What % of your classmates changed majors away from engineering?

[Mr_Payne]

<p>

As a case in point, consider the recent history of China and (especially) India. These countries aren’t really producing that many more engineers (as a % of their population) than they were 30 years ago.

Source, please.</p>

<p>

Well, I would actually argue that political/economic reforms are the true quickest way to national wealth. The Soviet Union/Russia, for example, had plenty of technical innovation, graduating immense numbers of engineers per year, and being the first nation to send a man in space and the 2nd nation to develop nuclear weapons. Yet that didn’t save its economy from stagnation and its people from poverty.

Well, if we are gonna get nitpicky then I could simply mention that intellect is more important than technical innovation or political/economic reforms in terms of economic growth. Please, when I’m referencing OECD economies it’s pretty obvious what I meant. I’ll take it that you agree with me that technical innovation is very important to growing our economy.</p>

[ee_stu]

<p>

In the US, that’s not the case. Engineers are seen as ‘geeks’ and ‘nerds’. You receive very little social prestige by saying that you’re an engineer. That’s why a lot of Americans don’t really want to do it.

</p>

<p>LOL. I can attest that EEs ARE nerds and geeks. It seems there are more lively personalities in mechE, civE, chemE, and environmental E.</p>

[RacinReaver]

<p>

The real goal is to create a better situation for the median citizen. Not create a better situation for engineers. More engineers means more innovation. A simple look at patent production makes this exceedingly clear.

</p>

<p>I’d think we’d be better off if the “superstar” engineers from schools such as MIT, Berkeley, Stanford, Cornell, and so on were to stick with engineering instead of fleeing to ibanking and finance.</p>

[ratroll]

<p>According to Berkeley’s career center, the vast majority of graduates did stick with engineering… something like 2 went into IBanking… its the most over hyped, over exaggerated career on CC…</p>

[sakky]

<p>

According to Berkeley’s career center, the vast majority of graduates did stick with engineering… something like 2 went into IBanking.

</p>

<p>But the real question is, how many actually got Ibanking offers and decided to stay with engineering anyway? I imagine, not many.</p>

[RacinReaver]

<p>And another real question is how many actually wanted IBanking offers that were interested in getting one.</p>

[ratroll]

<p>A real, real question, is how many of those students knew what IBanking was, what it involved, how to get into the field, etc? I am not joking. Look, I’m not ragging on the career (its awesome… if you can break into it), but outside of CC, people working in finance, and Ivy-league students, very few people know what IBanking is – including engineering students in highly ranked state universities. The vast majority of them probably thought that landing a job with Google, Apple, or Microsoft is the ultimate first job. Mentioning Goldman Sachs would get a blank stare from the 22 year olds. Tell people you want to be an investment banker and most people will think of a personal banker sitting behind a table at their neighborhood WaMu.</p>

[sakky]

<p>

A real, real question, is how many of those students knew what IBanking was, what it involved, how to get into the field, etc? I am not joking. Look, I’m not ragging on the career (its awesome… if you can break into it), but outside of CC, people working in finance, and Ivy-league students, very few people know what IBanking is – including engineering students in highly ranked state universities. The vast majority of them probably thought that landing a job with Google, Apple, or Microsoft is the ultimate first job. Mentioning Goldman Sachs would get a blank stare from the 22 year olds. Tell people you want to be an investment banker and most people will think of a personal banker sitting behind a table at their neighborhood WaMu.

</p>

<p>Yeah, sure, I agree. But that doesn’t take away from the central point that for those in the know, Ibanking is a highly desired job. </p>

<p>Besides, I’ll make the point you made even more general. Outside of CC, how many people can even name 5 or 10 top schools? After Harvard, Yale, and maybe Princeton (and even the last one is questionable), most regular people really start to struggle, and start naming local schools or schools with major sports programs. For example, especially on the East Coast, I continue to find hordes of people who have never heard of Stanford or Berkeley, except perhaps in the context of sports. I knew a girl who graduated from MIT and took a job at Harley-Davidson (in Milwaukee), and she continually runs into coworkers who think that MIT stands for the “Milwaukee Institute of Technology”. Then of course you have the University of Pennsylvania and University of Chicago which have practically zero name-brand recognition among regular people, and who are almost always mistaken for just being regular public schools. Plenty of regular people hear UPenn and they start thinking of Joe Paterno and football. </p>

<p>Hence, I think it is entirely appropriate to look at the CC crowd when it comes to judging careers. After all, the CC crowd actually knows and cares about higher education in a way that regular Americans do not.</p>

[rkbgt]

<p>What exactly is investment banking? Do they have it at UMich? I saw this chart for engineering internships at UMich and financial engineering made over $6k per month whereas the rest like mechanical and chemical made 3 to 4. Is IBanking financial engineering?</p>

[chaospaladin]

<p>At UCSB for Ch E, for those who declare the Ch E major,</p>

<p>20% drops out, 40% changes major, 40% graduates with a B.S.</p>

[BCEagle91]

<p>"However, engineering is one of the few professions where <em>more</em> jobs are created by producing more of them.</p>

<p>It takes a critical mass of research and expertise to build a region of engineering expertise which becomes the place where people want to work in the area because that is where everyone works in that area. A huge problem is if there aren’t enough graduates available to feed the demand. If it gets too hard to recruit in the area, then the center of expertise can migrate, potentially offshore.</p>