<p>Hey think what you want. But from what I've seen, the commitment to engineering amongst most students even at the elite schools is fairly shallow. After all, why is it that so many MIT engineering students are so eager to run off to consulting and banking? You would think that if any school had engineering students that truly were dedicated to engineering, it would be MIT. Yet the fact remains that one of the largest employers of MIT engineering students for the past few years has been McKinsey. Another has been Goldman Sachs. Another has been BCG. Another has been Bain. Another has been Morgan Stanley. Another has been Merrill Lynch. Ask yourself, if engineering students really were so dedicated to engineering, then why are they so eager to work for companies like that?</p>
<p>I know the same is true at Stanford. Ask yourself, why are so many Stanford engineering students jumping at the chance to get into consulting and banking? </p>
<p>From what I see, the commitment to engineering is pretty thin. The mentality of most engineering students is that choosing engineering is the best they can do given the circumstances at the time. It's mercenary. Career advancement is on their mind. </p>
<p>Look, the truth is, if Mckinsey or Goldman Sachs or similar companies went around guaranteeing job offers to students as freshman, a lot of them would choose not to major in enginering. Heck, a lot of them probably wouldn't even bother to graduate. The truth is, most college students go to college because they want to get a good job. If college did not offer the promise of a good job, then the truth is, very few people would go to college. Come on, you know it's true. Similarly, if engineering didn't offer the promise of a better than average job, you know that a lot of people would choose not to study it. </p>
<p>The point is, it's all a matter of career advancement. The truth is, many if not most people choose engineering not because they really love it, but because they want to advance their careers. If something better came along, they would choose that instead. That's why plenty of MIT engineering students jump at the chance to work for Goldman Sachs.</p>
<p>Heck, if you're a Duke faculty member, you should know exactly what I'm talking about. You know that a lot of engineering students don't really care about engineering. You know that they're not really enthused about the subject. You know that a lot of them don't really want to be there. You know that they're there just for the relative job security. Come on, you know it's true.</p>