Tip for Engineering students currently having difficulties: Reduce your course load, take an extra year or two to graduate. Trust me, it will make your life ALOT better.

The usual story. companies say they can't find engineers but they don't want to pay them what they are worth.

One problem that is also pervasive is that parents, friends and family don’t understand how much work it takes to do well in an engineering program.

The unpreparedness starts at elementary school. I can't imagine any engineering student without a solid number sense.

Labs, labs, and more labs... and then 30 page midterms which eat at your soul. I see circuits everywhere now.

The Engineers are out there, trying to get a job, but nobody wants to hire entry level Engineers and take the time to train them. It took forever to get my first Engineering job.

Are you kidding with this? Engineering is hard! Even decades ago, at orientation they said, "Look to your left, and to your right. You won't see them at graduation". Meaning 2 of 3 drop or switch majors... I stuck with it and finished. It was not fun, but worth it.

I'd rather travel in an airplane designed by an engineer who passed a challenging program, than an airplane designed by someone who was just handed a passing grade

I lived with a friend who was studying Engineering at a top university. The guy literally did nothing but study.

Most STEM college majors have "weed out" classes to take out most students that want to get one of these drgrees. You think you passed one weed out class only to find out that the rest of your classes are all meant to weed you out until only few are left.

the reason they drop out is because engineering is super hard...when I was in college I took a few engineering classes and struggled to get a c. when I took a few law classes I got all A's and sometimes at the top of the class.... engineering is hard

My dad is an electrical engineer. He went through community college, then got his BS and MS. Math wasn't really the bad part. Mastering logic was more challenging. Applying logic, math and physics in the real world is key and some schools fail to teach that.

I bet some of the problem is that people want to become engineers because of the prestige, not because they are interested in the work.

I wasn't a good student in high school, never made really good grades. Looking back at it, I can say the major reason why was because I didn't have confidence in myself and I placed limits on my own ability. If I didn't understand something right away I would think "a smart person would get this". After high school I started working on cars, basic automotive maintenance at first but I worked up to becoming a certified technician after about 3 years. During that process I realized that I can figure things out even if concepts don't come to me right away, and to really understand modern ignition system circuits can take some effort. It was in my early 20s when I realized throughout my academic career I never put in the time and effort needed to approach my learning potential. I decided to go back and give school another try, this time with motivation. I first went to a community college and needed remedial classes, but I was making good grades. I kept at it and figured I'll just see where this takes me. Eventually I made it to an engineering college majoring in electrical engineering. Even among engineering degrees electrical is seen as one of the more difficult fields.I graduated in December of 2015 with my EE degree because, anything worthwhile won't be easy. No regrets.

Lol at the columbia dean explaining why his school has a 96% graduation rate. Such a BS explaination. The students at that school are just way smarter in general compared to students at other schools. It's a damn ivy league man

Companies: We need more engineers but we can't afford to pay them. 60hr work week

Engineers are not in shortage. CHEAP engineers are.

96% success rate in Columbia because they are actually being selective during admissions. If your standards are low, it is no wonder most of your students drop out from a program that hard.

Columbia's engineering program is incredibly selective so they are also getting the brightest and most motivated kids. It's definitely not because of their "applications" philosophy lol

Engineering grad here from a top school, I graduated 13 years ago. Here are the problems: 1. Pre-college preparation - most high school grads in US don't have enough of basics to do well day 1. This is especially the case when you goto a lower ranked school. Engineering is hard everywhere, you can literally not read your psychology textbook and get a B. Even if you study all the time, you might only get a C in engineering. Most people don't understand this. 2. Curriculum - 100 years ago, you learned through apprenticeship. Someone showed you how an engine worked, step by step. Most engineering programs today are just glorified math programs, where you hardly know how the equations are connected to real life. Usually only in your junior/senior year do you have lab classes that put everything together, by then a lot of students already lost interest. Most faculty are also poor teachers, where #1 above gets compounded by poor teaching. 3. Incentive problem: I got an MBA and worked in a bank because it pays better. Unless you work in silicon valley, engineers aren't paid as well as they should be. To be honest, the intellectual capability of my peers in banks is several notches below that of my college engineering classmates, but thats the reality if you're a mechanical engineer working for a non glamorous manufacturing company.

