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That is exactly what the report is stating, that the more technical courses one takes, the better they will do. The curriculum has changed very little, if any, since your time. History majors continue to take a technical core curriculum. However, they have not taken technical courses commensurate with their engineering classmates and, thusly, do not do as well at nuclear power school. Also, a proportionate number will fall below the pass/fail cutoff and will not be able to graduate in order to validate your theory that grades don’t matter that much past graduation. </p>
<p>Also, your seatmate may not have informed you but his dreaded ‘wires’ courses as with many of his other engineering courses were not as rigorous as those of his engineering-major classmates.</p>