Community college may help bright teen get on track

Question: My son is a high school senior at a top-rated public high school in California. His GPA is slightly above 2.0, but his SAT scores are in the 90th percentile. He has high grades in subjects such as physics and robotics, and he took second place in a state science competition. He's also writing a software program for a local university and completed a paid internship working with engineering grad students.

Because of his low grades, he's resigned to attending a community college, where he'll try to raise his GPA and later apply to transfer to an engineering program. He'd like to be an electrical engineer. My concern is that he'll be bored at a community college and not keep his grades up. Do you have any suggestions for bright kids with low GPAs?

Answer: Your son sounds enterprising and talented, both of which are great qualities. Unfortunately, electrical engineering is a very demanding program, and any college — technical or otherwise — would need evidence that he has a track record of consistently high performance in key math and science courses. Engineering programs are among the most selective and competitive in the nation. In addition to certain math and science courses, engineering students are required by many programs to take some humanities courses.

So, while your son may be very bright and have top grades in science, he'll also need to be able to think and write in other subjects as well. At top engineering schools, admitted students have average GPAs near or above 4.0. Some of the state or technical colleges will admit students to their engineering programs with slightly lower GPAs, but even with his awards, experience and high scores, I doubt that he'd be admitted to an engineering school as a freshman with a 2.0 GPA.

I think he will have to prove himself at a community college. But all is not lost. I'm a huge proponent of community colleges and find that students can really blossom there. There are some very bright kids at community colleges — students like your son who perhaps didn't fit the mold of a traditional student in high school but who are curious and motivated toward a goal, such as engineering.

Your son might be able to focus on his studies at a community college and be more engaged and stimulated than he was in high school. Many community colleges have pre-engineering programs, and most of those courses are in math, science or engineering, which should be challenging enough to prevent the boredom your son experienced in high school. He may be motivated enough to perform well even in the subjects that don't interest him as much as, for example, robotics.