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The engineering courses I've taken have actually been pretty crucial at my current gig. If I had majored in liberal arts, I'm not sure where I would learn them

by Dilpil 16y ago

The engineering courses I've taken have actually been pretty crucial at my current gig. If I had majored in liberal arts, I'm not sure where I would learn them.

wmf 16y ago
Their argument seems to be that you should get a four-year liberal arts degree and then an engineering degree in addition. Sounds great as long as you're not paying for it.
- starkfist 16y ago
  I went to one of the small liberal arts schools the authors of the book favor. Many of them have a 3-2 arrangement with an engineering school. You take the more general science and math courses at the liberal arts school, then 2 years of engineering classes at the engineering school.
blahblahblah 16y ago
The suggestion that students should major in liberal arts instead of engineering made me literally laugh out loud. An engineering degree is the best value to be had in American post-secondary education. Not only do you come out of school with real marketable skills that employers actually want, the solid foundation in general purpose problem solving is damn good preparation for life, wherever it may lead you. The philosophy of the ancient Greeks may be the historical basis for Western thought, but in no way does that mean that it is a more worthy subject of study than, for example, an in-depth examination of the factors that led to the Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal or the role that the Haber process played in WWI & WWII. Whenever there's an economic downturn, there are inevitably sob stories printed in virtually every major newspaper about how it's difficult for fresh college graduates to get a job and these human interest stories invariably include an anecdote or two about some specific young person just out of college living at home while desperately trying to find a job and having no luck because the jobs just aren't there. How many times have you read this type of story in the newspaper where the sob story is about a kid who majored in chemical engineering or EE or metallurgy? I've yet to see such an article and I anticipate that if I were to see such an article it would be lamenting that the kid couldn't find a job in their specific major, not that they couldn't find gainful employment somewhere doing something. If you're an employer hiring for the kind of jobs for which a liberal arts degree is sufficient preparation, you'd be a fool to turn down an engineering grad if you were lucky enough to have one who was actually interested in working for you. Your requirements for the candidate are: smart and gets things done. If they can survive the rigors of an engineering school, there's little doubt that they can do the job. On the other hand, if you're a technical employer getting resumes from fresh liberal arts graduates, you're probably going to toss them straight into the trash bin.

by Dilpil 16y ago

The engineering courses I've taken have actually been pretty crucial at my current gig. If I had majored in liberal arts, I'm not sure where I would learn them.

wmf 16y ago

Their argument seems to be that you should get a four-year liberal arts degree and then an engineering degree in addition. Sounds great as long as you're not paying for it.

starkfist 16y ago
I went to one of the small liberal arts schools the authors of the book favor. Many of them have a 3-2 arrangement with an engineering school. You take the more general science and math courses at the liberal arts school, then 2 years of engineering classes at the engineering school.

blahblahblah 16y ago

The suggestion that students should major in liberal arts instead of engineering made me literally laugh out loud. An engineering degree is the best value to be had in American post-secondary education. Not only do you come out of school with real marketable skills that employers actually want, the solid foundation in general purpose problem solving is damn good preparation for life, wherever it may lead you. The philosophy of the ancient Greeks may be the historical basis for Western thought, but in no way does that mean that it is a more worthy subject of study than, for example, an in-depth examination of the factors that led to the Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal or the role that the Haber process played in WWI & WWII. Whenever there's an economic downturn, there are inevitably sob stories printed in virtually every major newspaper about how it's difficult for fresh college graduates to get a job and these human interest stories invariably include an anecdote or two about some specific young person just out of college living at home while desperately trying to find a job and having no luck because the jobs just aren't there. How many times have you read this type of story in the newspaper where the sob story is about a kid who majored in chemical engineering or EE or metallurgy? I've yet to see such an article and I anticipate that if I were to see such an article it would be lamenting that the kid couldn't find a job in their specific major, not that they couldn't find gainful employment somewhere doing something. If you're an employer hiring for the kind of jobs for which a liberal arts degree is sufficient preparation, you'd be a fool to turn down an engineering grad if you were lucky enough to have one who was actually interested in working for you. Your requirements for the candidate are: smart and gets things done. If they can survive the rigors of an engineering school, there's little doubt that they can do the job. On the other hand, if you're a technical employer getting resumes from fresh liberal arts graduates, you're probably going to toss them straight into the trash bin.