The secret of technical writing success?

[Wanda Hill]

"Her son is 17 and looking at colleges and majors and so on, and the other 
day, he said to a friend of his that he wished he could find something to 
do that where he could combine his interest in science with writing."

Have him look into double-degreeing. For a snippet of my own experience, I 
had gone to ACC for the Tech Comm degree. About halfway through, I decided 
I'd need to acquire a bachelor's degree to compete w/other tech writers, so 
made plans for transferring to UT. As I needed to pick a minor, I thought 
that psy would complement the English degree. (UT does not have a tech comm 
degree, but UT is known and well regarded worldwide.) Turns out that the 
number of classes required for a minor is half a major. Took the plunge and 
finishe up with both degrees; the extra time it took for minor vs. major 
was one summer of four classes.

Karen, your nephew should consider other aspects of the big 
picture--lifelong career passion, which school to attend to get the 
education, financial logistics, what companies he might later want to 
explore that match his talents and passion, locale for quality of life, and 
proximity to things and people important to him. He might also consider 
that whatever career path he chooses, to be aware of and be able to adapt 
to external forces that could redefine or obliterate his career position in 
the future.

Wanda