When did you decide to study STEM major in university? Tips for my daughter?

[Pdxwayne]

A few more thoughts on university life in general that might've helped me had I thought of them at the time:

I should've more actively dropped certain classes when it was clear from the first week that I was struggling: It may have been my fault, it may have been the prof's, or maybe it was just the combo that wasn't working, but blaming myself and trying to succeed by sheer act of will and determination was not a winning plan. Everyone sucks at something!

On the other hand, when class information just seemed to stick, and the As came without herculean effort, I shouldn't have been so quick to dismiss my success being due to the class being an easy "A": Maybe I had an aptitude for the subject and should have taken it more seriously.

A weakness of schools in general is that they can't teach you to be the person who employs all those brilliant, hardworking engineers and scientists! Some of the USA's most successful people seem to have realized this limitation, and gotten educated up to a point, then dropped out to pursue their vision. No one will remember Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg or Jack Dorsey for their college GPAs.

Thanks for sharing!

 

[Wes]

re: specialists - I will simply say what I did as a scientist. I specialized in one area and then in another which I could link together. Finally, I had 3 areas which I was able to relate to each other.

 

[Wes]

Unfortunately, "getting good grades" is a skill that is all but useless once you're out of school. Also unfortunately, it is essential in order to get accepted to a good university.

It is a bit worrisome. A person needs to be able to generate their goals internally, not by having an external goal. Not that if your daughter fits this she cannot have a happy and sound career. Or she may widen her perspectives in grad. school.

The worry is that a large number of top-notch Harvard undergrads. entered my field and simply could not hack it as grad. students. They could not find interesting problems to study/solve on their own. Instead, they were just xlnt. at studying things that were laid out for them by others. None became good scientists. Nothing bad about Harvard, as a bit later there was a whole slew of them who did great in grad. school and as faculty.

Also, a lot of the above discussion differs depending on whether one goes into a university faculty position (pure research) or into industry (applied research or R&D).

 

[Wes]

Idea: Get a copy of the video series "Halt and Catch Fire" and watch it with her. See how she reacts.

It goes into the culture of technology, and social relationships, in the US from PC clones on up thru the internet daze.

I will also add then when I read a biography of Bill gates and how they slept in the lab overnight, and wouldn't stop working on something to sleep (until they burned and crashed) I was amazed at how similar it was to graduate school for me and my ilk.

 

[Pdxwayne]

Idea: Get a copy of the video series "Halt and Catch Fire" and watch it with her. See how she reacts.

It goes into the culture of technology, and social relationships, in the US from PC clones on up thru the internet daze.

I will also add then when I read a biography of Bill gates and how they slept in the lab overnight, and wouldn't stop working on something to sleep (until they burned and crashed) I was amazed at how similar it was to graduate school for me and my ilk.

Thanks! Will put "Halt and Catch Fire" in our to-watch list for summer.

 

[mansr]

It strikes me that a lot of the discussion here assumes either of two goals:
- Getting into a graduate programme and possibly a career in academia.
- Making as much money as possible in the private sector.

I'd like to point out that with an education in science or engineering, there are many possibilities to earn a good living (well above average pay) doing interesting things and _not_ work 80h weeks in a cube farm. Personally, I prefer to retain my sanity over earning those last few dollars.

As for choice of school, nobody has ever asked to see my credentials. If it matters at all, it's mainly for the first job. After that, experience becomes much more important.

 

[mansr]

wouldn't stop working on something to sleep (until they burned and crashed)

Been there, done that, wouldn't recommend it. It almost certainly won't make you rich. The billionaires we all know were above all supremely lucky.

 

[Mariner9]

@Pdxwayne - if your daughter eventually decides she wants to work in a STEM field but hasn't done a STEM undergrad, it would likely still be possible for her to do a conversion course then a STEM Masters.

 

[Pdxwayne]

@Pdxwayne - if your daughter eventually decides she wants to work in a STEM field but hasn't done a STEM undergrad, it would likely still be possible for her to do a conversion course then a STEM Masters.

Thanks for the tip!

 

[Wicky]

Went to art school for a year until I figured out I would need to ruthlessly pursue the sales and marketing of self promotion to feed myself - it wasn't what I signed up for, but what did I know I was 18!

Ended up with a bachelors in geophysics and am now in software engineering.

For what its worth though I would recommend a balanced education as I think over specialising in STEM when too young might narrow ones horizons.

 

[Pdxwayne]

Went to art school for a year until I figured out I would need to ruthlessly pursue the sales and marketing of self promotion to feed myself - it wasn't what I signed up for, but what did I know I was 18!

Ended up with a bachelors in geophysics and am now in software engineering.

For what its worth though I would recommend a balanced education as I think over specialising in STEM when too young might narrow ones horizons.

Thanks for sharing!

 

[Wicky]

I also think the pace of change is so rapid now that making the 'wrong' choice early in your life w/repect to career is not so much a thing now... unless in certain traditional/specialist professions (law medicine) of course. Might be overly influenced by my particular field but I think this is also a wider trend

 

[Mariner9]

If she does decide to do an undergrad in STEM, I recommend learning how to code, at least in something like Python or R (probably the former) but perhaps also in a high level language (e.g. C#, Java, C++). My experience of STEM education (stats, in my case) was, to my surprise, that there was very little emphasis on coding.

 

[Pdxwayne]

If she does decide to do an undergrad in STEM, I recommend learning how to code, at least in something like Python or R (probably the former) but perhaps also in a high level language (e.g. C#, Java, C++). My experience of STEM education (stats, in my case) was, to my surprise, that there was very little emphasis on coding.

Thanks for the tips! Last summer, she took some introductory online courses including Python. She understood the concepts fine. So it would seem she will do OK with Computer science major.

 

[q3cpma]

Thanks for the tips! Last summer, she took some introductory online courses including Python. She understood the concepts fine. So it would seem she will do OK with Computer science major.

Well, yes and no. Python is a fine language for scientists (which computer scientists are), not that much for programmers (which computer scientists should be if they don't want to stay out of touch in their ivory tower while claiming that linked lists > arrays or that garbage collection should be in every language).
This is again the duality between those who want easy and useful tools and those who like to tinker and explore powerful and strange lands (langs, in this case).

If she does decide to do an undergrad in STEM, I recommend learning how to code, at least in something like Python or R (probably the former) but perhaps also in a high level language (e.g. C#, Java, C++). My experience of STEM education (stats, in my case) was, to my surprise, that there was very little emphasis on coding.

These are all quite high level, unless you take the C "subset" of C++.

 

[Pdxwayne]

Well, yes and no. Python is a fine language for scientists (which computer scientists are), not that much for programmers (which computer scientists should be if they don't want to stay out of touch in their ivory tower while claiming that linked lists > arrays or that garbage collection should be in every language).
This is again the duality between those who want easy and useful tools and those who like to tinker and explore powerful and strange lands (langs, in this case).


These are all quite high level, unless you take the C "subset" of C++.

Thanks for the input.

Yeah, just Python is not enough. It was just for her to check if she can get the basic concepts of programming language.

She is so well rounded (equally good with language and math) that it seems she can handle any major. Next step is to find her passion.....