ifastredsc: Las Cruces - New Mexico State U? I almost went there to finish my engineering degree, but the administrator I spoke to there kinda turned me off. (shrug)....
Anyhow, here are me comments to your original post (and some to address the other replies). I'm no expert and don't have any hard data, so take it for what is is, an internet post:
You can’t compare China’s growth to US or European growth. Thus their increase in the number of graduating engineering students, although an interesting statistic has to be carefully used. I don’t know anything about the Chinese engineering program, but I can say that they have a different way of doing business and engineering. Two vice-presidents of my former company spent some time with a group of Chinese engineers and plant operators. They came back with stories of engineering and construction practices that are no where near the sophistication of the US and European engineering practices.
But don’t count them out so early. The Asian mind is adaptive and quick (sorry I had to throw that in here
). The Chinese will come on strong and improve their engineering practices quickly. They are driven, if not by Communist task masters, by peer competition and a strong urge to better themselves socially and economically. They may someday acquire some of the western world’s engineering dollars, but I think there will always be a cultural curtain that prevents a big wave of engineering outsourcing to the Chinese, Indians or other countries.
We are currently outsourcing some of the engineering related tasks, such as drafting; however, I think once the economic benefit of outsourcing wears off and the difficulties in quality control become reality there will be a shift to pull back some of the outsourcing. I can foresee some a lot of difficulties in outsourcing the intellectual aspect of engineering. There is too much involved with good engineering to outsource at a high or large volume level.
For there to be a global engineering community that would cause me to worry about engineering outsourcing, there has to be a bigger leap in technological development to make communicating and interacting with overseas firms less painful. I can’t tell you how annoying and inefficient it is to teleconference and remotely interact with peers and clients within the US!
Something else to consider is that US population growth and economic growth are not proportional. Neither are population growth and the demand for engineers.
The above topic is far more complex and even a live round table discussion wouldn’t come close to satisfying the participants. Doing it on the web is more difficult.
Why are their more graduates from less demanding programs, such as Sports Journalism? There is likely a greater percentage of high school graduates entering college and choosing liberal degrees or other degrees that have not been the core college programs; whereas before one is more likely to go to college for the core programs like Law, Medicine, Engineering, Education, etc. I think it’s great that more and more students go to college, but going to college isn’t an automatic intelligence lottery jackpot! Some go to college seeking a dream career in media or some other less demanding field than engineering. Perhaps those students wouldn’t have gone to college 10 years ago, so the graduating numbers need to be understood when comparing them to engineering graduating numbers. That is just potentially one explanation.
As for students not sticking it out in engineering, the above may also be a factor. In past decades, you had to really want to be an engineer to consider going to engineering school. Nowadays, college isn’t as difficult to transition into as say 20 years ago. And perhaps with ease of transitions there are more applicants who are getting into engineering programs who wouldn’t have gotten into it before…or even considered it. As a result, they can’t complete the program or find they weren’t meant to be engineers and have other options.
Sure there are social and popular cultural factors as to why there has been a slow increase in the number of US engineering grads, but engineers will always be engineers. We don’t have glamorous jobs at times, and for the most part our profession is not as cool as some other professions. Hollywood won’t be coming out to tape a reality show about me and my engineering life anytime soon. Yet, they have made reality shows of chefs, hair stylists, musicians, etc. Should we be worried? Nah. If someone is going to be pulled into that kind of pop culture soup, let them, they would have dropped out of engineering school anyhow. If they end up at college getting a liberal degree, chances are they won’t be using that degree. If they do use that degree, they probably won’t have the security and opportunities that an engineering degree can provide.
Engineers can be cool, and engineers can make a lot of money. I’ve been out of school for less than 10 yrs, and I’m making a better living than probably 95% of the friends I had in college, which included students of all disciplines. I sure as heck didn’t have a hard time getting laid in college…even when my reply was “I’m an engineering major.”
Remember, not all lawyers and doctors or finance professionals make the top dollars. If you are to compare engineers to doctors and lawyers, consider that the engineer has at least a 3 yrs head start on earnings and 3 years less educational costs. (we only need a 4 yr degree to start on our career path) Then consider the hours that doctors and lawyers are committed to their jobs (think medical interns and new law associates). A 40-60 hr a week engineering job that pays $50K-$125K per year doesn’t seem so bad. Six figures for a good engineer these days is not out of the realm of possibility.
So much more…but I have to get back to work,
Mr. McCreamy Engineer