Harvard sciences and engineering

[newmassdad]

<p>Geesh folks, please go back and re-read the article. To start, here are the numbers:

For instance, 364 students in the Class of 2008 intended to concentrate in the biological sciences when they entered Harvard, but only 226 seniors are set to graduate with a degree in one of those fields.</p>

<p>Dropout rates are even more staggering in engineering: only 40 out of the 123 students in the Class of 2008 who said they wanted to study engineering are currently doing so.

Is the engineering “dropout” rate staggering? I hear the same numbers at colleges all over the country. Engineering is tough. Some students learn this later than others. And I would say that having 2/3 of the beginning bio majors complete the major without a switch is pretty darn good, especially considering how often college kids change majors.</p>

<p>Class size the only problem?

While the professors acknowledge that the attrition in their concentrations is problematic, they note that students switch away from the sciences across the country and have been doing so for years…</p>

<p>In addition to the impersonal nature of many science courses, students also report that being a science concentrator is difficult because of the rigorous work required for the discipline and the competitive nature of other students…</p>

<p>Younger, a sophomore who chose English over molecular and cellular biology, cites the difficulty of scheduling “huge chunks of lab time” while “trying to have a life” outside academics…</p>

<p>…Younger and An both also mentioned the intense competition in many introductory science courses.

</p>

<p>So I see quite a few reasons beyond class size, reasons that are not unique to Harvard. Kids all over the country find that the sciences are tougher than humanities, and engineering is a beast, even compared to science. </p>

<p>Not all kids like hard work.</p>