<p>achat, I know what you are talking about, I see that with some of the asian families we know. Those kids work so hard, nonstop, the parents are always pressuring. They are extremely motivated and smart, but sometimes they seem like they don’t have much joy in their lives. I know it’s probaby culture and tradition to work so hard to achieve, but it’s wonderful that you are looking at what is best for your son, and nothing else. In the end, I’d
expect that he will probably be very successful—and happy too, what a concept!</p>
<p>icylava, that’s part of the reason we put out the money for CMU, seemed like in this economy it might be worth the investment. But there were alot of other reasons, including the kid loving the school, fitting in and his overall happiness also.</p>
<p>JHS, you are writing about our family: three kids, first w/ Asperger’s and anxiety/depression. He’s a smart kid (790M), but totally unable to function. The world is too fast-paced for him and employers don’t want a kid who needs “a little mentoring”. </p>
<p>Right now, he’s at a small LAC (started at a top 25 university but that was a disaster.) Now a senior, he’s on the Dean’s List, and has no plans for the future. “Afraid” to go to the Career Services) even tho support services is willing to intervene) or consider working at an internship. His only “success” in life is academics. He’s talking about wanting to go to grad school, but doesn’t know the first thing about the process.</p>
<p>With two other kids, DS2 in college and DS3 a senior, we see the long view. Although finances aren’t the issue, his future (and the future of all kids with such disabilities) will affect our country in a huge way (autism rate today…1:150) if employers don’t start helping us parents who have had to tackle this issue singlehandedly.</p>
<p>These surveys are notoriously bad because they are self selecting as to what people report and who reports. I’ve never answered one myself. Plus I’m not even sure how to read this one. What was the total number of CS grads? Why doesn’t it just give a percentage of them that are employed.</p>
<p>Even so, it looks like a huge chunk of the ECE grads in this survey chose to go to grad school.</p>
<p>And if the purpose of this post is to imply the CMU is somehow head and shoulders above UCB in Engineering that’s just silly. And no, I didn’t go to either school.</p>
<p>Trust me, the job market is tough for everyone. Not as bad for engineers, but bad.</p>
<p>bovertine - If you read carefully, they are not a “self selecting” bunch, the source at the bottom says it is “graduating seniors with a 100% response rate”.</p>
<p>As for the grad schools that they are going to, these are top schools and not the type that let you in when they couldn’t find a job and decide to attend at the last minute.</p>
<p>^ No. It does not mean that. But the evidence I have seen is that engineering graduates in top quartile of the graduating class from top schools (Pvt or Public) are able to find jobs. Often they have multiple job offers.</p>
<p>icylava, I did read 100% response rate. I said they can also report whatever they want if you read my post.</p>
<p>And the Berkeley survey doesn’t list who went to grad school. It just says around 50% are employed, which is about what I count up from CMU. Believe me, most decent grads from Berkeley EECS can get in most anywhere. </p>
<p>If you think you can compare two different surveys conducted by two different schools with different methodologies to tell you anything about the relative quality of the schools, I don’t know what to tell you. This says nothing about the relative quality of the schools, or really anything about the employability of their grads.</p>
<p>I’d say USNWR is more reliable. Check it out.</p>
<p>By far, the most factual survey I’ve seen is from Cal Poly, a California State campus. It gives all the details, not hiding anything. I think all colleges should present their surveys like that.</p>
<h1>95 and #99 - wonderful posts, JHS. Thank you.</h1>
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<p>This is a picture we’ve drawn for our kids (with copious illustrations from our own early post-college years - it’s amazing that my kids don’t glow in the dark, considering how much canned tuna I/we lived on in our twenties) forever too, and I hope they’ve internalized it. We’ll see in the coming months, with the oldest. Goodness knows they’ve been exposed often enough to knee-jerk responses to their chosen or planned majors (“what on earth is she going to do with THAT?!”), and H’s and my calm answers that we are confident they’ll work their way into careers/jobs that they want to pursue. </p>
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I’ve encountered this too, and I find it so sad.</p>
