suggestion for changes in engineering education

aibarr
Mon, 22 Dec 2008 10:53:00 +0000

I hate the idea of more school.



The problem is, engineers really need it. It was a staggering realization for me when it finally clicked that I was graduating with my bachelors and didn’t really know anything. So, I went to grad school, figuring that I’d know enough when I left there to feel a little more competent… And when I graduated with my masters, I STILL didn’t feel like I knew anything, but I’d become more comfortable with that fact. Nobody knows anything when they graduate. Unfortunately, we need to know a lot more. I really wish I had about two more years’ worth of school left ahead of me, because there’s a lot more I wish I knew about that I’m just flat-out not going to pick up in industry.



That would mean going to a top school could cost 250k



Ay, there’s the rub. Maybe we’d get paid more like doctors if there were fewer of us willing to actually go through the degree programs. It kind of bothers me that engineering is the “easy route to decent money”… It cheapens the profession somewhat.

The problem is that the amount of information that engineers need to know in order to do their jobs well is expanding at an exponential rate, and we’re still cramming all that information into four years’ worth of school. It’s just not enough anymore. Something’s gotta give, and speaking as someone who’s gonna have a hand in hiring and training the engineers of tomorrow, I’d rather it not be the quality of the education.