Anonymous
05/12/2026 12:34
Subject: What's up with all the engineering majors?
Nephew just graduated biomedical BS from large state school but not t50 program. Looking for work. Says job hunt has been brutal.
Anonymous
05/12/2026 12:26
Subject: What's up with all the engineering majors?
βon the way up fast: AI, materials science, quantum;
popular, highly competitive for phD, and not in danger of peaking anytime soon: molecular, biomedical, aero;
just past peak but strong at the phD level:ββ
I would add chemical engineering as well. Some top schools like Georgia Tech offer a Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering degree.
popular, highly competitive for phD, and not in danger of peaking anytime soon: molecular, biomedical, aero;
just past peak but strong at the phD level:ββ
I would add chemical engineering as well. Some top schools like Georgia Tech offer a Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering degree.
Anonymous
05/12/2026 12:21
Subject: What's up with all the engineering majors?
All the "engineers" I know are structural engineers, mechanical, plumbing electrical engineers or sub-specialties like geotechnical or noise etc... You can tell I'm in the building industry. Can you imagine how many specialty engineers are required to build a hospital? The MEP systems alone would have the complexity of a spaceship.
AI may facilitate some calculations as software gets improved but it's already been being used for decades. Building any structure on site (vs something factory-built) will require participation of teams of all different types of engineers. I don't see how AI will dramatically change this. Too much variation and specific project knowledge and detail.
AI may facilitate some calculations as software gets improved but it's already been being used for decades. Building any structure on site (vs something factory-built) will require participation of teams of all different types of engineers. I don't see how AI will dramatically change this. Too much variation and specific project knowledge and detail.
Anonymous
05/12/2026 12:20
Subject: What's up with all the engineering majors?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:So many of the kids at my child's high school and those from closeby schools are deciding to major in engineering. I'm curious as to why its become so popular, as it wasn't as common when I went to college in the 90's.
Do parents guide their kids towards engineering now because they think it will be AI-proof?
Professor at an ivy, lab was bought from a flagship ranked around 8-12 among publics. We moved across the country over 12 yrs ago, as did other labs. Almost all of us moved. The money and resources were a game changer for research. This ivy was one of the later ones to get into engineering but has moved up fast and will continue to. The teaching at an ivy versus a good but not Berkeley-level flagship is refreshing. At an ivy, it is rare to have students who cannot handle the work, though there was a dip in quality with test optional. No one likes to say it out loud but we all saw it. It has mostly reversed.
STEM education has been pushed hard since the early 2000s, robotics in elementary school, kid coding and particularly girls who code and girls in stem middle and high school summer programs. Boys have always been interested. It is seen as impressive among smart high school students, with many high school districts having competitive-entry stem magnets that exploded around 2015.
In the late 80s and 90s it was common to switch out of engineering at JHU, Princeton, Penn, Stanford, CMU, other top schools. Many of my peers quit and went to something easier, such as premed or prelaw. They are highly successful adults as it was a top undergrad, but they had no interest in the grind of the engineering courses. Now there are many more every year asking as freshman what to take to be eligible to apply to switch into the engineering school or prepare to declare the major. This is happening across all peer schools. It is a rewarding time to be an engineering professor if you love teaching as many of us do.
Buildings have gone up around engineering and stem the past 15 years, not humanities. It started in the 2010s at top colleges with big donors/big endowments and continues to surge the past few years after the pause of the pandemic. Ivy/top privates were the first to jump on board, adding or expanding engineering when they never had much of it before. Even in the past 3 years ivies have added or renamed departments to reflect the leading edge of engineering fields. Top schools have ties at top industries and know where the technology is headed.
Hot, on the way up fast: AI, materials science, quantum;
popular, highly competitive for phD, and not in danger of peaking anytime soon: molecular, biomedical, aero;
just past peak but strong at the phD level: Compsci/compE, civil.
old/not being emphasized wrt funding and phD spots: petroleum, chemE that is not relevant to the hot fields, textile, civil.
Top schools do not rename departments and add phD programs for weak fields. When top schools make decisions, the rest of academia tends to jump on board, same as always.
Quantum has provided almost no results and the industry is tiny.
