Posted: 3/18/2016 9:29:09 PM EDT
| Does anyone have any real experience with sending their kids to a STEM school?. Checked one out today. |
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I went to a 'non-stem' school (Villanova) as a Mech E. My opinion is that it depends on what your kid wants, and who they are.
I'm somewhat typical 'STEM'...I don't always relate to 'normal' people. I'm more comfortable talking details of my research than smalltalk. But attending a 'non-stem' school forced me to interact with 'normal' people, which I think has helped me immensely. However, I do feel that, initially, my career was a little stunted. It took serious effort on my part to get into a career track which really challenged me, and that I enjoy. Of course, I think I was able to get into my current career track through networking and people skills...things I probably learned by interacting with 'normal' people. In the end, I don't think it matters much where you go to school (at least for undergrad), what matters is what you do while you're there. I was an athlete, which limited my ability to do more useful activities (I tried to work with the Formula SAE team, but they met the same time as swim practice, so I couldn't seriously participate). That first job interview out of school isn't really going to care about your senior project; everyone has one. They're going to care about what you did that others didn't. |
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A STEM school as in a magnet program for the smart kids in your local school district?
The education can be great, the problem (at least for my area) is that the magnet programs are put at the schools with the worst test results in order to prop up the school since the test scores are reported based on the campus, not the program you're attending. So, your kid would be in AP calc, physics, chem, etc, with other smart kids, and then sharing bathrooms, lunch rooms, gym class, etc, with the general population. Kharn |