Why is engineering so popular now?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In my area it used to be the “elite” students would do pre-med (biology), pre-law (history), then finance was added in, then it seems finance dwindled a bit and CS was added in, and now it seems almost all in my DC friend group are talking about applying for engineering - only a few for CS.

Big shift from when my nieces/nephews went to college a few years back. Most who wanted engineering got in - now it seems so many more are vying for the same spots.

Most of the people from my cohort who went into finance majored in engineering. Some were also econ. There wasn't a "finance" degree.

Now we have Financial Engineering degrees

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In my area it used to be the “elite” students would do pre-med (biology), pre-law (history), then finance was added in, then it seems finance dwindled a bit and CS was added in, and now it seems almost all in my DC friend group are talking about applying for engineering - only a few for CS.

Big shift from when my nieces/nephews went to college a few years back. Most who wanted engineering got in - now it seems so many more are vying for the same spots.

Most of the people from my cohort who went into finance majored in engineering. Some were also econ. There wasn't a "finance" degree.

There's finance major under school of business

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Engineering was popular in the late 80’s and early 90’s.

It’s not new.

Back in the 80s I remember only having 30 other kids in CS as majors at UVA.

[Anonymous]

There is also a sense that liberal arts used to teach students about the aspects of western civilization to celebrate, or at least learn from, whereas now it’s just a painful exercise in “deconstruction” overseen by weird professors who are rendering themselves obsolete.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is also a sense that liberal arts used to teach students about the aspects of western civilization to celebrate, or at least learn from, whereas now it’s just a painful exercise in “deconstruction” overseen by weird professors who are rendering themselves obsolete.

Perhaps related, the liberal arts schools keep telling kids who are good at math and who test well that those skills are meaningless to them. Kids are taking them at their word and going into fields where their skills are understood to be meaningful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In my area it used to be the “elite” students would do pre-med (biology), pre-law (history), then finance was added in, then it seems finance dwindled a bit and CS was added in, and now it seems almost all in my DC friend group are talking about applying for engineering - only a few for CS.

Big shift from when my nieces/nephews went to college a few years back. Most who wanted engineering got in - now it seems so many more are vying for the same spots.

Most of the people from my cohort who went into finance majored in engineering. Some were also econ. There wasn't a "finance" degree.

There's finance major under school of business

Maybe now, but not back in the day in my cohort. Not all schools had an undergrad business school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is also a sense that liberal arts used to teach students about the aspects of western civilization to celebrate, or at least learn from, whereas now it’s just a painful exercise in “deconstruction” overseen by weird professors who are rendering themselves obsolete.

"To celebrate"? Uh no. That's never what it was. There have always been relatively "good" and relatively "bad" aspects that were covered. Even today.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is also a sense that liberal arts used to teach students about the aspects of western civilization to celebrate, or at least learn from, whereas now it’s just a painful exercise in “deconstruction” overseen by weird professors who are rendering themselves obsolete.

Perhaps related, the liberal arts schools keep telling kids who are good at math and who test well that those skills are meaningless to them. Kids are taking them at their word and going into fields where their skills are understood to be meaningful.

Psst: Math is one of the liberal arts (as are the natural sciences).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In my area it used to be the “elite” students would do pre-med (biology), pre-law (history), then finance was added in, then it seems finance dwindled a bit and CS was added in, and now it seems almost all in my DC friend group are talking about applying for engineering - only a few for CS.

Big shift from when my nieces/nephews went to college a few years back. Most who wanted engineering got in - now it seems so many more are vying for the same spots.

Most of the people from my cohort who went into finance majored in engineering. Some were also econ. There wasn't a "finance" degree.

There's finance major under school of business

Maybe now, but not back in the day in my cohort. Not all schools had an undergrad business school.

Who cares about back in the days

It's 21st century already

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is also a sense that liberal arts used to teach students about the aspects of western civilization to celebrate, or at least learn from, whereas now it’s just a painful exercise in “deconstruction” overseen by weird professors who are rendering themselves obsolete.

We were deconstructing in literature throughout the 90’s.

[Anonymous]

ROI, technology explosion, Apple popularity and cultism.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In my area it used to be the “elite” students would do pre-med (biology), pre-law (history), then finance was added in, then it seems finance dwindled a bit and CS was added in, and now it seems almost all in my DC friend group are talking about applying for engineering - only a few for CS.

Big shift from when my nieces/nephews went to college a few years back. Most who wanted engineering got in - now it seems so many more are vying for the same spots.

Most of the people from my cohort who went into finance majored in engineering. Some were also econ. There wasn't a "finance" degree.

There's finance major under school of business

Engineering is a more versatile degree. Business is not very challenging (far easier math and stats requirement, for example) compared to engineering/CS at schools like Berkeley and Michigan, and even Wharton compared to Penn SEAS.

[Anonymous]

How hard is it to understand that kids want an ROI on their investment?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Engineering was popular in the late 80’s and early 90’s.
It’s not new.

This. And an engineering degree nearly always leads to a good job.

[Anonymous]

I was hoping my kid would go for engineering, but no; majoring in business instead.