Re: "Starter Villain" by John Scalzi

Lynn McGuire  <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> wrote:

>
When I got into grad school in Mechanical Engineering at TAMU in 1982, I
was the only USA citizen.  The rot has been going on that long.  I
dropped out when I found a job that spring when I got my undergraduate
degree.

That's a different problem.  That's the lack of interested and qualified
American students for engineering programs.  Also... when
I was an undergrad I heard a lot of freshman engineering students talking
about how they had picked their major entirely because they expected to
make big money as engineers.  This is not the way to get good engineering
graduates.

I blame this on a lot of things, not just middle and high school math
programs being pretty terrible, but also on stuff like the disappearance
of shop classes in school.  I deal with a lot of fresh-outs who have an
engineering degree but don't know how to pick the right size screwdriver
for a screw... but worse are the kids who never got interested in mechanical
stuff enough to consider engineering in the first place.

If anything I am pleased at the number of foreign students in engineering
programs, because a lot of them decide to stay in the US and become
well-educated Americans.  But then, I think of engineering as a calling like
the priesthood and not just a fast-money job.  (It's true that I would
probably make a lot more money if I didn't.)
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."