<p>"plug and chug" refers to the sort of problems where there is a memorized sequence of steps, and you can plug numbers into the given equations with minimal thought</p>
<p>I completely agree with your Uncle. I mean working in Starbucks after graduation requires much more skill than working in say, Intel. Oh, btw by "I completely agree with your Uncle" I meant that I completely agree with your Uncle that he is an idiot.</p>
<p>I killed so many brain cells at college that I took art history just to see how good my memory still was. I got an A and took the next one since the first was so easy.</p>
<p>Comparing the two degrees is a joke.</p>
<p>For people who have talent in what they're pursuing, it is always easier and more fun than other pursuits. As an example, which do you think that Einstein would have found easier - physics or art history?</p>
<p>art history. no, im dead serious and i have to wonder if you are joking.</p>
<p>it's not like he had a mental disease that he found physics extremely easy as compared to, say, Art History.</p>
<p>Yeah, that's the thing... It's easy to do art history badly and get a good grade in an intro class. It's difficult to do art history well. It's amazingly difficult to become a noted art historian. I fathom that it'd be harder for me to become a noted art historian than it would be to get to design skyscrapers, but that also might be because I've gotten to the point where they let me do the one, but not the other, so the other seems harder... I dunno.</p>
<p>The capacity for challenge is there... But I'd say that within certain programs, yeah, it can be a blowoff major. Someone once told me that a non-technical academic major (at Rice we called them "academs" or "slackadems") can be as easy or as difficult as you make it. I kind of tend to believe that, and I would presume that the uncle of the friend of the OP's tends to hire the ones that make it difficult.</p>
<p>But it's still screwed up that he won't hire engineers, because like there are different levels of gusto with which art historians attack their degrees, there are different levels of gusto with which engineers approach people-situations.</p>
<p>No I'm not joking - why don't you read some biographies. As a scientist who has been heavily involved in engineering for >30 years, I can tell you that if you find other subjects so much easier than engineering, you're definitely in the wrong field. I don't know anybody who has been successful that doesn't find technical subjects easier. As a matter of fact, many had difficulties in meeting their humanities requirements in college. The people I work with find reading technical material easier and far more enjoyable than reading a novel. I remember an older colleague telling me as I started on my Ph.D., (somewhat jokingly) that unless I preferred reading science to reading Playboy, I was barking up the wrong tree.</p>
<p>Maybe the OP's friend's uncle doesn't hire us because we're so blindly convinced of the inferiority and relative worthlessness of a liberal arts education...</p>
<p>ok. i totally didn't say liberal arts education is worthless. </p>
<p>only thing i said is there are simply some courses/majors that are harder than others</p>
<p>average gpa from physics dept: 2.86
" " math dept: 2.88
"" chemistry: 2.91</p>
<p>average gpa from classics dept: 3.51</p>
<p>I'm an engineer, and the way my mind works, I agree with your friend's uncle that engineers may be a poor choice for non-engineering positions. I know others find engineering difficult, but it all depends on how your mind works. Engineers have their place, and are paid well by middle class standards, but if you want someone to be your Fortune 500 CEO, hire a non-engineering LAC graduate with an advanced degree.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Engineers have their place, and are paid well by middle class standards, but if you want someone to be your Fortune 500 CEO, hire a non-engineering LAC graduate with an advanced degree.
[/quote]
Explain this please.</p>
<p>
[quote]
No I'm not joking - why don't you read some biographies. As a scientist who has been heavily involved in engineering for >30 years, I can tell you that if you find other subjects so much easier than engineering, you're definitely in the wrong field. I don't know anybody who has been successful that doesn't find technical subjects easier. As a matter of fact, many had difficulties in meeting their humanities requirements in college. The people I work with find reading technical material easier and far more enjoyable than reading a novel. I remember an older colleague telling me as I started on my Ph.D., (somewhat jokingly) that unless I preferred reading science to reading Playboy, I was barking up the wrong tree.
