the Navy Post-Graduate School in Monterrey CA as a shore duty rotation. 

 

Some attend grad school at a civilian school as a shore duty rotation.  (A good friend of ours did a double MS at MIT under such a program.  He earned a Nuclear Engineering and Computer Science degree, if I remember correctly.)

 

Some attend grad school on their own time, but using tuition assistance (Navy pays for part of the costs, with an additional service commitment).  (DH did this many years ago to earn his MA.)

 

Some go to the Naval War College and earn an MA through their studies there.  (However, the MA is tied to the NWC curriculum, which is pre-set.  No engineering MS through this path.)

 

 

Some go to grad school after getting out of the military.  They often find that grad school is less stressful than their military responsibilities were and that they are more mature and ready to study than they were in undergrad.  On the other hand, many people are also balancing the time demands of a family at this point.  (It used to be that USNA and NROTC scholarship alum were not eligible for GI Bill benefits.  This was changed with the Post 9-11 GI Bill, which is tied to a certain number of years on active duty.)

 

Some are able to start work on a grad degree while hey are still midshipmen.  At USNA, this is through the VGEP program, where students who have completed their BS requirements start at a local university for their MS, and continue immediately after graduation.  There might be an option for this for some NROTC students, but I'm less familiar with that path.  (What I've seen discussed more often is NROTC students receiving permission for extra time on scholarship in order to complete their BS in Engineering.)

 

My personal take is that the time in the military isn't wasted.  Often they are in positions to see engineering applied, through ship's systems or aviation.  They learn a lot about team leadership, time management and the delta between plans on paper and actual execution.  

 

 

 

On the undergraduate degree front, I'm partial to programs in which the student starts as a general engineering student, has exposure to many types of engineering freshman year, and then declares a major.  I've seen enough students who don't know exactly what they are most interested in and enough differences in how colleges define majors and what they teach, that I think a little college exploratory time can be of benefit.

 

A couple other comments on advanced education and the Navy.

 

To be completely honest, there is always a tug of war between the powers that be who want an exquisitely trained officer corps and the powers that be who want to fully man operational billets right now.  There is also a tug of war between wanting the educated force and needing to pay for it.  (Which isn't unique to the Navy.  It's just that the Navy doesn't pay more to a Captain because he has an MS Engineering or MA in History.  However, the degree might have been a key part of retention and promotion.)

 

This is an example of a recent program to increase the number of officers attending civilian schools for a master's degree.  https://www.navytimes.com/story/military/2015/08/31/top-junior-officers-picked-new-grad-school-program/71314798/

 

However, you don't get into a program like this or a fellowship like our friend used at MIT by wanting it a lot.  You earn it by being really good at what you are already trained for and tasked to do.

 

The up side of doing a grad program through the military is that you are not going to come out the other side with a load of student debt and the need to go find a job.  

 

On the other hand, it can be really draining to balance a degree program and a family.  Maybe not as hard as balancing a family and deployment workups, but still a juggling act.  I have pictures of DH working on his master's thesis with ds1 asleep on a blanket behind him.  Those are the good pictures.  The less photogenic include when he was trying to work while ds was definitely NOT asleep.

[quark]

Webb Institute of Naval Architecture on Long Island.

 

The TINY school is tuition-free. Yup. Really. All you have to pay is room and board. Truly.

 

The school has a 100% placement rate for recent grads.

 

And the school provides an excellent engineering education in addition to the focus on naval architecture and marine engineering, so if your student wants to head to MIT for a S.M. in mechanical engineering once he graduates from Webb, he will be following in the footsteps of other Webbies.

 

 

What is the TINY school?  I am googling with no luck.  Thanks!

 

 

Grantmom, see name of school in bold above!

 

http://www.webb.edu/

[northcoast]

You have gotten good advice so far.  

