4 ms·

I agree completely that the US higher ed (in engineering) is highly idealistic and not job or practical oriented. However, I think this is probably the stronges

I agree completely that the US higher ed (in engineering) is highly idealistic and not job or practical oriented. However, I think this is probably the strongest advantage of the US over everywhere else. This kind of system is the only way to create engineers capable of dismantling _any_ sort of animal that bestows upon them. Without a big portion (perhaps not the majority though) of students educated this way there is no hope to get some essential, game-changing innovations going. Picture an educational system full of, say restricted domain Java programmers capable only of producing highly practical business oriented applications. The market rapidly overflows with useless software and workforce and global productivity stalls. The reality is, most things around us suck. They not only suck a little, they suck royally. And we're not going to get away with pulling any changes with incremental engineering and maintenance. So only with a broad set of skills we can envision the extent to which things suck and devise tools and solutions for them. Only afterwards incremental changes, straightforward engineering and maintenance play a role (admittedly an essential one).

stinos 13y ago
"the US over everywhere else .. This kind of system is the only way to create engineers capable of dismantling _any_ sort of animal that bestows upon them" From what I have seen this is just not true, or at least a too narrow point of view. First of all I think there are other western countries out there where you get this type of not so practical nor job oriented eductaion. There's enough countries where you can even choose to take the more theoretic engineering approach or go for the more practical approach. Also I doubt every single institution in the US where you can get an engineering degree works that way. Secondly, that capability is something that you cannot simply learn to anyone out there. I even dare to say some are born with it and some are not.

stinos 13y ago

"the US over everywhere else .. This kind of system is the only way to create engineers capable of dismantling _any_ sort of animal that bestows upon them" From what I have seen this is just not true, or at least a too narrow point of view. First of all I think there are other western countries out there where you get this type of not so practical nor job oriented eductaion. There's enough countries where you can even choose to take the more theoretic engineering approach or go for the more practical approach. Also I doubt every single institution in the US where you can get an engineering degree works that way. Secondly, that capability is something that you cannot simply learn to anyone out there. I even dare to say some are born with it and some are not.