Having toured several Engineering colleges at several Colleges & Universities lately in preparation for a High School Junior looking at career choices, I've seen some internesting statistics related to the number of engineering students. While there has been a lot of hand wringing and concern about the declining number of high school students entering among other fields engineering, I find that the colleges are not prepared to accept anywhere close to the number of students applying to the schools of engineering. The general numbers I've heard are that many schools are making extending acceptance offers to at best 20 to 25% of all students applying to the college of engineering with an expected freshman size of about 10% of all applications submitted. To me this indicates that many high school students are interested in the engineering fields but that the colleges are not capable of handling more than about 10% of all those who've expressed interest. At this acceptance rate it's no wonder we have a shortage of engineers. Now I've not been in any sessions regarding computer science so I hope the numbers are not as lopsided as those for engineer otherwise we have a severe case of crying wolf and laying the blame on the high school students when it would appear that the colleges are not at all prepared to meet the demand based on enrollment.

Interesting. I hadn't followed that line of reasoning until you brought it up. Thanks.

Hello,

Perhaps if the salaries, level of respect, and standard of living for engineers and scientists were higher, we would have more American young people graduating from American universities with engineering and technical degrees.

Years ago Engineers had a similar salaries and standard of living as Medical Doctors, Lawyers, etc. Engineers were respected and appreciated for their contributions to society. Today engineers are treated like a disposable commodity. Our jobs are outsourced to third world countries where workers are paid a few dollars per day and have no healthcare for their families. Or foreign workers are brought in to the U.S.A. under the H1B visa program, to prevent having to pay higher salaries for the existing U.S. workers (supply versus demand).

Can you imagine what kind of outcry there would be if the U.S. Congress decided there were not enough Doctors, Lawyers, MBA managers, school teachers, etc., in this country, and so Congress decided to allow workers from other countries to come to the U.S. and get jobs, and replace the U.S.citizens at lower wages? Perhaps we should import some Congressmen who would be willing to work for less than the $160K per year that our Congressmen receive?

Why would any thinking student want to put in the extraordinary effort to go through an academically strenuous engineering degree program, when after completing their degree they find that there is not a well paying job available to them?

Those students could enroll in other easier degree programs which take less effort and sacrifice, and end up with a better paying, more secure job. My belief is that is exactly what is happening.

Ironically Congress's H1B visa policy is contributing to, and perpetuating the problem. Big business shares responsibility in this by outsourcing.

In 1916 Henry Ford paid workers an unheard of $5 a day for an 8 hour day on the assembly line. He did this to reduce turnover and overhead. When asked why his company paid so much more than average, he responded by saying something similar to "I need people who can afford to buy my cars".

When all of our jobs go overseas to other countries, none of us will have money to buy the things that U.S. (and foreign) businesses want us to buy.

Sincerely,

Roger H. BSEE, PE

>> ...colleges are not capable of handling more than about 10% of all those who've expressed interest.

I don't know about schools of engineering in general, but I am familiar with Purdue University in Indiana, as my two sons graduated their, one at the top of his civil engineering class.

The fact is that even of those who are accepted, only one third to one half (I forget now which fraction, but it is one of those numbers) of those beginning the engineering course of study complete it. The attrition is high because Purdue wants good quality graduates. My guess is that it would be the same with other engineering schools.

I would suggest, consistent with the evidence of declining scores on standardized tests and other measures, that the problem lies as much or more with poor results from the secondary education experience, whether the issue be poorer teaching techniques, fewer math and science teachers that understand the subjects, distractions or lack of discipline in the classroom, or family and cultural issues, or all of the above.