 

My DH is a professor of Design Engineering Technology.  He has his PhD in Industrial and Systems Engineering from Ohio State.  His path 25 yrs ago was a starting a Bachelor's (Mechanical) straight to masters in Industrial & Systems.  He worked in industry for a few years and got his PE license.  Eventually he returned to get a PhD in order to teach & pursue research at the university level.  Ultimately, he chose  work at small university where he could focus on teaching.  He would say get a strong foundation in math and science in high school.  Calculus is helpful in high school but not required if a good foundation of math skills are there.  Intern or co-op in college to get work experience.  One can be gainfully employed with a Bachelor's degree and do well.  He didn't know what he wanted to do so he went for a masters.  Other thoughts:

 

-Make sure the school is ABET accredited in whatever he will study.

 

-We are not military but I think you got good advice up thread.

 

- There are ways to not pay for grad school.  Seek them out.  For his PhD he was a TA for a couple quarters & then awarded a fellowship for tuition with a stipend.  If I remember correctly, for his masters he was funded on a prof's grant and again it included a stipend which is doable living for a single person.  Or be a TA.  It is work but better than lots of debt imho.

 

-DH discourages people from getting too specialized of engineering degrees like aerospace.  That industry is very cyclical.  DH had job loss in the auto industry but was able to quickly find work because his degrees are more broad.  I like to tell students to follow their heart but the reality is the economy can be very uncertain.  Some degrees are just more marketable.  So if your son just has to do aerospace, make sure he knows there are a lot of down turns and have a plan B.  That plan B could very well be having an MBA.  

 

-Best wishes as you navigate this path with your son!  High school is an exciting time!

[Gwen in VA]

BTW, dd's stipend for her engineering Ph.D. program was large enough that she was putting some money aside in a retirement account! :001_smile:  Grad students do not necessarily starve!

[Nan in Mass]

Some general comments:

 

My engineer husband and relatives discouraged our youngest from getting a more specific engineering degree, like aerospace or biomed. They encouraged him to get a more general one like mechanical.

 

Hands on skills are important. Hobbies or jobs that involve using tools are good ways to develop engineering sense and develop problem solving skills, creativity, and visualization skills. You will be a better design engineer if you have this sort of experience.

 

Learn to draw.

 

CAD experience is good. So is programming experience.

 

Engineers within a company hold different jobs. There are managers, design engineers, patent engineers, test engineers, etc.. Different departments hire engineers - marketing, research, development, manufacturing, etc.. It might be worth looking at the different sorts of jobs engineers hold as well as types of engineering degrees. Some are more hands on. Some involve more people and project management. Some involve mostly paperwork.

 

Engineers who graduate with engineering experience are more likely to be hired. Check out schools with the coop programs. If you aren,t in a coop program, it is important to do internships. Most engineering companies I know of hire summer interns as cheap labour and as a way of trying out someone before offering them a job. Capstone projects are good also.

 

Can undergrads use the equipment and labs? Can they be involved with research? Or are these restricted to grad students?

 

Look at the 4-year graduation rates of engineering schools. This varies widely. So does the male/female ratio.

 

Look at job placement rates after graduation. These also vary.

 

Check out the tutoring center. Engineering students often need extra help. The tutoring center should have lots of hours and lots of tutors. Professors should be available, too. Giant lectures should have recitations.

 

Look at the academic structure. What are the grading policies? Add drop period?

 

ABET certification of an engineering program is important.

 

Polytechnics tend to be geek schools. They can have fantastic equipment and a program designed for geeky students (like extra writing instruction in classes and more get-to-know-you programs during orientation).

 

Universities with an engineering college tend to have more variety of students, classes, and it is possible to switch out of STEM fields without transferring. Usually you have to be accepted to both the university and the engineering school.

 

Some for-profit schools are very easy to get into, not hard freshman year, and then have killer weedout classes sophomore year.

 

Some engineering schools have very little room to study anything but engineering in their requirements and some require quite a lot of liberal arts classes.