Engineering students should be taught by engineering professionals in industry, not professors who forever stay in academic field!

The problem is that students are not being exposed to these fields at the high school level, so when entering college it becomes quiet difficult for them to keep up with the work. The entire educational system in the U.S. needs a major reform; stop wasting student's time on irrelevant material that they're not going to utilize in college or their professional careers.

I'm a Production Engineering dropout currently about to major in Finance with a minor in Music Education. Engineering is no joke, and if you go in with the mindset of "well I like computers, technology and geeky stuff so I should be good at it" you'll most likely fail like I did. Never got past Physics 2 and Calculus 3 so after repeating those courses over and over I decided to quit. My dad has a MS in Chemical Engineering and he always tells me stories of how they used to jump his college fence to make it to an empty classroom at 2-3am to study, sometimes even sleeping on these clasrooms to study for an exam (and he barely passed those exams too, he wasn't a top student at all). Given how many distractions we have in our lives nowadays that our parent's generation simply didn't had such as netflix, videogames, social media etc. it's easy to see why fewer people are going for engineering majors.

These days being an entry level engineer means that you have 3+ years of experience.

35%? I remember when I started Computer Science, there were two full classes for entry level programming, or intro to programming. By the time I was in my third year, taking upper level courses, only 5 or so people were left from my class and courses were a mix of third and fourth year students. At my graduation, only I and 3 others graduated with a straight Computer Science major. Talk about the attrition rate. And yes, there were many days when I did not understand something after looking at it the first time. And second. And third. Those were the days when I passed on getting 'hammered' at the bar. Those were the Friday evenings when I stayed in and worked on those algorithms. Hundreds of lines of code would not work the way I programmed them to work. Tough luck, try again. And again, and again, and again until you get it to work, and until you understand the concept to the point where if you were to wake me up in the middle of the night I'll be able to recite it back to you without hesitation. Any skill worth having is going to be science, logic and math based and it's not going to be easy. No matter how intelligent one is. And you have to work for it.

google knows how much im STRUGGLING with physics...and it recommends this...

From my own experience, the challenge wasn't so much the challenging courses, overwhelming workload nor the frequent all nighters. It was all of that, plus seeing my fellow Engineering peers go out and have completely normal, healthy college social lifes because they were somehow all able to get their work finished the day it was assigned. At least, that's how it was in the early years. Eventually, I was able to get through school and get my Masters, but seeing that shit can really fuck with one's self-image.

A huge problem is course overload. Taking 16-21 hours a semester on top of each level being hard is very taxing. I pray for all stem students.

Hard majors are hard, whats new? :P

There’s no such thing as a shortage of engineers on the long run. There may be a shortage of engineers willing to work for garbage salaries though:)

You don't get the "high-school" life that's shown in the media. Engineering is sitting 8h a day in a small dark chamber doing math on a white paper for 2years After that the fun begins.

I took electrical engineering, they weeded me out using the full marks or nothing method, they give u a zero for a 10 point programming question. They be like "in the real world, that digital code aint gonna work even if one word of the code is wrong", althought in the real world u get to fix it before it gets used.whatever bunch made this rule really upset my life, had to drop out after failing the same courses over and over, switch to a completely different major, waste 3 yrs, i hope whenever they die, it will be a engineering related death,prefably electrocution.

Comparing ivy league students to community college lol. My guess is communi5u college may have more personal issues They have to deal with like a job or family problems while ivy just spend 10+ hours a day studying

*2 years after I graduated engineering school* KZfaq: Bruv u gotta see this video of folks dropping out of engineering school!

Hi, a german engineer here. I find it good, that not everyone is graduating in engineering. Yep, maths in school will never prepare you for maths in university (especially STEM), but the main point for me is, that you have to have a passion for it. That will get you through all the boring-ass stuff, through the hardships and eventually get you your the degree. There probably never was an innovative engineer, who did it for the money.