Anonymous
05/12/2026 12:14
Subject: What's up with all the engineering majors?
Anonymous wrote:Engineering unemployment rates are rising, now same as average unemployed rate. Market is saturated with "engineers".
Lol
Anonymous
05/12/2026 12:12
Subject: What's up with all the engineering majors?
Ahh remember the old days when an "engineer" was trained in industrial applications or manufacturing?
The sub specialties esp the focus on EE or CSE has skewed the graduates b/c those specialties paid best. Civil pays least and has least interest.
Current job outlook for new grads is great for civil, fair for manufacturing, poor for CSE.
The sub specialties esp the focus on EE or CSE has skewed the graduates b/c those specialties paid best. Civil pays least and has least interest.
Current job outlook for new grads is great for civil, fair for manufacturing, poor for CSE.
Anonymous
05/12/2026 12:05
Subject: What's up with all the engineering majors?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:It's the new brag seniors tell family and friends...."I'm going to be an engineer" with $ signs in their eyes.
Only 50% make it to the finish line.
That is on the low end for an engineering graduation rate, but no doubt some engineering programs are that low.
Top programs (like MIT) are 90+% graduation rate -- because they filter during admissions and also work to have supportive environments.
+1 all top programs are 95-98% the past several years. MIT, CMU, ivies with real engineering(BSE degrees), Stanford, Caltech, Hopkins, and the top publics UCB, GT etc. The same group happens to be the best job outcomes.
Anonymous
05/12/2026 12:01
Subject: What's up with all the engineering majors?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:So many of the kids at my child's high school and those from closeby schools are deciding to major in engineering. I'm curious as to why its become so popular, as it wasn't as common when I went to college in the 90's.
Do parents guide their kids towards engineering now because they think it will be AI-proof?
Professor at an ivy, lab was bought from a flagship ranked around 8-12 among publics. We moved across the country over 12 yrs ago, as did other labs. Almost all of us moved. The money and resources were a game changer for research. This ivy was one of the later ones to get into engineering but has moved up fast and will continue to. The teaching at an ivy versus a good but not Berkeley-level flagship is refreshing. At an ivy, it is rare to have students who cannot handle the work, though there was a dip in quality with test optional. No one likes to say it out loud but we all saw it. It has mostly reversed.
STEM education has been pushed hard since the early 2000s, robotics in elementary school, kid coding and particularly girls who code and girls in stem middle and high school summer programs. Boys have always been interested. It is seen as impressive among smart high school students, with many high school districts having competitive-entry stem magnets that exploded around 2015.
In the late 80s and 90s it was common to switch out of engineering at JHU, Princeton, Penn, Stanford, CMU, other top schools. Many of my peers quit and went to something easier, such as premed or prelaw. They are highly successful adults as it was a top undergrad, but they had no interest in the grind of the engineering courses. Now there are many more every year asking as freshman what to take to be eligible to apply to switch into the engineering school or prepare to declare the major. This is happening across all peer schools. It is a rewarding time to be an engineering professor if you love teaching as many of us do.
Buildings have gone up around engineering and stem the past 15 years, not humanities. It started in the 2010s at top colleges with big donors/big endowments and continues to surge the past few years after the pause of the pandemic. Ivy/top privates were the first to jump on board, adding or expanding engineering when they never had much of it before. Even in the past 3 years ivies have added or renamed departments to reflect the leading edge of engineering fields. Top schools have ties at top industries and know where the technology is headed.
Hot, on the way up fast: AI, materials science, quantum;
popular, highly competitive for phD, and not in danger of peaking anytime soon: molecular, biomedical, aero;
just past peak but strong at the phD level: Compsci/compE, civil.
old/not being emphasized wrt funding and phD spots: petroleum, chemE that is not relevant to the hot fields, textile, civil.
Top schools do not rename departments and add phD programs for weak fields. When top schools make decisions, the rest of academia tends to jump on board, same as always.
It is all people will talk about, nonstop, and no one seems to gather that the issue was it was one of the rushed COVID policies and that schools with intentional Test optional (Bowdoin) have not had this issue.
Anonymous
05/12/2026 12:00
Subject: What's up with all the engineering majors?
