<p>Do you stay current or rely on old knowledge?</p>
<p>B-Schooler,
Believe it or not, but my path is very similar to yours. I have been in engineering and never liked it. After 11 years of experience, switched to CS (CC, jobs, BS, MBA) and am very happy that I did.<br>
I am also very familiar with pre-college and college education in the USA and abroad. While college education in the US is superior, k-12 is lacking big time. It does not prepare kids to enter engineering field of study at all, not even close. I disagree that “If our country is serious about promoting careers in engineering, we need to take a long hard look at how we fund public education”. Other countries do not spend anywhere close to what is spent on each kid’s education in the USA. However, they do prepare kids for any career of their choice, including engineering. Yes, even those who do not have any desire to become engineers, are still very well prepared in math and scineces in k - 12 and most spend only 10 years in school instead of 13, starting at 7, not at 5, no testing on entry, no reading requirement, which also proves that “head start” is useless. All you need is the right program of study and the people who can teach. The kid entering second grade in these programs knows great deal more after being in school for 1 year (including a bit introduction to idea of algebra), then the 7 years old who is going to second grade after kindergarten and first grade in the US. Also, there are much more money spent in second example with inferior reasults. Kids are loaded with busy work that leads nowhere and very little attention given to developing of critical thinking.</p>
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<p>There isn’t a difference in the work that I do.</p>
<p>Here’s a piece of code that I worked on a few years ago. Just standard C++ code. You don’t need to know fancy tools, new languages, etc. This code is used by Firefox to process images - hundreds of millions of people use it daily. We hire people that know C and Unix and the specialty area that we are in. We train them in our environment which takes six months to a year. The environment is a lot more sophisticated than your typical latest and greatest development tool.</p>
<p>There are armies of software engineers that use tools built in the 1980s and 1990s.</p>
<p>[mozilla-central</a> mozilla/image/decoders/nsJPEGDecoder.cpp](<a href=“http://mxr.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/source/image/decoders/nsJPEGDecoder.cpp]mozilla-central”>http://mxr.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/source/image/decoders/nsJPEGDecoder.cpp)</p>
<p>Is that why C++ is being taught? It’s considered pretty standard and something engineers should know? Just curious because son had an Engineering Problem Solving with C++ class last year.</p>
<p>“Is that why C++ is being taught?”</p>
<p>No, it’s because no one likes LISP …</p>
<p>Then if I understand there is not a need in your particular field, BC, to learn the newest latest stuff. Granted “stuff” can mean code, software, hardware, etc. Its gobbledygook to me, but all I know is my DH is constantly reading up on new stuff, taking new certification exams, etc.</p>
<p>I hadn’t heard of LISP- looked it up and learn something new every day. Had heard of Fortran. I know next to nothing about computers and programming. The only time I really had to use a computer was in the late 70’s in graduate school for a research class. I vaguely remember some huge machine and having to key punch or something and load cards into it. We’ve come a long way since those days!</p>
<p>It’s something that software engineers should definitely know. I think that engineers (non software) need to know how to program in a 3GL but it doesn’t have to be C++. A friend’s son is studying EE at Boston University and he had to take a course in Java which turned out to be very challenging for him.</p>
<p>The modern incarnation of LISP is Scheme and it is commonly taught in university CS programs.</p>
<p>Scheme existed in the 1980s and is used in this common introductory computer science book:</p>
<p>[Structure</a> and Interpretation of Computer Programs](<a href=“http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/full-text/book/book.html]Structure”>http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/full-text/book/book.html)</p>
<p>“The modern incarnation of LISP is Scheme and it is commonly taught in university CS programs.”</p>
<p>I think BCEagle means SELF-taught, unless things have changed markedly since my time. Almost every CS class required a different programming language (though C++ was specified for three or four). You couldn’t take a language class for credit … because there weren’t any.</p>
<p>Son had to use C, C++, Scheme and Java in his major computing sequence.</p>
<p>What makes things entertaining in the real world - especially IT - is that languages are irrelevant by themselves. There’s all kinds of ‘frameworks’ with hip names like Ruby on Rails, Something that has to do with Springs, and the like. Super-fragmentation that ensures the search for the ‘right’ candidate will be a lengthy one (hence, let’s outsource to some dude in Elbonia who just happens to know all that and we know it because he told us in his Hotmail message…)</p>
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<p>This is completely wrong. Board scores are inversely correlated with medical malpractice, and that correlation is very tight.</p>
<p>People leave engineering for 2 main reasons:
- The intro math and science classes are too tough for them or they are unprepared.</p>
<p>or</p>
<p>2) They love math and science and were coerced into engineering because it was practical; once they get to the real engineering classes, they find out they don’t like them.</p>
<p>I’m not a doctor and honestly don’t know that much about it. But aren’t board scores and MCAT scores different test scores?</p>
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<p>MCAT - Standardized test to get into med school</p>
<p>Board scores - Test one takes after Med school to determine internship/residency and specialization opportunities. Low scores means one is consigned to less prestigious/less lucrative internship/residencies and specialization areas (i.e. Primary care). </p>
<p>Not a medical doctor, either…but lived with 3 for some years and have several friends who are now MDs.</p>
<p>Board scores in the medical school context generally refer to the tests that med students take after their second year of medical school, but I was generalizing it to refer to standardized tests including both MCATs and the exams after the 2nd year. I’m sure both MCATs and board scores are inversely proportional to medical malpractice.</p>
<p>Engineers have to take exams if they want to be licensed as a P.E. Civil, mechanical,structural,etc. I wonder how these exams relate to competency and malpractice.</p>
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I have one of these (EE PE) but large numbers of engineers do not. In fact, I just got it seven years ago and worked for 20 years without one.</p>
<p>Most civil engineers probably have these licenses. I suspect licensed engineers may be more careful because they have to put their stamp on their work, in effect taking responsibility for that work. I don’t know.</p>
<p>THe current exam is fairly rudimentary IMO. They stress that it is a test of “minimum competence” to practice engineering. You also need work experience, education, and recommendations. I’m not sure if they actually store score information for all examinees anywhere. Most states (with a couple exceptions) only give “Pass or Fail” results.</p>
<p>But, I will add that although I know statsitics are stiatistics, I can’t see how the current MCAT predicts anything specific about medical knowledge or ability. Ability to learn medicine, sure, I’ll grant that (given I don’t know anything about medicine or medical school). </p>
<p>I went to the AAMC site and took their free practice MCAT.I’m assuming the free sample is somewhat representative of actual exam content. You need a certain level of general knowledge about biological and physical sciences, and a certain verbal skill to do well. Plus a good general intelligence level (or at least skill in MC exams). But I don’t think you really need to know anything about medicine per se.</p>