 

Nan

[PinkTulip]

So much valuable information here - thank you all so much! I am on my phone, so it is difficult to respond individually, but thanks to each of you for taking the time to respond and share your wisdom. I feel like I have learned a lot, have been given a lot to think about and discuss, and most importantly, have a better understanding of what is involved here and where to start. Thank you!

[Grantmom]

Grantmom, see name of school in bold above!

 

http://www.webb.edu/

 

Okay, sorry, I thought that "the TINY school" was an acronym for something, like some department within that school, or another school.  Was that just a typo then?  Sorry about that.

[Nan in Mass]

Okay, sorry, I thought that "the TINY school" was an acronym for something, like some department within that school, or another school. Was that just a typo then? Sorry about that.

I think Gwen meant tiny as an adjective in front of the noun school and capitalized it to emphasize it. I do the same thing for emphasis on my ipad - I don,t know how to do italics. I understood.

 

The school is INCREDIBLY tiny. I thought my three boys were at small schools but theirs are huge compared to this. : )

 

Very cool school! Well worth checking out!

 

Nan

[livetoread]

Olin College?

[angela in ohio]

Olin College has a focus on innovation and entrepreneurship. It's got Babson next door, too, so business classes are covered. My oldest is more research-minded, but most of her fellow students sound more like your son. Groups of graduates regularly start their own successful businesses.

 

My second was interested in a degree in aerospace engineering and nothing but. Olin wasn't the right place for her (she got in, too, and it was hard to turn that down) because of that. But she is someplace else that might work for your ds: a large university with a strong engineering program AND a great business school. She is required to take at least one course in business and can minor in entrepreneurship. That might work well for him.

 

My aero dd's favorite thing was building her own RC airplane. Also have him look into doing some engineering research with an eye toward trying to get to ISEF. Join some teams if possible, do some job shadowing, do dual enrollment or APs. A lot of the schools people are listing here are really, really hard to get into (including Olin.) He will need some serious grades, scores, and extracurriculars.

Edited September 19, 2016 by angela in ohio

[Gratia271]

I posted this on the chat board, but it was recommended I post this here, so forgive me for the duplicate:

 

So DS15 is a sophomore at our public high school, and he is starting to think about colleges and careers. He is pretty sure he wants to do some kind of engineering – possibly aerospace, maybe mechanical, or civil? He also really loves physics. DH and I are both attorneys by training, so this is a whole new arena for us. I asked DS what he sees himself doing as a major in college, and as a career afterwards, and he said, “I really just want to design and innovate, go to graduate school, and own my own business.†He sees himself doing something tech-related, or inventing something, or designing a new airplane, car, or some other product. So maybe a minor in Entrepreneurship?

 

What colleges, majors, careers, or employers should I have him start looking into? He has always been interested in seeking an appointment to the Naval Academy, but isn’t sure how a graduate degree would fit in with the 5-year service commitment following. His dream would be a masters or Ph.D. from MIT, but I’m not sure if he is _that_ ridiculously smart.

 

How does Engineering graduate school work, exactly? I know the best programs are funded, but virtually nothing beyond that. Does having a graduate degree for Engineering make a difference salary-wise? Is it possible to own your own business, or would he be working for a large corporation like Boeing or Apple? Like I said, my background is in English and Humanities, so this is a whole new world for me!

My oldest son is a freshman and sounds similar to your son in his inclinations.  I am attorney by training, and my husband has degrees in Engineering and Computer Science (entrepreneur/Consultant).  What we have done with our older kids is use a multidisciplinary academic track so that they can pursue both Humanities and STEM in college and grad school. I am confident at least two of our kids will pursue interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary work, as they find "one or the other" limiting. To that end, they take AP level course work across all disciplines, SAT subject tests, etc... along with STEM research at the the university level with preceptors for 2-3 years of high school.  As a freshman, DS is starting to contemplate different schools that offer these types of options, but our focus to date (and that will stay in the foreground for now) has been on making sure his transcript and overall background will promote the likelihood of admissions to whatever program he decides to pursue down the road.