I sucked at math in elementary school and middle school. In high school I decided to do better. One part of me was saying “I suck because it’s I mental ability” and one part was saying “ Maybe it’s my attitude”. I went with the latter and it was difficult journey but absolutely worth it. I got 5/5 AP calculus and 4/5 AP chemistry. Now, whenever I face a challenge I realize that I shouldn’t blame my mental ability right away but look at my attitude. This is applicable for everyone not just me

Getting through an engineering program is tough. It requires a fair bit of intelligence and a whole lot of grit. (And a whole lot of studying on weekends instead of partying, sadly). I decided not to continue with engineering after graduating. Was it still worth it in retrospect? Yeah, absolutely. I went to a great medical school (now in residency) with my engineering degree and I couldn't be happier. It created a very strong foundation upon which to study, research, and ultimately practice medicine. I didn't expect to go to medical school when I decided to major in engineering as a freshman. But it's hard to predict these things at 18. Work hard, stick with something, and the doors will open. Best of luck to anyone in an engineering program! Hang in there!!

Why is this recommended to me right after i fail my exam. Is youtube trying to make me doubt my decisions???

Companies are not desperate for entry level engineers because I'm entry level and I know a lot of other entry level engineers and we are having a hard time getting a decent job. It boils down to who you know and if you were lucky enough to land a good internship. The college system is the most inefficient way to learn. It is so true that when you learn something in class you need to be able to physically apply it to a real world situation to really understand it and stay interested. That is very lacking in a lot of schools. You learn the most working on projects and joining clubs but when you are struggling just to pass your classes, it doesn't leave enough time for the things that will really give you solid job skills. Also what I see going on is that companies don't want to train fresh grads and college does not teach you what you need to know. I see "entry" level jobs that what you to have 3+ years experience and already have a lot of job skills that I didn't learn in college. I'm sorry but entry level means you have at most one year of experience and you have general knowledge but are no expert in any one thing.

For me the hardest part were the weed out classes that had nothing to do with engineering program. I had piss poor teachers for calc and physics. My suggestion is community college during the summer or maybe a semester or two to knock them out.

I'm an engineer with two master degrees and 30 years worth of application experience, so you would think that the industry jumping over backwards to hire me. The fact is, they don't. And whenever i do manage to get hired, they treat a person like me who can get the job done, ahead of schedule, and way below cost like total garbage. It's not worth my time. I'm much happier now being a self-employed contractor.

Maybe this happens because the elementary+high school education sucks in the US, while the job market there is one of the best in the world.

I don't know if this is something to expect in engineering programs from the beginning, but at my school the engineering professors *DIDN'T* teach you the material. They made you buy the book, study out of it on and learn the material yourself, and the actual engineering classes were just two-hour practice sessions. I was able to hang on at first, but the further I got in, the harder it was to keep up, especially when you still have to work on 4 other class to care of AND go to work just to pay to be there, and eventually I just couldn't take it anymore. To illustrate how I died, "die trying" was defiantly a bad idea.....like really bad. I should have dropped out of it when I was still "ok"..... I'm in Information Systems right now, which is like computer science but for business, and I'm doing much better in it right now, but I still hope to go back for my electrical engineering degree some day 😕

The amount of time spent on homework as an engineering student is ridiculous. Also, if your college doesn't have enough tutors to help you better understand the material, you have no chance. BTW, I was a straight A student in high school and took AP Calculus and I STILL barely earned a D in engineering physics. The system is messed up.

I respect this school, they don't make it easier to keep the kids in school, which means they are losing money.

It really isn't about the money but more about the passion for the field. Too many people get into engineering with the intention of making a lot of money but then run away when calculus get's crazy on them.

When I was an Electrical Engineering major in college. My engineering class started at around 40 students my freshmen year. By the time we graduated there was only 6 of us left

My daughter graduated in Electrical Engineering and is so glad she did. Now working at a utilities company. Changed from a physics major because of my explaining to her the practicality of an engineering degree. After graduating I then told her that she can obtain a Masters/PhD in physics if she wish and I would pay for that too. She waved her hands and said: “oh no, I’m done.”

