Confessions of an Engineering Washout

Tech Central Station ^ | 9/21/05 | Douglas Kern

[Kenny Bunk]

average lackadaisacal 4-year liberal arts dolt

Ha! You wish today's college "students" could get it done in 4 years! They hang around 5.5- 6, nowadays, studying "The Impact of Film on Albanian Mime," or somesuch foofaraw. Then they graduate and cannot even say "You want fries with that," in a foreign language.

[Robert A Cook PE]

Continuing....

Architect : Did you OVERSIZE THE MECHANICAL AND ELECTRICAL ROOMS?!!

MEP Engineer : You're goddamn right I did!!

Architect: Did you tell the structural engineer YOU OVERSIZED THE MECHANICAL AND ELECTRICAL ROOMS?!!

[blam]

I hired an engineer (turns out to have been my replacement when I retired) that had a 3.9 ave on his BS from Wabash State, a 3.9 ave on his masters from Purdue and a 3.9 ave on his PhD from Berkerley. His PhD was in theoretical chemistry.

I asked him why he never got a 4.0 on anything, he said, professors don't think anyone is perfect.

My son wanted to be an actor...I told him to get a BS in anything and then I would support his desire to act. Well, he has a PhD in physics...he said it was a lot more interesting than acting, lol.

[grey_whiskers]

Imagine if the World allowed slacker engineers. Bridges would collapse, buildings would crumble and airplanes would fall from the sky - routinely, just because the responsible engineer had a bad day and didn't feel like giving it his all.

Of course this theory falls apart when you talk about software. ;)

If builders built buildings the way that programmers write software, then the first woodpecker that came along would destroy civilization.

See also Microsoft.

Cheers!

PS I agree with the original poster, even though I have a PhD and a postdoc in molecular physics.

[jwalsh07]

Some good, the guy who taught me Calculus for three semesters worth 15 credits especially. Some bad, Mr Laplace Transform who couldn't transform those transformer toys. And some ugly, the Philosophy Professor who hated soldiers which I naturally took umbrage at.

To be honest, I was an older student with two kids and highly motivated, the author and I were not exactly of the same mindset.

[SunkenCiv]

Ping!

[vannrox]

Yes. He has a point. Engineering can be simple and enjoyable. But it isn't. It is not worth the while to study Engineering any more. Do not waste your time.

[SteveH]

Study: U.S. Losing Ground in Education


http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Education-Compared.html

Personally I think the root of the problem is found in modern public schools, where teachers who have math phobia pass it along to students, along with inflated self-esteem.

The symptom can be found among students who take science classes and constantly complain that it should not require any math-- students should be required to do math only in math classes.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

A ping for 'the boy'.

[Tares]

Please add me to your Civil Engineers ping list. Thanks.

[dirtboy]

I left a chemical engineering major in shame and disgust to pursue the softer pleasures of a liberal arts education

I started out in engineering. Was as out of water as a liberal in a gun shop. All that beer didn't help, either.

Ended up switching to Geology. A science where an acceptable error margin is plus or minus 20 million years was more up my alley.

[RightWhale]

You cannot generally go from highschool math and science to college engineering, math, or science unless you have been studying math, science, and engineering on your own and making significant progress while taking the trivial highschool classes and doing their trivial homework. Especially math. Be already good at calculus when you start college.