I don't know if this will work in Chit Chat... but yeah:

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/03/top-5-reasons-i.html

Quote :

"5. Awful Textbooks Thick, dry, black and white manuscripts are rarely a source of inspiration and sometimes can cause loads of confusion. Often, the text is poorly written and interrupted by lengthy equations with symbols that are different from those used by the professor during lectures. 4. Professors are Rarely Encouraging During each class, a professor that would rather be tending to his research will walz up to a blackboard or ovehead projector and scribble out equations for an hour without uttering a single sentence to create some excitement. 3. Dearth of Quality Counseling College students may not have a sense for how to build their resume and they might be clueless about the variety of career opportunities that await them. Unfortunately, some academic advisers do little more than post fliers about internships and hand out a checklist of classes to take. They should make some projections about the future job market, learn about the interests of each young scholar, and offer them tailored advice for how to best prepare themselves. 2. Other Disciplines Have Inflated Grades Brilliant engineering students may earn surprisingly low grades while slackers in other departments score straight As for writing book reports and throwing together papers about their favorite zombie films. Some professors view undergraduate education as a type of natural selection, but their analogy is flawed. Many of the brightest students may struggle while mediocre scholars can earn top scores because they have a larger group of supportive friends to or more time to dedicate to studying. 1. Every Assignment Feels the Same Nearly every homework assignment and test question is a math problem. Only a few courses require creativity or offer hands on experience. "

I feel like they've hit the nail on the head for at least 3 of those personally. This is an engineering school so I thought it'd be interesting to some of you.

3/24/2008 12:58:47 PM

inflated grades?

sure

3/24/2008 1:00:41 PM

BAHAHHAHAH yeah ... you know what you're talking about....

Quote :

"Major : English"

but seriously when your done you actually make money... pretty much the only undergrad degree that does. (w/o knowing some someone somewhere)

3/24/2008 1:02:49 PM

at least three

3/24/2008 1:06:10 PM

^^Ah yes, the typical response of an ignorant engineer student.

3/24/2008 1:06:59 PM

no way, the grades in the liberal arts have to be inflated because they're so subjective

if an engineer makes a bad bridge people could die
I'm glad your shit is hard

3/24/2008 1:07:27 PM

Quote :

"pretty much the only undergrad degree that does."

hahahahahaha

3/24/2008 1:07:39 PM

- I only had one textbook that was plain black and white. The rest (John D. Anderson ftw!) had tons of pictures and stuff.

- Most professors don't really teach that well, but luckily the TA's do.

- The whole counseling thing isn't true if you go to the career center. They have all types of resume help, mock interviews, and they list tons of info on finding employers. If you are in engineering, your knowledge can be applied to a lot of jobs.

- Other majors may have inflated grades, but remember this: You may work your ass off for a few years to get your engineering degree while your business major friends do minimal stuff. But once you graduate, it's gonna be the other way around for the rest of your life. I can wear jeans to work every day and people start telling me to go home if I'm at work even 15 mins longer than the regular schedule... I have friends in business however who work 60 hr work weeks and have to wear a suit every day.

3/24/2008 1:10:19 PM

what is "money"

I mean how much, per year, are we talking for a good starting salary?

3/24/2008 1:14:59 PM

depending on what type 40~60k?

3/24/2008 1:15:36 PM

closer to 50K is standard, all of my friends have started higher than that (and myself as well)

3/24/2008 1:16:29 PM

^agreed

3/24/2008 1:17:37 PM

within a year making over 50K salary without "knowing someone" and I graduated from... gasp, the college of management

oh, and while i do wish i could wear jeans, i put in about 43hrs a week on average and have managed to keep my long hair

[Edited on March 24, 2008 at 1:22 PM. Reason : x]

3/24/2008 1:20:37 PM

well i started out a kinda low on the salary with a life science degree, but about 12k in raises later within 2.5 years ...

3/24/2008 1:21:53 PM

oh shit

well I really will be making less money then

nah, that's what more education is for

3/24/2008 1:22:28 PM

Quote :

"- Most professors don't really teach that well, but luckily the TA's do."

only if the TAs are as awesome as you and I were/are.

3/24/2008 1:28:49 PM

because i've had TAs that didnt speak a word of understandable english....