[/quote]
Umm, what are you talking about? Sure, at the highest level of engineering this might be the case. That's the minority though. I don't find your anecdotal evidence compelling at all.</p>
<p>As an engineer, let me tell you.... I'm much more confused about art and history than fluid mechanics and thermodynamics.</p>
<p>jmilton90/ "as an engineer"...</p>
<p>well, everyone here are engineers (or eng students). it's pretty much assumed. and there have been others in this thread already who said the exact opposite.</p>
<p>i guess we can just vote on it, if we can have a sample size bigger than like 50 students.</p>
<p>i suggest we do three different votes,
asking the exact same question to:</p>
<p>1 for group of engineering students,
1 for group of art history students
1 for group of random majors that has nothing to do with either majors.</p>
<p>there's a reason engineering majors get appreciated for working the hardest within school as compared to like, heck, i dunno...if you haven't noticed such appreciation, i wonder what eng school you're going to.</p>
<p>
[quote]
[quote]
Engineers have their place, and are paid well by middle class standards, but if you want someone to be your Fortune 500 CEO, hire a non-engineering LAC graduate with an advanced degree.
[/quote]
Explain this please.
[/quote]
Some references:</p>
<p>Introduction[/url</a>] Fortune 500 CEO's believe that managers and CEO's of the future will need to be proficient in at least one second language and culture and comfortable in different cultural settings (Fortune 500 study and Hersh, "Intentions and Perceptions").
[url=<a href="http://www.ajc.com/blogs/content/shared-blogs/ajc/sportscolumns/entries/2005/11/27/tech_squanders.html%5DWelcome">http://www.ajc.com/blogs/content/shared-blogs/ajc/sportscolumns/entries/2005/11/27/tech_squanders.html]Welcome</a> to AJC! | ajc.com About 18% of fortune 500 CEOs received their degree in engineering.
Campion</a> College in Sydney In fact, more than half of the Fortune 500 CEOs have a degree in the liberal arts (USA Today, 24 July 2001)
College</a> of Liberal Arts | Dean's Welcome Liberal Arts majors, too, seeking jobs immediately on completion of the bachelor's degree, are welcomed by many employers, as even a cursory examination of Fortune 500 CEO's educational backgrounds will reveal.
College</a> of Liberal Arts & Sciences :: University of Colorado Denver Many Fortune 500 CEO's have degrees in liberal arts majors like Philosophy, because these majors develop your interpersonal communication and organization.
The</a> University of Arizona Career Services :: Major / Career FAQ A recent survey of Fortune 500 CEO's found that over 40% had undergraduate degrees in something OTHER than business. Many had a Liberal Arts background.</p>
<p>
[quote]
About 18% of fortune 500 CEO’s received their degree in engineering.
[/quote]
And you do realize that Engineering is like 5% of the total degrees awarded in the US, right? One's chances to become a CEO are far better with an engineering degree...</p>
<p>Another way to look at it is that the chances are better with a non-engineering degree... ;)</p>
<p>
[quote]
Another way to look at it is that the chances are better with a non-engineering degree...
[/quote]
That would be wrong.</p>
<p>Engineering: 5% of graduates. 18% of F500 CEOs.</p>
<p>Nonengineering: 95% of graduates. 82% of F500 CEOs.</p>
<p>Qualities that make a good CEO transcend what degree you earned in college. </p>
<p>Being an art history major does not make you creative or a good communicator by default, just gives you three years experience in writing about art. </p>
<p>I also STRONGLY disagree that if one finds LAC electives easier than their engineering courses, they are in the wrong field. </p>
<p>If you find driving to class easier than engineering, should you be a bus driver? Certain things are inherently easier than others.</p>
<p>In my creative writing course I had to write a few poems and read short stories. I found this much easier than my fuel cells course where I had to write a fifty page paper on electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. Should I have been a creative writing major? No. I was the top of my fuel cells class.</p>
<p>I just wanna know what makes you think that speaking more than one language and majoring in engineering are somehow mutually exclusive.</p>
<p>This is all devolving into ridiculousness. I'm going to go pour myself a drink.</p>