Technology Management Career Paths

[Mr. Bloom]

I should have said a science/math discipline

While I don't know what's in vogue these days among recruiters, in my mind, math is great - particularly if it allows him to have a broader curriculum...it also opens the route to actuarial science - which may be another route to pursue.

I'm in banking...do the best bankers have Corporate Finance degrees? Nope, they were engineers...

[Triskeliongirl]

Once again, thanks for all the advice. It was very helpful. At this point, he planned a curriculum for the spring semester that still buys him another semester to decide by taking a bunch of math courses he needs for both options. He will also do either a summer internship or UROP (on campus research), and talk to frat alum and recruiters over the next semester to help him choose between the following two options for how he wants to spend his undergraduate years:

1. B.S. in Mathematics with Computer Science and B.S. in Management Science (double major).

or

2. B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

[Triskeliongirl]

I should add one thing that this thread got him thinking about is the math with computer science major. Before he was only thinking about the applied math major, and he thought to get computer science training he needed to do the electrical engineering and computer science major, but the math with computer science option was buried deep within the math depts. webpages.

The managerial science curriculum is so math intensive its relatively easy to double it with a math major. The math with computer science major is just a more structured version of the applied math major. But, the electrical engineering and computer science major has so many requirements its hard to combine it even with a minor in managerial sciences.

I am glad now that both options he is considering are technical. Yes, its his life but its our money. He turned down a lot of scholarships, even to Harvard, because it was important to him to study at a technical institute, so I do feel he should follow through and get that technical training he wanted for so many years. MIT had been his dream school for so long, so much of what he achieved in high school was targeted at getting into MIT. But now that he is there its funny how he has become less interested in engineering. As a boy, his floor would be covered with circuit boards, always building stuff, even built a beowulf supercomputer that we are now using in our labs to solve protein structures with. I think what happened is that as he matured he found that he really likes and is good at working with people, and he is at a point in his life where relationships are very important. But at this point I think its all good, whichever path he chooses will take him to good places, so again thanks for all your comments!

[Mr. Bloom]

As a boy, his floor would be covered with circuit boards, always building stuff,

Hmmm, me too! Wonder where I went wrong