3/24/2008 1:29:24 PM

as have I

I've also had a bunch that were the only reason the class was passable

fin for example

3/24/2008 1:30:12 PM

i really need to start using my degrees

[Edited on March 24, 2008 at 1:30 PM. Reason : i'm not making bad now, but i could be making a bit more ]

3/24/2008 1:30:27 PM

I'm glad I'm friends with Dr. Baxter

3/24/2008 1:30:56 PM

Quote :

"2. Other Disciplines Have Inflated Grades Brilliant engineering students may earn surprisingly low grades while slackers in other departments score straight As for writing book reports and throwing together papers about their favorite zombie films. Some professors view undergraduate education as a type of natural selection, but their analogy is flawed. Many of the brightest students may struggle while mediocre scholars can earn top scores because they have a larger group of supportive friends to or more time to dedicate to studying."

lulz, some yes, most, no

if there isn't a hard curve being used you don't really have much reason to bitch or complain

3/24/2008 1:33:45 PM

Quote :

"I don't know if this will work in Chit Chat... but yeah:"

Why didn't you just post it in the lounge?

3/24/2008 1:38:29 PM

Quote :

"But once you graduate, it's gonna be the other way around for the rest of your life. I can wear jeans to work every day and people start telling me to go home if I'm at work even 15 mins longer than the regular schedule"

this is so true - i was completely stressed out in college but now I'm livin the life

3/24/2008 1:40:56 PM

Likewise



[Edited on March 24, 2008 at 1:42 PM. Reason : Well, not really stressed out, but I worked my ass off]

3/24/2008 1:42:12 PM

Eh, sometimes it changes though... a lot of times those guys in business that are working their ass off now eventually end up starting a company that actually works out (ok, not often..but sometimes) and then they end up not doing a damn thing while you make them money.

3/24/2008 1:46:27 PM

so to summarize what i learned in this thread...there are only 2 majors in college: engineering and business

3/24/2008 1:48:32 PM

yayyy! cuz both of those are my majors.

3/24/2008 1:49:06 PM

business majors are usually the hottest(physically) imo....psychology chicks are the best relationship material imo

3/24/2008 1:51:34 PM

what in the hell?

3/24/2008 1:52:12 PM

My ex-girlfriend is an English major, as is her new boyfriend. I laugh and I laugh and I laugh and I laugh.

Maybe they'll work at the same Starbucks together.

3/24/2008 1:54:18 PM

Quote :

"so to summarize what i learned in this thread...there are only 2 majors in college: engineering and business"

ding ding

[Edited on March 24, 2008 at 1:56 PM. Reason : ^haha, true]

3/24/2008 1:56:44 PM

english majors are so freaking pretentious

3/24/2008 1:56:57 PM

what do you mean?

3/24/2008 1:58:05 PM

idk i just find most english majors annoying

3/24/2008 1:58:40 PM

racist

3/24/2008 1:58:56 PM

man i tell you one thing...those animal science broads are fucking horny as hell and usually monogamous...if shes in animal science and likes to ride horses she definitely likes to fuck

[Edited on March 24, 2008 at 2:02 PM. Reason : .]

3/24/2008 2:01:05 PM

^ LOL

3/24/2008 2:02:17 PM

i liked the unedited version better

3/24/2008 2:02:42 PM

jesus christ.
you two need to get a room already.

3/24/2008 2:03:02 PM

fo ril

3/24/2008 2:03:51 PM

i didnt want an animal science chick to think i was being rude or calling them slutty...you know how women are sometimes

[Edited on March 24, 2008 at 2:04 PM. Reason : haha i wish ^^ lol]

3/24/2008 2:04:18 PM

Quote :

"But once you graduate, it's gonna be the other way around for the rest of your life. I can wear jeans to work every day and people start telling me to go home if I'm at work even 15 mins longer than the regular schedule"

same here actually, labs ftw

3/24/2008 2:04:30 PM

I think I'll bust out some shorts later this week.
Software engineering ftw.

3/24/2008 2:09:15 PM

I don't get why you guys think wearing shirt and tie to work is such a big deal. I don't mind wearing shirt and tie to work when I'm making $100 K/year.