Math is hard, but most people wont do it due to them being lazy. I didn't know basic algebra, trig and physics when i started the program at 30. Now i'm a junior with a 3.4 gpa at 32. It isn't because i'm smarter than the others in my class but i do try much harder than them. Most of the people dont make it past calculus 2 because they have no heart and expect everything to be easy. Well guess what....life is hard. The work is grueling , the reports are tedious but the paycheck is going to be awesome. You also get to actually do meaningful work in a field with some really talented people. It reminds me of the old Army basic training but for the mind. Put one foot in front of the other and before you know it you'll graduate.

I'll never give up in engineering!

At some point, it needs to be realized that taking every imaginable type of math course does absolutely jack-shit to prepare one for the software industry.

Strange how engineers are expected to take 2 years of humanities and cram 4 years of STEM into the remaining 2 years. Woke degrees spend 2 years doing humanities and 2 years doing fuck all while getting 100k in debt. Solution is to get rid of all humanities after high school

Too many people are allowed to get college degrees in general. College’s don’t effectively weed people out or train them harder, they only care about your tuition payments... life’s a bitch but still... to those who feel fear in their hearts, don’t give up. Never give up. You still breathe. Don’t give up hope.

given the difficulty of engineering they're still woefully underpaid for their contributions.

The biggest problem in engineering courses is that they don't teach the relationship between what is written on the board and the real life. So much calculations,formulas,diagrams,but the professors never tells us their point.You have to figure it out yourself

As a second semester engineering major who made dean's list last year, it's hard to see most of my classmates trickle out over the last couple months.

Everyone thinks they can be doctors, lawyers, engineers. Statistically, what a joke.

Lol, did they really think Engineering is as easy as becoming a McDonald employee its fucking Engineering for god's sake of course you have to spend 8 hours a day to study it, and get better at it imagine if the world was full of lazy, uneducated engineers, bridges would collapse, buildings would crumble, no electricity, no dams, no sewage system, basically, everything that makes the modern world modern will be gone and we will all be living in the stone ages again Its because of Engineers who studied daily, understood the concept, spent hours everyday to make sure they know their stuff, and actually loved Engineering we have a civilized world, where we have planes, trains, internet, computers, cars, skyscrapers, and anything else you can think of, A Doctor wouldn't be able to perform surgery if it weren't for high tech surgical equipments created by Engineers, you wouldn't be in a Air Conditioned rom if it weren't for an Engineer Television, and Film Industry would still be producing low resolution images if it weren't for Engineers who improved the quality of camera and vision capture Computers would not have existed if it weren't for engineers you would still be riding on a horse, and not a car, if it weren't for Engineers Appreciate and thank the Engineers who build our world the way it is today stop whining, and blame Engineering, its a great and beautiful field, and i am glad i am soon going to become an Engineer

There needs to be exposure to the sciences at an early age. I’m a medical laboratory scientist and now work at a cancer research laboratory. Anything is possible!

My father and brother are engineers. My dad told me when I was a kid 1st year classes had a couple hundred students. One of his final classes had TWELVE students. It's hard and requires resolve. Not everyone is cut out for it tbh.

This is definitely encouraging news for me as I enter engineering this fall.....

I just graduated with a bachelor in engineering (minor in math) from an ABET accredited program and passed my F.E. exam. It took a lot of work. I think people just don't want to put in the effort. At first I was slacking as a freshman but toward the end I was more focused. You have to sacrifice a lot to pass engineering classes. They're not like typical courses where you're coddled and automatically given a passing grade.

I'm an engineering graduate with a first class degree. I flied through the exams because I found the theory simple to grasp. However the practicals proved very challenging. I spent many sleepless nights problem solving and feeling the pressure of meeting deadlines. It's really not worth the stress especially when your efforts are not appreciated by nontechnical managers.

I got an engineering degree many years ago. The hardest thing I have done in my life. I later got a law degree, which was tough, but not as hard as engineering. It took me more than 5 years to get my engineering degree.

I went to UC Irvine, school of engineering. The "counselors" and faculty treated me like shit, even going as far as to tell me that I didn't belong there. I did the honorable thing and just worked hard and ignored them. I graduated with a respectable GPA. Don't send your kids to UC Irvine.

