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rinueMitt Romney, over the weekend, said some stupid and out-of-touch stuff, which is par for the course. He has rightly been called out on some of it, like, say, suggesting that recent college grads struggling to find work should try borrowing $20,000 from their parents. We've all been there, am I right?
[Note: I have been there. I do not however present my experience as typical or even possible for the vast majority of people.]
What I don't think has been discussed enough is his idea that if we just informed English majors in advance about the jobs picture, they'd get engineering majors instead, satisfying our shortage of engineers. Invisible hand of the market for the win!
This is an assertion I've heard made by a number of Republicans, most of whom are liberal arts majors.
As someone who did pursue an engineering major, I can tell you this idea is as realistic as suggesting a laid-off postal worker retrain in a couple of weeks as a concert violinist.
To get in to an engineering school -- to get in -- you better have scored 650 or above on the math section of the SAT. Really, 750 or above. If you ever struggled with an algebra problem, you're not getting in. If your physics teacher was a coach, you are not getting in. If your high school was small enough you didn't have a physics or a calculus teacher, and you didn't figure it out yourself and ace an AP exam, you are not getting in.
Once you are an engineering major, you'll be taking 18-21 hours a semester, not 12-15. The amount of work that would get you an A in an English class will get you a C in an engineering class not because math is harder but because mathy people like bell curves, and C means adequate, means as good as your peers, the other people who were able to get into the engineering school. When you make mistakes, and you will, there's a chance teachers will be nice to you, because they've been there; there's also a chance they'll yell at you because if you made that mistake in the real world, it would kill someone. Misplaced periods, or as we call them, decimals, are not forgivable.
95% of the people who enter college with an engineering major will graduate within 4 years. Maybe 40% of them will do it as engineers. I'm one of the washouts, and I can do anything. In my case, it's because although I could hack the math and the physics, I didn't love either enough to put up with the sexism of other engineering majors, some of whom would end up as my bosses.
If you think English degrees are worthless and should be abolished -- and I don't; my company looks for English majors, and I see job listings for English majors every day, because there are lots of fields looking for attentive readers -- that's one thing. But the only way you could honestly suggest engineering is a field your average college freshman could enter is if you've never met an engineer. Consequently, you're not somebody I want in charge of my nation's infrastructure.
[Note: I have been there. I do not however present my experience as typical or even possible for the vast majority of people.]
What I don't think has been discussed enough is his idea that if we just informed English majors in advance about the jobs picture, they'd get engineering majors instead, satisfying our shortage of engineers. Invisible hand of the market for the win!
This is an assertion I've heard made by a number of Republicans, most of whom are liberal arts majors.
As someone who did pursue an engineering major, I can tell you this idea is as realistic as suggesting a laid-off postal worker retrain in a couple of weeks as a concert violinist.
To get in to an engineering school -- to get in -- you better have scored 650 or above on the math section of the SAT. Really, 750 or above. If you ever struggled with an algebra problem, you're not getting in. If your physics teacher was a coach, you are not getting in. If your high school was small enough you didn't have a physics or a calculus teacher, and you didn't figure it out yourself and ace an AP exam, you are not getting in.
Once you are an engineering major, you'll be taking 18-21 hours a semester, not 12-15. The amount of work that would get you an A in an English class will get you a C in an engineering class not because math is harder but because mathy people like bell curves, and C means adequate, means as good as your peers, the other people who were able to get into the engineering school. When you make mistakes, and you will, there's a chance teachers will be nice to you, because they've been there; there's also a chance they'll yell at you because if you made that mistake in the real world, it would kill someone. Misplaced periods, or as we call them, decimals, are not forgivable.
95% of the people who enter college with an engineering major will graduate within 4 years. Maybe 40% of them will do it as engineers. I'm one of the washouts, and I can do anything. In my case, it's because although I could hack the math and the physics, I didn't love either enough to put up with the sexism of other engineering majors, some of whom would end up as my bosses.
If you think English degrees are worthless and should be abolished -- and I don't; my company looks for English majors, and I see job listings for English majors every day, because there are lots of fields looking for attentive readers -- that's one thing. But the only way you could honestly suggest engineering is a field your average college freshman could enter is if you've never met an engineer. Consequently, you're not somebody I want in charge of my nation's infrastructure.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-02 11:14 pm (UTC)