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The term engineer has undergone serious deflation over the years So, do railway engineers (as they are known in the USA and Canada) take the oath and wear the

The term engineer has undergone serious deflation over the years So, do railway engineers (as they are known in the USA and Canada) take the oath and wear the little ring? Or did that "serious deflation" you refer to start sometime around the birth of the railroad? ;) I think the culprit here is not deflation of the language -- the language has always been ambiguous -- but rather inflation of the scope of engineering education. It's not just for P.E.s anymore. If you believe the term engineer should be restricted to P.E.s you should start by explaining that to every academic engineering department I've ever seen, all of which are happy to hand out "engineering degrees" to graduating "engineering students" who tend to be called "engineers" for short, whether or not they go on to get a P.E. (which, as you point out, is a lot more effort and a rather impressive accomplishment). I literally had a Ph.D. in EE before I even heard the term "Professional Engineer". [1] Not because my school was training people to practice without a license, but because they're training people in skills -- like my old field, semiconductor laser engineering -- that don't require P.E. certification. Of every EE Ph.D. I know, I know of exactly one who actually got a P.E. certification. And, only slightly off the subject, need I point out that quite a few Ph.Ds have "Doctor" as part of their name? It's quite common in many countries, including the USA. I don't do this, because I don't work in academia, and outside the academy one tends to get confused with an M.D., but according to this fun article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_(title) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_(title) you are required to use your academic title in certain legal situations in Austria, and German Ph.D.s tend to use the title all of the time. --- [1] Because my undergraduate degree was in physics. I presume that if I'd studied undergrad EE someone would have mentioned along the way that my B.S. wouldn't actually qualify me to design a commercially-available table lamp without adult supervision.

nitrogen 17y ago
[1] Because my undergraduate degree was in physics. I presume that if I'd studied undergrad EE someone would have mentioned along the way that my B.S. wouldn't actually qualify me to design a commercially-available table lamp without adult supervision. Some schools are probably better, but I left my university after learning from graduated students that the dream course I was looking forward to, where all of the requirements would make sense and I would finally be told what I can do with my newfound knowledge, didn't exist. One friend of mine said that his BSEE degree entirely drained his confidence to accomplish anything in the real world. One could argue that a university degree should be purely academic, but this school's program wasn't too helpful there, either. To sum up, the only ways I know of to realize that you are or aren't qualified to do something are to try it until you get rich or get sued, or work with someone else who already has.

nitrogen 17y ago

[1] Because my undergraduate degree was in physics. I presume that if I'd studied undergrad EE someone would have mentioned along the way that my B.S. wouldn't actually qualify me to design a commercially-available table lamp without adult supervision. Some schools are probably better, but I left my university after learning from graduated students that the dream course I was looking forward to, where all of the requirements would make sense and I would finally be told what I can do with my newfound knowledge, didn't exist. One friend of mine said that his BSEE degree entirely drained his confidence to accomplish anything in the real world. One could argue that a university degree should be purely academic, but this school's program wasn't too helpful there, either. To sum up, the only ways I know of to realize that you are or aren't qualified to do something are to try it until you get rich or get sued, or work with someone else who already has.