There are the people that want to be engineers and those that are. I graduated with a 2.5 and have never made less than 130K a year. That should be motivation enough.

i been studying business for almost 4 yrs now and this impact is also taking a toll for business seeker, or nurse major i'm thinking of taking a semester or yr off to evaluate myself. I suggest engineers or any major who been in school for 3-4 yrs to take a semester break to evaluate them self the amount of studies you have to do for this era is no joke

What that guy that dropped out of student said was totally spot on. I took precal, calc, physics, chem in highschool and finished top of the class in two of them, but I didn't know half of the shit the professors in my first year courses expected me to know (and neither did most of the class) and instead of teaching you that shit they say look it up online because they have to finish this entire goddamn 1000+ page textbook by the end of the semester. Either professors got to chill or highschools have to actually teach you this shit.

I'm currently studying Mechanical Engineering (ME) at Colorado State University. This video is very misleading. There isn't an abundance of jobs in any field anymore. We have over 7.3 billion people on this planet... (just think about it). However, engineering is extremely hard. My life revolves around school, and the material I must consume, and project. Don't do engineering if you don't love math, and physics. These courses are the foundation of all engineering degrees. You must eat, sleep, and breathe the information in order to pass. In laymen's terms; If, you're not studying, you're probably wrong. Sincerely, MalignMan-Mechanical Engineer

Engineering is not for everybody. Students often switch degrees or realize the field of study isn't for them. Of course you have to give up a large chunk of your social life and fun and dedicate it to schooling. I have friends who are just plain lazy and don't wanna study hard but rather have fun/drink all weekend yet they want to earn a high income and always complain about their shitty low end jobs. Reality is, it takes time and dedication. After all, it's about your future. Friends don't pay your bills.

I went to Engineering School in the early 1970's and half my classmates at that time were foreign born. It's a tough curriculum and a lot of students don't want to work that hard. Instead they go into Business or the Fine Arts and then wonder why they can't land a good job. I spent 42 years in the Auto Industry, eventually working on Electric/Hybrid cars for one of the Big 3-and had a salary near $ 175,000.00 when I retired last year. I went 42 years and was never laid off, retiring with a great 401k account, pension, subsidized health care as a retiree and a feeling of great accomplishment. If you can handle the math, Engineering is a great field to get into. But you do have to be willing to work hard in school, there are no shortcuts.

As a person that just failed his first semester in college for a Computer Engineering degree, this is scary 😬. Hopefully you all can check back in 4 to 5 years and might see where I made it...

I think it depends on the university you are going in. The amount of homework I get for my computer classes is outrageous.

I have a degree in electrical engineering; graduated in 1996. I can tell you that it is a VERY difficult program. Even among engineering majors, it is the most challenging. When I started in electrical engineering, the class had 65 students in it. At graduation, there were only 11 of those original people in the program who made it to the end. Many ended up switching majors (usually going to math or computer science). With that being said, I can also say that it has been very lucrative from a financial perspective. I make a very good six figure salary, which considering I only have a bachelors degree (along with some certifications), that is impressive. There isn't much one can do about the difficulty level of engineering. It is tough scholastically and not everyone can cut it. But one thing that can be done is having better subsidies for people that choose to go into engineering. Not only are we in the most difficult university level program, but we often pay the highest tuition costs. Add to that all the books and lab equipment, and it adds up.

Everyone else is saying it, but pro tip: Take a 5th year and take courses over the summer to reduce your courseload. Eng is hard as fuck, no point in making it even harder.

"you become more well-rounded, you look at the world differently" that's so true...

People don't realize the degree of effort it takes to get an engineering degree. I sure as hell didn't. I'm finishing my sophomore year in MAE, and I'm struggling. But I won't pussyfoot around it. It's my own fault for being lazy. If you put the time and effort into it, you'll do alright. But don't jump in thinking it'll be like high school. You'll be in for a very unpleasant surprise. I have no plans on quitting. No way. I just need to buckle down. If you want to be successful, just make sure to keep up with homework and get to know the professor outside of class. Get extra help from office hours or tutors.

I dont know where I'm goin. My Dad died, and he left me his degrees. My mom would always say "Dad, why dont you work?", But he just kept learning. All the other kids parents were working and saving up money for school, And I was actaully in school all when my dad was in school. He was so gready with degrees, he took my degree. And now I'm just glad he left me these. Because all the regular homeless people have newspaper, and look what I have. These are documented. My father left them for me. And Im going to leave them to my kids. I'm going to learn too. I'm going to get super smart, so I to can die without money. But I'll be the smartest dead guy. Who has that.

