New book on the American brain drain

[Armitage]

There was an article along these lines in the local paper recently, with the particular focus on Aerospace. They claimed that in 1994 they only graduated about 230 B.S. in AE across the whole country and that its been dropping ever since. When I finished my undergrad in AE (1991) I think there were about 30 in my class at Virginia Tech.

This is a concern because thousands of people who entered the business at the height of the cold war & space race will soon start retiring from Aerospace, and they already have trouble finding qualified people to replace them.

Why? Very few people seem to have the resolve or desire to bust their asses through an undergrad engineering or science program. I think the overall work ethic has declined - I'm amazed at the number of kids that don't have jobs and don't want them - ski resorts, seasonal attractions, etc. literally recruit from overseas to fill jobs I would've killed for in H.S. I think computer/software has siphoned off alot of people with the inherent curiosity & aptitude - it's "sexier" then the physical sciences. Overall, the images of scientist and engineers that highschoolers are exposed to are decidely negative - although I'm not sure that's anything new.

 

[erub]

only 230 AE engineers?? There's probably that many at my school, Texas A&M...

I'm a EE and every day i question why i'm doing it, I don't like the stuff that much, but i'm so close to graduation, no point in changing now, and while the money isnt doctor/lawyeresque, it will be decent for a couple of years..probably going off to get a MBA as soon as I get enough experience to get into a decent program..52K or 100K?

 

[Armitage]

Originally posted by: erub
only 230 AE engineers?? There's probably that many at my school, Texas A&M...

In a given years graduating class? I doubt it. I thought the overall number was low though considering how many schools offer AE degrees. Maybe it was graduate degrees - I'll look for the article.

I'm a EE and every day i question why i'm doing it, I don't like the stuff that much, but i'm so close to graduation, no point in changing now, and while the money isnt doctor/lawyeresque, it will be decent for a couple of years..probably going off to get a MBA as soon as I get enough experience to get into a decent program..52K or 100K?

 

[CptObvious]

Originally posted by: erub
only 230 AE engineers?? There's probably that many at my school, Texas A&M...

I'm a EE and every day i question why i'm doing it, I don't like the stuff that much, but i'm so close to graduation, no point in changing now, and while the money isnt doctor/lawyeresque, it will be decent for a couple of years..probably going off to get a MBA as soon as I get enough experience to get into a decent program..52K or 100K?

If it's any consolation, I don't think becoming a lawyer or doctor is all that it's cracked up to be, anymore. Lawyers who make 6 figure salaries usually work in big cities with ridiculously high living costs, and they have to work twice as many hours as your average full-time employee. Doctors are in school forever and have out-of-control malpractice premiums.

I'm about to graduate law school and I don't think my job prospects are any better than the average EE major. Granted, I'm not at the top of my class (laziness on my part) but the job market is pretty tough as it is.

 

[Overkiller]

Originally posted by: erub
only 230 AE engineers?? There's probably that many at my school, Texas A&M...

I'm a EE and every day i question why i'm doing it, I don't like the stuff that much, but i'm so close to graduation, no point in changing now, and while the money isnt doctor/lawyeresque, it will be decent for a couple of years..probably going off to get a MBA as soon as I get enough experience to get into a decent program..52K or 100K?

Uconn has a great engineering program. OUt of a starting class of 460 [I believe] less than 26 were going to graduate 4-6 years later with a degree in engineering.

Food for thought

 

[alent1234]

Originally posted by: Rogue

Originally posted by: Siddhartha

Originally posted by: Rogue
I'll tell you what's going on damnit! Everyday when I leave for work, I drive past multiple bus stops where the high school kids get picked up. You know what I see? All of them with their fvcking headphones on and their god damned MP3 or CD players in their hand. No social interaction, no grab ass, no nothing, just a bunch of fvcking clones who bought into the iPod bull$hit and now destroy what little brain cells their drug induced parents passed on to them. I even looked in the windows of a passing bus today and I'll be damned if better than half of every kid in the windows didn't have a damn set of headphones on their head. Now that's some bull$hit if I've ever seen it. Today's kids have been retardized by corporate America and consumerism, hell bent on showing how cool they are by what they own and how anti-social they can be. Well, I for one am sick of it. What happened to being cool meant you could kick peoples asses in a straight up fist fight? Or just being damn good at what you do, whether it's making the honor roll semester after semester or simply being the baddest ass football player in yoru district?

To top it all off, I watch that Supernanny show and it just makes me angry. I started watching it because we just adopted a 5-year old and she's our first kid we've raised. Anyway, I was trying to compare some of the things I may be doing wrong with the people on that show and all I've done is piss myself off watching it week after week, thinking each week, "There's no fvcking way the next family can be worse than the first!" and I'll be damned!!! The next week we got kids who spit in their mother's face and sling profanity like it's a rap concert or something. Then you have the audacity to need a fvcking foreigner from Britain to come into your house, humiliate your stupid asses on national TV, make you cry and teach you how to fvcking show a 3-year old who's boss in your own damned house? WHAT IN THE FVCK IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE???!!!