Anonymous wrote:It is important to look at the curriculum.
Not every engineering degree is made equal if there is no objective bar and learning curve.
This. Remember ABET is a minimum number of hours/courses. Top programs are revered by grad school and industry because they are known to have much more rigorous requirements.
Anonymous
05/12/2026 11:59
Subject: What's up with all the engineering majors?
Engineering unemployment rates are rising, now same as average unemployed rate. Market is saturated with "engineers".
Anonymous
05/12/2026 11:58
Subject: Re:What's up with all the engineering majors?
Anonymous wrote:Where are all these engineering students coming from if our math and science scores are in the toilet?
the top students.
Anonymous
05/12/2026 11:55
Subject: What's up with all the engineering majors?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:IMO engineering is the only actually valuable/impressive undergrad degree.
That seems unfair to BS Nursing students, who also study very hard.
I do not agree with the PP who thinks engineering is the only important degree, it is not. And BSN is certainly important. Be serious though, it is not rigorous compared to other stem degrees.
BSN is not even in the realm of close to an engineering undergrad degree. There are myriad degrees between the two that are more rigorous, such as chemistry, physics, math, even biology. BSN is an important degree and nursing is a valuable societal job, but the science courses for that degree are not the same courses taken by majors in other areas of stem.
Anonymous
05/12/2026 11:50
Subject: What's up with all the engineering majors?
Anonymous wrote:So many of the kids at my child's high school and those from closeby schools are deciding to major in engineering. I'm curious as to why its become so popular, as it wasn't as common when I went to college in the 90's.
Do parents guide their kids towards engineering now because they think it will be AI-proof?
Professor at an ivy, lab was bought from a flagship ranked around 8-12 among publics. We moved across the country over 12 yrs ago, as did other labs. Almost all of us moved. The money and resources were a game changer for research. This ivy was one of the later ones to get into engineering but has moved up fast and will continue to. The teaching at an ivy versus a good but not Berkeley-level flagship is refreshing. At an ivy, it is rare to have students who cannot handle the work, though there was a dip in quality with test optional. No one likes to say it out loud but we all saw it. It has mostly reversed.
STEM education has been pushed hard since the early 2000s, robotics in elementary school, kid coding and particularly girls who code and girls in stem middle and high school summer programs. Boys have always been interested. It is seen as impressive among smart high school students, with many high school districts having competitive-entry stem magnets that exploded around 2015.
In the late 80s and 90s it was common to switch out of engineering at JHU, Princeton, Penn, Stanford, CMU, other top schools. Many of my peers quit and went to something easier, such as premed or prelaw. They are highly successful adults as it was a top undergrad, but they had no interest in the grind of the engineering courses. Now there are many more every year asking as freshman what to take to be eligible to apply to switch into the engineering school or prepare to declare the major. This is happening across all peer schools. It is a rewarding time to be an engineering professor if you love teaching as many of us do.
Buildings have gone up around engineering and stem the past 15 years, not humanities. It started in the 2010s at top colleges with big donors/big endowments and continues to surge the past few years after the pause of the pandemic. Ivy/top privates were the first to jump on board, adding or expanding engineering when they never had much of it before. Even in the past 3 years ivies have added or renamed departments to reflect the leading edge of engineering fields. Top schools have ties at top industries and know where the technology is headed.
Hot, on the way up fast: AI, materials science, quantum;
popular, highly competitive for phD, and not in danger of peaking anytime soon: molecular, biomedical, aero;
just past peak but strong at the phD level: Compsci/compE, civil.
old/not being emphasized wrt funding and phD spots: petroleum, chemE that is not relevant to the hot fields, textile, civil.
Top schools do not rename departments and add phD programs for weak fields. When top schools make decisions, the rest of academia tends to jump on board, same as always.
Anonymous
05/12/2026 10:58
Subject: Re:What's up with all the engineering majors?
Where are all these engineering students coming from if our math and science scores are in the toilet?
Anonymous
05/12/2026 10:55
Subject: What's up with all the engineering majors?
Anonymous wrote:IMO engineering is the only actually valuable/impressive undergrad degree.
That seems unfair to BS Nursing students, who also study very hard.