I can pretty much echo that unless he is sure of what he wants to do, then do not narrow down so much (ie. tech school).
My cousin Jason is a computer whiz and really liked high school drama; he really had a passion for Shakespeare and literature. He was always a sensitive kind of person. He went to CalTech and, though he is doing very well now with a family and working at AT&T, he seems more quiet or reserved, like somehow he didn't quite take the right path to fulfill all his passions. I think college beat him up a bit and he just hasn't totally bounced back to his "high-school self". For better or for worse...
In high school I did well, but I had no clue what I wanted to do in college. I think EVERY subject is interesting in some respect, and it was a real challenge to narrow down my focus. I loved playing with Porsche engines, mechanical things and math/physics and chemistry, but I also really loved English Literature books and poetry (had phenomenal high school English teachers), U.S. History, Economics and Psychology. I picked Berkeley because it was a great school that offered a wide variety of choices, not to mention it was like half the cost of any private university (was considering Brown).
I entered as a UCB Mechanical Engineering student, and I had no clue what I was doing the first year. I should have taken some time off. I got my a$$ handed to me by Math 1B (2nd semester Calculus) and had to retake it. It was the hardest math class I had ever taken, way harder than I thought Calc. was in high school. The subsequent Multi-variable Calc and Differential/Linear Algrebra classes went well enough, but then I started doing Computer Science (there is a BA program here) and that is when I decided I no longer wanted to do hardcore Physics and go through with M.Engineering...at least in undergrad. I found my tech classes compared to my inspiring high school experience one-dimensional. I felt like I was constantly trying to be weeded out of the program, and I had no life aside from Engineering classes (Thermodynamics and Heat Transfer were other fun ones) and the occasional breadth requirement... meanwhile I had friends taking great classes about Music and listening to great lecturers speak, and getting straight A's doing it...
I ended up having to deal with transferring out of the BS ME program to the BA (Letters and Sciences) school, which was a pain in the ass with my less than 3.0 GPA, where I would eventually end up in Cognitive Computational Models and Neuroscience and taking lots of classes in Statistics (Probabilistic Computer Models in Dynamical Systems). Best choice I made yet. It broadened my perspective and I am doing really well nowadays. I have taken some history classes, read some Kafka, taken some phenomenal Neurochemistry classes in the Bio department, a class in the Music department about building touch-screen instruments that are easy to learn on and still hard enough that someone would want to master them. Next semester I am finishing a minor in Industrial Engineering about integrating Entrepreneurship & Technology. Most of these things I could not have done easily if I was locked into a BS program in Engineering...
I took last semester off to work a medical internship in Vietnam, travel through Thailand, read The Economist, work part-time at the library and go part-time to a junior college. I also took a phenomenal class taught by a MSME from Cal in SolidWorks CAD and met a guy at the JC who builds bicycles. I always thought I had to bust through here in 4 years--or else--but that is so not the case. Encourage your kid to at least take a semester off here or there if he even questions the need to re-evaluate what he is doing. I wish someone had encouraged me to take time off; I had to find out the hard way and then felt like a slacker doing it.
Most of my friends continued on with Engineering, some with high-paying jobs and whatnot. But I have plenty of other brilliant friends studying Public Policy, Social Welfare, and Political Science and I never pass up an opportunity to have a conversation or travel with them.
I am not sure how narrow MIT focuses you, but my experience would be, keep your kid's options open unless he REALLY knows what he wants to do. My friends from high school that are still doing Engineering (a girl here at Berk. doing M.E. and a guy doing E.E. at MIT) were talking to me about engineering when we were juniors in H.S. We all have our paths... and in all honesty I may go back one day and do the rest of an Engineering program. I'm just 21 and have little experience out there in the world which is what I feel I need next to decide where to go with myself.
Good luck to you and your son! I am sure he will find his place.
