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Study Says US Needs Fewer Science Students
cremeglace writes "It's an article of faith: the United States needs more native-born students in science and other technical fields. But a new paper by sociologists at the Urban Institute and Rutgers University contradicts the notion of a shrinking supply of native-born talent in the United States. In fact, the supply has actually remained steady over the past 30 years, the researchers conclude, while the highest-performing students in the pipeline are opting out of science and engineering in greater numbers than in the past, suggesting that the threat to American economic competitiveness comes not from inadequate science training in school and college but from a lack of incentives that would make science and technology careers attractive. Cranking out even more science graduates, according to the researchers, does not give corporations any incentive to boost wages for science/tech jobs, which would be one way to retain the highest-performing students."
When you don't offer people compensation for the utter destruction of their social lives required to seriously pursue science, they gravitate toward management.
That's nonsense - you can't destroy something you never had.
Scientists point out problems, engineers fix them
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Who in their right mind chooses a job based on "loving" to do it?
I'm currently finishing up an M.S. degree, and am applying both to jobs and PhD programs. I've worked up a $100,000 student debt over the last two years, but I was just extended a job offer (my first full-time job, ever) paying $80,000/year.
It's a job I know I'd enjoy. But you know what? I enjoy being in school even more, so I'm probably going to turn it down in favor of pursuing a PhD. Call me crazy, call me naive, but I'm doing what I love.
"I'd just like to emphasise that taking a million years isn't a metaphor here..." -Rich Bradshaw
Nope, that's not what the summary is saying. It's stating that we have a steady stream of scientists and engineers, but it seems like they choose another career path when they realize they'll just be overworked and underpaid.
Which is another way of saying their firm realized they are a useless waste of money incapable of doing the most basic jobs that their degrees implied they were qualified for. What a surprise that they eventually seek another career path.
If programmers were lawyers, 90% would be disbarred. Half the statisticians I interview can't solve a basic statistics problem correctly. 2/3 of the aeronautical engineers couldn't solve for lift on a wing. Half the math guys needed hints to prove that if x-1 and x+1 are prime, x is divisible by 6.
Fuck em. A McDonalds worker is welcome to a sociology degree, but giving him a math degree doesn't make him a mathematician.
We need good people in the math/sci fields, not dumbasses who got a degree because it was "going to make them rich."