[Edited on March 24, 2008 at 2:15 PM. Reason : .]

3/24/2008 2:14:37 PM

tie = work noose

I'll wear a shirt to work
cause I'm not a stripper

3/24/2008 2:15:14 PM

Quote :

"$100 K/year."

the price of your SOUL

3/24/2008 2:17:57 PM

I like being comfortable. Yeah a tie is okay at first but it starts feeling restricting after a while. And you can't tell me that wearing a shirt (tucked in) and tie, and dress shoes is just as comfortable as a jeans, polo, and athletic shoes.

3/24/2008 2:19:21 PM

Quote :

"5. Awful Textbooks"

Some are pretty good, some are pretty dry, others seem like they were written more for post-docs instead of the uninitiated. It's a bit of a mixed bag, though I would say that engineering textbooks do tend to suffer from being uncaptivating in terms of content.

Quote :

"4. Professors are Rarely Encouraging"

Again, it's a mixed bag. Some professors are really good at what they do and make you want to pay attention (eg Brenner, Rhee, Lasher), others are either uncomfortable with what they're teaching (Stallmann ) or are simply uninterested altogether.

Quote :

"3. Dearth of Quality Counseling"

As has been stated, use the Career Center. Lots of resources there that, even in my second time through here, I have yet to fully utilize. They will help you if you ask them to. And not all academic advisers are douche bags, I've had a few good and friendly ones.

If you've had ENG331 already, you should already know a little something about how to write a resume or give presentations/interviews, if you don't have prior practice already. I hate to be condemnatory here, but if you don't already know how to give presentations (especially about yourself), you deserve to float in unemployment limbo.

Quote :

"2. Other Disciplines Have Inflated Grades"

I love to bitch about how easy the humanities students have it and I'll admit that I have some arrogant contempt for them, but Snewf does have a point. It's very easy to give somebody a bad grade on a programming assignment; see if it produces anything besides the expected output. Better yet, see if it even compiles at all. It's not as easy to say that somebody is wrong in a humanities class because of the necessarily subjective nature. You can make a piss-poor argument, but you can't necessarily make a "wrong" one. And I'm sure that professors will have some experience with catching blatant bullshit anyway.

Quote :

"1. Every Assignment Feels the Same"

Math is the building block of any science/engineering field. But I will say that this criticism certainly has some validity. I'm becoming more and more aware of how little the engineering curriculum teaches you to think creatively and inventively. Instead of teaching students the basics and then encouraging them to come up with methods for finding solutions, a good chunk of it is teaching the students to adhere to pre-defined paradigms (ie you WILL code your programs according to the MVC design, you WILL use a linked list when faced with this application, you WILL use this neat and funky math trick to solve the equation this way, etc). It's only at the end with senior design that we're finally asked to come up with anything novel, but we're asked to do a task that imo we haven't been prepared for at all.

I'm growing more appreciative of how much we need to introduce some creativity into the engineering curriculum. Any Joe Q. Average schmuck can pound out some code and make the program do what it's asked to do, but how many can write it using good design? How many can write it as efficiently as possible? How many can find that one quirky way of doing it that at first glance doesn't seem like it would work at all but it actually turns out that it's best damn thing since sliced bread?

I could rant about this some more, but I think I'll stop here.

[Edited on March 24, 2008 at 2:21 PM. Reason : blah]

3/24/2008 2:19:22 PM

I like dressing up... I guess I'm strange

Quote :

"And you can't tell me that wearing a shirt (tucked in) and tie, and dress shoes is just as comfortable as a jeans, polo, and athletic shoes."

Dress pants are so much more comfortable than jeans. I agree ties aren't comfortable..but hell my dress shoes are actually comfortable and I take them off while I'm sitting at my desk anyways because I constantly bend my toes and it wears places in my shoes if I keep them on lol. Tucked in shirt doesn't bother me in the least either

I don't really like ties--but I only have to wear them to important meeting with big clients, not every day

[Edited on March 24, 2008 at 2:22 PM. Reason : asdf]

3/24/2008 2:21:10 PM

Quote :

"Dress pants are so much more comfortable than jeans"

I guess everyone has their own opinion.

3/24/2008 2:24:49 PM