Now, I admit, I'm a little hard on my daughter, but she came from an undisciplined environment where she had to grow up fast. But come on! She WON'T be wearing headphones to school. She'll NEVER, EVER think of spitting on either of us or demeaning us as parents and she'll learn that life is tough and people get tough to handle it, not fvcking hide away in your own world with the latest RIAA drivel. Brain drain? I'll tell you where it starts, right at home with these moron parents running this piss-ant show we call a society now days. How's that for a rant, HUH?!

Man this has to be a parody!

No, no it's not actually. This is the true state of things in my city and it disturbs me.

what's your point? When I was in school the walkman was the cool thing to have, but they were like $100. I was in all the honors classes and all the kids listened to the top 40 and did whatever was cool at the time. I learned to curse in 1st or 2nd grade and first saw porn around the same age. It's called pushing the limits to see what you can get away with.

You are the one being anti-social because you don't want your daughter living the pop culture like everyone else. And if you think your daughter will be some robot that is always obedeint you have another thing coming. It's normal for kids to push the limits of authority. You think they just become independent by magic when they reach a certain age?

 

[Rebasxer]

Less people are going to grad school because tuition cost are crazy, and no one wants to be up to there ass in debt for the next 20 years.

 

[RabidMongoose]

That doesn't sound like an American brain drain, but a brain drain to America.

 

[Rogue]

Originally posted by: LordSnailz

Originally posted by: Rogue

Originally posted by: Siddhartha

Originally posted by: Rogue
I'll tell you what's going on damnit! Everyday when I leave for work, I drive past multiple bus stops where the high school kids get picked up. You know what I see? All of them with their fvcking headphones on and their god damned MP3 or CD players in their hand. No social interaction, no grab ass, no nothing, just a bunch of fvcking clones who bought into the iPod bull$hit and now destroy what little brain cells their drug induced parents passed on to them. I even looked in the windows of a passing bus today and I'll be damned if better than half of every kid in the windows didn't have a damn set of headphones on their head. Now that's some bull$hit if I've ever seen it. Today's kids have been retardized by corporate America and consumerism, hell bent on showing how cool they are by what they own and how anti-social they can be. Well, I for one am sick of it. What happened to being cool meant you could kick peoples asses in a straight up fist fight? Or just being damn good at what you do, whether it's making the honor roll semester after semester or simply being the baddest ass football player in yoru district?

To top it all off, I watch that Supernanny show and it just makes me angry. I started watching it because we just adopted a 5-year old and she's our first kid we've raised. Anyway, I was trying to compare some of the things I may be doing wrong with the people on that show and all I've done is piss myself off watching it week after week, thinking each week, "There's no fvcking way the next family can be worse than the first!" and I'll be damned!!! The next week we got kids who spit in their mother's face and sling profanity like it's a rap concert or something. Then you have the audacity to need a fvcking foreigner from Britain to come into your house, humiliate your stupid asses on national TV, make you cry and teach you how to fvcking show a 3-year old who's boss in your own damned house? WHAT IN THE FVCK IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE???!!!

Now, I admit, I'm a little hard on my daughter, but she came from an undisciplined environment where she had to grow up fast. But come on! She WON'T be wearing headphones to school. She'll NEVER, EVER think of spitting on either of us or demeaning us as parents and she'll learn that life is tough and people get tough to handle it, not fvcking hide away in your own world with the latest RIAA drivel. Brain drain? I'll tell you where it starts, right at home with these moron parents running this piss-ant show we call a society now days. How's that for a rant, HUH?!

Man this has to be a parody!

No, no it's not actually. This is the true state of things in my city and it disturbs me.

Just curious, how do you discipline your daughter? What if she starts cussing and spitting at you?

It depends on the infraction. If she mouths off by saying something like, "I don't want to change the oil filter just because I'm small!" then she usually gets a shot directly to the larynx to ensure that she can't speak for at least a few minutes or more. 5-year olds are resilient though.

If she were to spit on me, I imagine I'd get some muriatic acid and squirt it in her face with a turkey baster for effect. That will show her, right?

NO SERIOUSLY! How the hell do YOU think I discipline my child? When she makes a mistake, I explain to her what she did wrong and make her promise me she won't make the same mistake again. She's then asked to appologize for her wrongdoing and given a hug if she feels up to it. On occasion she'll be sent to spend some time out in 5 minute intervals because she's 5-years old and that's the recommendation by most child care experts, to include my mother who has a degree in childhood education and raised plenty of children in a mixed household (step children, multi-racial household). In the event that she outright lies about something or blatantly disobeys after her time out period, she gets a swat on the behind.

How do you discipline your children? Turnabout is fair play, right?

 

[Armitage]

Originally posted by: Rebasxer
Less people are going to grad school because tuition cost are crazy, and no one wants to be up to there ass in debt for the next 20 years.

Grad school in engineering isn't that expensive - fellowships, grants, scholarships, stipends, etc. are generally readily available. They don't pay all that well, so you have the opportunity cost of not having well paying outside job, but you don't tend to leave grad school in enineering with the same kind of outrageous debt that you do from med or law school.

 

[Armitage]

Originally posted by: Overkiller

Originally posted by: erub
only 230 AE engineers?? There's probably that many at my school, Texas A&M...

