Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

50% of US engineering students drop out - Why?

dondodge.typepad.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 109 posts

Re: 50% of US engineering students drop out - Why?

#41

Post by nradov »

mattmaroon wrote: post #18

It's not useful to compare raw numbers against India and China since their population is larger than ours. Also, what % of total college students drop out? It's got to be near 50 (though maybe less for declared majors).

Furthermore, it's stupid to compare numbers of technical graduates. It's not the numbers that count but the quality.

Has there been any academic research on the average quality of technical graduates in the USA versus India and China? I don't mean just memorization of facts and formulas, but ability to creatively solve real-world problems. Perhaps that's impossible to objectively measure.

Re: 50% of US engineering students drop out - Why?

#42

Post by nradov »

timr wrote: post #3

Because it's far easier for a smart person to get a business degree that pays just as well, if not better? Because a degree in engineering is a fast-track to career marginalization by the frat-boy MBAs who see technical workers as interchangeable cogs? Because engineering virtually guarantees you a minimum of social interaction in college, when your peers are actually enjoying their lives? Because you'll run smack in…

Apparently you've identified a major inefficiency in the labor market. You ought to be able to make a killing by founding a company to compete against those run by frat-boy MBAs and employing the talented engineers your competitors have discarded.

Re: 50% of US engineering students drop out - Why?

#45

Post by nazgulnarsil »

fallentimes wrote: post #44
nazgulnarsil wrote: post #43

I thought it was common knowledge that the only 2 useful B.S. degrees are C.S. (and related) and Finance (and related).

Accounting is more useful than finance. /did both

I slot accounting under finance. but yes. the reason those two B.S.s are useful is that there is ALWAYS work for book keepers and coders. any city, any time. Might not always be good work, but you'll always be in demand.

Re: 50% of US engineering students drop out - Why?

#47

Post by gaius »

blader wrote: post #20
timr wrote: post #3

Because it's far easier for a smart person to get a business degree that pays just as well, if not better? Because a degree in engineering is a fast-track to career marginalization by the frat-boy MBAs who see technical workers as interchangeable cogs? Because engineering virtually guarantees you a minimum of social interaction in college, when your peers are actually enjoying their lives? Because you'll run smack in…

Man, if it's so easy to just go get an MBA and make awesome money, why don't all us engineers just go do it then? The belief there's some kind of massive inefficiency in the market that disproportionally rewards a bunch of frat-boy do-nothings at the expensive of us geeks reeks of a little sour grapes.

Well, no, because everyone's motivations are different. Some people want money and power more than they want to work on interesting technical problems. And that's fine It's the second-order effects that are suboptimal for the latter group, and for the economy as a whole.

If engineers were willing to move into management (that group is who MBA educations were originally intended for) then the problem would self-correct, but too few engineers are.

Re: 50% of US engineering students drop out - Why?

#49

Post by Alex3917 »

donw wrote: post #10
Alex3917 wrote: post #2

Incidentally, the National Science Foundation and the National Council for Teachers of Mathematics describe the Obama's education plan as abysmally bad. Specifically the NSF and NCTM are very much against the AP curriculum, which Obama wants to expand by 50% over the next few years. I think the exact quote is that AP science/math courses represent "the worst kind of pedagogy" or something like that.

Could you provide some links? I googled a bit for some information, and didn't find much, and I'd like to read about this in more detail. It seems odd that either organization would be anti-AP, and Obama's proposed policies would provide more benefits to mathematicians and scientists who decided to teach in high schools...

I'll look it up in a couple hours when I go to the library. Basically my claim comes from Alfie Kohn's book The Schools Our Children Deserve, but I'll try to find the footnote with the primary source document.

Re: 50% of US engineering students drop out - Why?

#50

Post by aswanson »

timr wrote: post #3

Because it's far easier for a smart person to get a business degree that pays just as well, if not better? Because a degree in engineering is a fast-track to career marginalization by the frat-boy MBAs who see technical workers as interchangeable cogs? Because engineering virtually guarantees you a minimum of social interaction in college, when your peers are actually enjoying their lives? Because you'll run smack in…

Should be formed into a bronze plaque and put at the entry of every cs/engineering campus building.

10 years in, I'm near maxed out at what an EE can make in my geographic region. That salary happens to be about 75 percent of what the average law student in my area makes right after graduation.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, majoring in engineering is a BBB (Bad Bayesian Bet) from an economic and even intellectual stimulation point of view.

Post reply on HN