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While I agree with this part of your post, I don’t see how it is at odds with my statement that “engineering programs that retains a higher percentage of their freshman engineering students is doing something correctly”.</p>
<p>Schools that match their admissions standards to their “weaker” curriculum are not necessarily doing something incorrectly. Their courses must still meet the ABET standard and the reputation of the school/program (and value of the diploma) will be addressed by the hiring decisions of future employers.</p>
<p>Schools that recruit and admit a “higher average quality of student” are again doing something correctly. They are bringing in students that can handle the difficulty of their classes.</p>
<p>I can’t imagine how a school that offers “a lot of help” so that their students are successful could be doing something incorrectly. College / engineering programs are supposed to be about educating not abusing or “weeding out”. We are not talking about training fighter pilots or Navy Seals that have to operate under some seriously tough conditions, we are talking about engineers that need to be able to think and usually work in teams. How to find answers. </p>
<p>I don’t know where the idea came from that “it isn’t a college’s job to hold the hands of it’s students”. It is a college’s job to educate. How they do that (including how much support or hand holding) is up to the college and how much students/parents are willing to pay. What is important is that at the end of the process (graduation) the student has mastered the knowledge necessary to perform the job. </p>
<p>The “character” development issues are not something colleges should be (IMHO) involved in and are an area they are even more poorly suited for than “hand holding”.</p>