The issue is the not the material’s difficultly, it’s the speed and work load required. Most of these student are working jobs outside of school and are full time students. Students are given 24 hrs to understand material from a course and turn in their homework assignments in time. So, fall short once, and you will follow behind for the rest of course. My advice, familiarize yourself with the material BEFORE taking the course. No Social life! No entertainment! No social media!

My engineer school took pride in dropping out 2/3rds of the students.

The problem is that our Math skills are pathetic when we get to college in the U.S. The foreign students, especially Asian, have a huge advantage over us because their Math skills are so far ahead. Math is basically the *language* of Engineering, so the American students are trying to learn twice as much at once. And yes, there are like *TWICE* as many Class and Lab hours as any regular Major. I did notice that the Math _would_ have been *easily* teachable to us (it's really just step by step- you build on each concept after you master the previous one) in Middle School and High School so that we would be ready, but many schools just fall so far behind in the Math and Science arena. Lol- there were motorized chalkboards 20 feet high in my college Engineering classes and one problem could take up the whole board.

Companies are on the hunt for engineers? Heck I graduated with a 3.95 GPA in Mech E, Magna Cum Laude, with plenty of involvement in engineering honor societies, sent out over 200 applications in the last two years and have only had 3 or 4 interviews for which I've been rejected in. I learned how to use their CAD programs, programming, and was highly interested in everything I was learning and eager to apply to the real world. Who exactly are these companies hiring? I already gave up with engineering as a profession and looking on to other things.

From what my friends and I experienced, the Engineering programs in schools weed out students by requiring them to maintain a certain GPA to stay into an Engineering program. Once you do not meet the required GPA in that engineering program, you are pretty much kicked out. Staying and maintaining the GPA to stay in the engineering programs is hard enough. Finding a job after graduation is even harder. Best of luck to all of you engineer majors.

I am finally graduating in Engineering. I am so happy! The effort, pain was all worth it

Obviously the graduation rate for engineers is going to be higher at Columbia. With acceptance rates less than 10%, Columbia only takes the best and brightest. Obviously if one is accepted into Columbia, one is prepared for the intense curriculum of engineering. It's the same way with schools like MIT, Caltech, Stanford, UC Berkeley, Georgia Tech, etc.

Graduated in 2011 BE(Hons) Chem. Eng. Companies complain about a shortage of engineers, but refuse to take on new grads b/c lack of experience. It's HARD to get a decent job unless you're top of your class. Honestly, if I had my time again, I would've quit school at 15 and invested every penny. My 2c as a mid tier engineer...

Choosing enginnering was the best decision I made in my life

I graduated with a degree in chemical engineering. It's hard work and really tough classes. I saw a lot of people drop out in my time but if, I'm going to be honest I wasnt surprised. Most of them just didn't dedicate their time or didn't want to dedicate their time to studying 8 hours a day plus going to classes and labs and working. It's really hard and it should be hard. Not everyone is going to make it through.

They're designed this way for a reason, it is to weed out all of the bad apples before graduation. You only want the best and most passionate to go on developing aircraft, nuclear reactors or medical devices.

Outsourcing has killed the value of engineers.

The is most bs i ever heard getting a bachelor's doesn't automatically make you an engineer 🙄

Yes, its a challenging major. As a career its easy to love. I came to college after as a child - teen fascinated with electronics from taking apart radios and later building project kits. Maybe more positive early experiences would help young people find the strength to power through admittedly tough classes and completing their degrees. I hope academia finds an answer.

I've been an engineer now for almost 30 years, and during that entire period, the same bullshit about "engineering shortages" has been propagated, except during brief periods during recessions. If you are whining about shortages, you are really whining that you don't want to pay more. The reason people don't enter the field, or drop out, is because you make more money in finance, and it can be just as challenging. If I weren't a top tier engineer making more than most techies in finance, I'd change fields.

Everything is hard. Every career is tough. Choose one and go for it, act like its your only option for freedom. When you shall do that, the light will glimmer at you.

