<p>^^Except that only a rare few will make it thru Johns Hopkins’ premed gauntlet and actually apply to med school. Does it really matter if ~30% of incoming Frosh are premed if only a few can ace the strict grading curves? After one or two C’s, such students are off to the ‘Studies’ departments. Med schools (and law schools) really don’t care about undergrad prestige – its 80/90% gpa+test scores.</p>
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<p>Regarding engineering, I would say that that’s not quite true: there is a distinct difference between majoring in engineering at a top-tier school and actually intending to work as an engineer - a subject that has been discussed throughout not only CC but in much of the mass media as well. In short, many of the engineering students at the very best engineering schools will not actually work as engineers for long (or even at all in many cases) , but instead will choose other careers.</p>
<p>As a case in point, I think we can all agree that MIT and Stanford are two of the most prestigious engineering schools in the world. Yet the fact of the matter is that many MIT and Stanford engineering students will not actually take jobs as engineers, but instead will head for jobs in finance and consulting. For example, before the economic crash, nearly half of all MIT seniors who headed to the workforce took jobs in consulting and finance. Granted, not all MIT students are engineers, but the majority (~60%) are, so that means that a substantial number of MIT engineering students took jobs in consulting and finance rather than engineering jobs. Even those that did take engineering jobs will often times do so for only a few years before heading to business school and then transitioning to finance or consulting.</p>
<p>As to why that occurs, much of it has to do with the fact that engineering, frankly, doesn’t really pay that well and doesn’t really offer (perceived) exciting career advancement opportunities relative to what finance and consulting do. Consider the sad lament of Nicholas Pearce. </p>
<p>*…Even at M.I.T., the U.S.'s premier engineering school, the traditional career path has lost its appeal for some students. Says junior Nicholas Pearce, a chemical-engineering major from Chicago: “It’s marketed as–I don’t want to say dead end but sort of ‘O.K., here’s your role, here’s your lab, here’s what you’re going to be working on.’ Even if it’s a really cool product, you’re locked into it.” Like Gao, Pearce is leaning toward consulting. “If you’re an M.I.T. grad and you’re going to get paid $50,000 to work in a cubicle all day–as opposed to $60,000 in a team setting, plus a bonus, plus this, plus that–it seems like a no-brainer.”
*</p>
<p>[Are</a> We Losing Our Edge? - TIME](<a href=“http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1156575-6,00.html]Are”>http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1156575-6,00.html)</p>
<p>Or consider Ankur Luthra, who is arguably the most talented student to ever graduate from the Berkeley undergrad engineering program in this generation, being Berkeley’s first Rhodes Scholar in 16 years and nearly setting the record for most A+ grades ever earned by a Berkeley student. Luthra chose not to work as an actual engineer. After completing his MSCS at Oxford via the Rhodes, he got an MBA from Harvard Business School and now he’s working in the finance industry. </p>
<p>[University</a> of California - UC Newsroom | Berkeley Student Wins Prestigious Rhodes Scholarship](<a href=“http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/article/5035]University”>http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/article/5035)</p>
<p>The fact is, most engineering companies do not really want to pay for top talent, which has resulted in a braindrain of much of the top engineering talent in this country to other industries, with ominous implications for the future of technological leadership of the country. Can the country continue to maintain an edge in technical innovation when many of the best engineering students at the top engineering schools are actually not that interested in engineering, but are more interested in becoming consultants or bankers? </p>
<p>As to why these students even choose to study engineering in the first place, some of them probably view engineering just as a backup career - something that they will take only if they can’t get the job that they really want. Others I know may have actually intended to work as engineers when they entered college…only to be later shocked during the senior-year recruiting process to learn about the opportunities available if they chose another career. {Heck, I remember one engineering student decrying why engineering companies can’t offer the opportunities that other industries were offering.} </p>
<p>To be clear, I don’t mean to single out MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, or other top engineering schools. The same is probably true at other engineering programs, the only difference being the opportunity. Let’s face it, if the engineering students at some 4th tier engineering program were being offered jobs at high-end consulting and finance firms, many would surely take it. Not all, but many. But that only reinforces the fact that many engineering students don’t really want to work as engineers as their first choice and would happily jump to another industry if they could.</p>
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<p>Regarding the premed track, your university actually matters tremendously because of the grade inflation, which, for the premed process, has less to do with earning good grades than it is about avoiding bad grades. Let’s face it: at schools such as HYPS and many other top private schools (but notably not schools such as MIT or Caltech), as long as you put in a bare modicum of effort, it’s practically impossible to earn a truly terrible grade. Granted, you probably won’t get straight A’s. But you won’t get any truly terrible grades either. But at many lower-ranked schools, terrible grades are a real danger. The top private schools are therefore the ‘safer’ premed choice in that they eliminate the long-tail risk to your GPA.</p>
<p>Refreshing to see poetry on this board. :)</p>