<p>I haven’t read through the entire thread, so I apologize if this has already been written:</p>
<p>Unemployment, and underemployment is not news for “Top 20” graduates. I know plenty of them out there. Some went through phases just out of school when they barely could find a job, some went through phases after grad school, some got downsized, some never quite got life figured out. Going to a “good” college/university is not a golden ticket to life. Please don’t let yourselves, or your children, fall into the trap of believing that.</p>
<p>Nothing, not even a formal plumbing apprenticeship, will guarantee you a job!</p>
<p>I didn’t mean to get involved in this ranking discussion. Maybe I misread icylava’s post, but when I read the “luck” in quotes I inferred that he (or she) was implying UCB was somehow a substandard school. The truth is these are all excellent schools - UCB, CMU, Cal Poly, and the top grads will generally do well. But for every top quartile, there is always a bottom three quartiles, and they are struggling.</p>
<p>I think surveys have to be taken with a grain of salt. These are volunteer activities and cannot be used to compare between different schools. Here is the link to MIT surveys</p>
<p>a_mom: MIT is the only university that I’ve found to be the as transparent as it can be possible, right from the admission process, online list of the courses being taught in the classes, to the graduating survey.
One very strong reason for DD to fell in love with it.</p>
<p>achat: I am sorry that you think the responses are kind of offensive. I have believed my entire life that education (no matter from where or in what) does not equate to the amount of money a person makes in his/her life. I come out strongly negative only to those who complain that after spending $200 K in whatever major they are not seeing return on their investment $.</p>
<p>Post #112 provides a link to MIT’s 2008 Graduating Student Survey, which was conducted before the economic downturn. The 2009 survey, which is not yet available, will no doubt show that 2009 graduates faced a much tougher job market than graduates in previous years–as evidenced by this article in The Tech:</p>
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<p>My D is a 2009 MIT engineering graduate. She couldn’t find a job until earlier this month, but she lucked out and received a great offer that utilizes her engineering skills. Two of her classmates, also with engineering degrees, got job offers this month, too. Fingers crossed that the job market is picking up.</p>
<p>^^^^ Thanks for posting this. If it is even a little tough for the creme-de-la-creme it has got to be tough everywhere. Even if you are a real go-getter.</p>
<p>mapesy: Congratulations to you and your D. Landing a job itself a big thing in this economy.</p>
<p>If you pay attention the class of 2008 itself had a 26% decline in the companies visiting MIT career office.
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<p>So a 30% decline over that will automatically make things toughest it can be for the graduating class of 2009.</p>
<p>Also the major impact area is financials, a third of MIT grads used to go into that area.
It seems course VI is doing fine and also most other core engineering courses.</p>
<p>Lima, I have colleagues in HR who have had great success hiring professionals with spectrum disorders. (although the depression and anxiety is a tremendously complicating factor in the working world.)</p>
<p>Does your son have strong math skills? If so, has he taken two semesters of statistics and a statistical programming course? Lots of companies-- credit cards, insurance, large hospital systems, pharma- need statistical analysts who work independently, have somewhat limited interactions with the more social/gregarious types in the company, get paid well, and often work for a team leader who has been successful managing others with similar profiles.</p>
<p>If not- does he like research and editing? Fact checking is a dying art and the evisceration of newsrooms and traditional publishing has accelerated this trend- but there are still positions available for young professionals who are good at it.</p>
<p>I would encourage you to do everything you can to get him to career services. They will be a good first step in showing him that he can be successful at something other than academics- or show him careers that are academically oriented-- and may have good contacts to help him get launched.</p>
<p>simba: I usually don’t frequent CC that much these days, so I did not read/was not referring to anything you said or anyone else here. I was just observing something that I encounter in my private life among my social circle…</p>