Anything worth doing is never going to be easy. Keep your head up and your spirit strong my friends, and you will make it, one day.

A couple of points from a 35 year veteran engineer who is also PE: You can always find a job as a manufacturing engineer. It s the most hands on, tough, stressful, and not as many want to do it. Ironically, you will learn more doing that than in anything else and it will help you become excellent at design later. Another thing is you are nuts if you think you should wait til you get out with your degree to get experience. If the school has a co-op or internship program you MUST get into that. It's real experience and you can rack up a year or two of experience by the time you graduate. Sure, it will take you longer to get your degree. SO WHAT?! Another point: If you are looking for a 'job', then don't go into engineering. This is a PROFESSION, like medicine or law. If you go the PE route you have to take your two board exams and internship for five years after graduating. Worth it? Damn right. A new EIT can expect to make serious money in a firm and a PE like myself....takes home more money than an MD in private practice. Without a lot of the hassle doctors have to put up with.

If u like Engineering DO IT, and if u don't like it then don't talk shit about it. Without engineering you wouldn't be using KZfaq, the laptop that gave u to access it, and the electric that powered the laptop.

I think part of it is the stress students are under, another part is the job outlook, and then there is what I call the "advancing technical horizon". Engineering school is stressful. You get a lot of crappy graduate student T.A.'s teaching classes, with their only qualification being that they got an A in the class 3 years ago and the class professor is their advisor. Projects are huge time-sinks. Students are forced to commit to a project schedule at the beginning of the semester before they know hardly anything about the subject! Sometimes the projects foisted upon students have hidden got-ya's that will only reveal themselves near the end of the semester. I remember taking a microwave circuit design class where we were told to design, build and test a 5.8GHz radar system. All the students in the class were instructed to use the supplied FR4 PCB to route our micro-strip lines on. Several weeks from the end of the semester when we were beginning to test our systems, every team's transmitters were putting out like -30dB less than they were designed to do. Guess what, the cheap-ass FR-4 board our instructor supplied us for the class was attenuating the 5.8GHz signals. No one in the class expected this because this was our first exposure to designing microwave circuits. Our instructor told everyone to just "document our findings in our final reports" and didn't really seem to care that no-one was able to design a working system. I had put probably 100 hours into that project with design, tracking down device models, getting up to speed on the simulation and layout tools, doing the layout and running simulations with parameter extraction, and building the prototype boards.over the semester; It felt like I had been kicked in the nuts. I had a few other experiences with a similar gist (setup to fail) over my time in school. Students are put is situations where they must apply theory and put it to use before they really understand it. This is a very stressful and painful way to learn. Plus the learning curves for using some of the software tools can be pretty steep and require a large time investment that overloaded students cannot afford. Graduates know they will be competing for jobs against people who have 10 more years experience than them. The whole "engineer shortage" is a load of crap. Companies are unwilling to train and mentor people to develop into good engineers and engineering managers like they did 40 years ago. If you look at a lot of engineer job postings on various websites, the job requirements are ridiculous. Human resources departments want to hire an expert who can come in and immediately clean-up all their technical-debt, make all their problems magically disappear, and build an engineering team that will save the company's ass. There is a huge experience gap between what employer's are asking of new hires and what someone can learn in just 4 years of school. Many students realize the educational system will leave them in a position where they will be unable to find work in their field. Many of the software tools and skills they have spent much time learning will become obsolete. The are smart enough to realize that many companies use a "burn and churn" strategy when it comes to hiring new engineers out of school. They will put them on salary, then load them down with 90hrs per week. When they burn-out after a few years of this, they are replaced with "fresh" graduates. Many students will ask "What's the point?" and switch majors. The last issue I call the "advancing technical horizon". Engineers are expected to innovate and push the cutting edge. As technology gets better and better, this task gets a lot more challenging. Students today must learn much more than their counterparts 20 years ago. This is getting to be such a challenge, that many students feel they will not be able to make a successful career out of engineering. The sad part is, this is a correct assessment.

As a fellow Engineering student, I know the struggle and time it takes, to study and understand so much material, in such little time

When ur dealing with nuclear energy or building skyscrapers, you need to be smart, I don’t want an average brain building those things