I'm a EE and every day i question why i'm doing it, I don't like the stuff that much, but i'm so close to graduation, no point in changing now, and while the money isnt doctor/lawyeresque, it will be decent for a couple of years..probably going off to get a MBA as soon as I get enough experience to get into a decent program..52K or 100K?

Uconn has a great engineering program. OUt of a starting class of 460 [I believe] less than 26 were going to graduate 4-6 years later with a degree in engineering.

Food for thought

That sounds pretty extreme - attrition rate in engineering progrms is generall on the order of 1/3 to 1/2

 

[Armitage]

Originally posted by: Colt45
draining to where? 😕

I'd charaterize it more as evaporation rather then draining. Draining implies that it goes somewhere else, as opposed to simply evaporating

 

[JustAnAverageGuy]

Originally posted by: Rogue
I'll tell you what's going on damnit! Everyday when I leave for work, I drive past multiple bus stops where the high school kids get picked up. You know what I see? All of them with their fvcking headphones on and their god damned MP3 or CD players in their hand. No social interaction, no grab ass, no nothing, just a bunch of fvcking clones who bought into the iPod bull$hit and now destroy what little brain cells their drug induced parents passed on to them. I even looked in the windows of a passing bus today and I'll be damned if better than half of every kid in the windows didn't have a damn set of headphones on their head. Now that's some bull$hit if I've ever seen it. Today's kids have been retardized by corporate America and consumerism, hell bent on showing how cool they are by what they own and how anti-social they can be. Well, I for one am sick of it. What happened to being cool meant you could kick peoples asses in a straight up fist fight? Or just being damn good at what you do, whether it's making the honor roll semester after semester or simply being the baddest ass football player in yoru district?

To top it all off, I watch that Supernanny show and it just makes me angry. I started watching it because we just adopted a 5-year old and she's our first kid we've raised. Anyway, I was trying to compare some of the things I may be doing wrong with the people on that show and all I've done is piss myself off watching it week after week, thinking each week, "There's no fvcking way the next family can be worse than the first!" and I'll be damned!!! The next week we got kids who spit in their mother's face and sling profanity like it's a rap concert or something. Then you have the audacity to need a fvcking foreigner from Britain to come into your house, humiliate your stupid asses on national TV, make you cry and teach you how to fvcking show a 3-year old who's boss in your own damned house? WHAT IN THE FVCK IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE???!!!

Now, I admit, I'm a little hard on my daughter, but she came from an undisciplined environment where she had to grow up fast. But come on! She WON'T be wearing headphones to school. She'll NEVER, EVER think of spitting on either of us or demeaning us as parents and she'll learn that life is tough and people get tough to handle it, not fvcking hide away in your own world with the latest RIAA drivel. Brain drain? I'll tell you where it starts, right at home with these moron parents running this piss-ant show we call a society now days. How's that for a rant, HUH?!

Somebody give this man a :beer:

 

[lokiju]

Originally posted by: Rogue
I'll tell you what's going on damnit! Everyday when I leave for work, I drive past multiple bus stops where the high school kids get picked up. You know what I see? All of them with their fvcking headphones on and their god damned MP3 or CD players in their hand. No social interaction, no grab ass, no nothing, just a bunch of fvcking clones who bought into the iPod bull$hit and now destroy what little brain cells their drug induced parents passed on to them. I even looked in the windows of a passing bus today and I'll be damned if better than half of every kid in the windows didn't have a damn set of headphones on their head. Now that's some bull$hit if I've ever seen it. Today's kids have been retardized by corporate America and consumerism, hell bent on showing how cool they are by what they own and how anti-social they can be. Well, I for one am sick of it. What happened to being cool meant you could kick peoples asses in a straight up fist fight? Or just being damn good at what you do, whether it's making the honor roll semester after semester or simply being the baddest ass football player in yoru district?

To top it all off, I watch that Supernanny show and it just makes me angry. I started watching it because we just adopted a 5-year old and she's our first kid we've raised. Anyway, I was trying to compare some of the things I may be doing wrong with the people on that show and all I've done is piss myself off watching it week after week, thinking each week, "There's no fvcking way the next family can be worse than the first!" and I'll be damned!!! The next week we got kids who spit in their mother's face and sling profanity like it's a rap concert or something. Then you have the audacity to need a fvcking foreigner from Britain to come into your house, humiliate your stupid asses on national TV, make you cry and teach you how to fvcking show a 3-year old who's boss in your own damned house? WHAT IN THE FVCK IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE???!!!

Now, I admit, I'm a little hard on my daughter, but she came from an undisciplined environment where she had to grow up fast. But come on! She WON'T be wearing headphones to school. She'll NEVER, EVER think of spitting on either of us or demeaning us as parents and she'll learn that life is tough and people get tough to handle it, not fvcking hide away in your own world with the latest RIAA drivel. Brain drain? I'll tell you where it starts, right at home with these moron parents running this piss-ant show we call a society now days. How's that for a rant, HUH?!

Wow I'm impressed! Thats gotta be one of the best rants I've seen here.

Good job!

:beer:😀:thumbsup: