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I'm guessing you dropped out of an Engineering or science program because it was too hard for you and now you're bitter or feeling inadequate?
Personally, I dropped out of Computer Science sometime around my Junior year of college, because I could see very clearly that American firms did not value tech talent. They would NEVER think of oursourcing their accounting and finance and legal to India, but they don't think twice about doing so to any kind of tech.
And then you have the age discrimination, which is a serious problem. They burn you out before you hit 40, and if you don't make it to management by then, you're really vulnerable to being displaced by someone younger and cheaper.
So yeah , I agree with what was said earlier, that there is no "shortage of STEM students" in America. There is a shortage of quality, stable STEM careers in America. Smart kids with high quantitative ability have no need to put up with that kind of crap.
I feel sorry for people who believed a science degree would be there salvation in the job world. I see many unemployed or marginally employed people in these fields. People who studied their asses off in these competitive majors and then end up working $15/hr contract grunt work in labs before getting laid off. I think you're better off majoring in liberal arts. A Philsophy degree is just as employable as a Biology degree and with the former you at least can party for your 4 years in college.
Electricians, plumbers, MOST everyone makes more than Philosophers.
Personally, I dropped out of Computer Science sometime around my Junior year of college, because I could see very clearly that American firms did not value tech talent. They would NEVER think of oursourcing their accounting and finance and legal to India, but they don't think twice about doing so to any kind of tech.
And then you have the age discrimination, which is a serious problem. They burn you out before you hit 40, and if you don't make it to management by then, you're really vulnerable to being displaced by someone younger and cheaper.
So yeah , I agree with what was said earlier, that there is no "shortage of STEM students" in America. There is a shortage of quality, stable STEM careers in America. Smart kids with high quantitative ability have no need to put up with that kind of crap.
Spot on. One of our relatives just decided NOT to go to college to get a STEM degree once he saw his uncle and his dad (and their coworkers) get laid off non-stop. You can do very well in a trade and not be outsourced to India or China.
Spot on. One of our relatives just decided NOT to go to college to get a STEM degree once he saw his uncle and his dad (and their coworkers) get laid off non-stop. You can do very well in a trade and not be outsourced to India or China.
I can't say I'm a big advocate of 'trades,' as the people I know personally have complained to me that it wears out your body fairly quickly, isn't a good lifestyle, and doesn't have the sort of social cachet they want. But I reckon it depends on the details.
It's both, STEM enrollments at colleges are much lower than other non-STEM programs and starting pay for STEM career is abysmal compared to even some low skill white collar jobs like a mortgage loan processor that requires no college degree and just 2 weeks of training and can make upwards of 100k in 5-6 years.
So over generalized as to be meaningless. It varies so much from field to field that making a blanket statement like the one above just isn't true.
I definitely agree that chemistry, biology, biochemistry and most related majors are poor choices for smart students. There is very poor demand for such majors and the demand that is there are terrible contract jobs with no benefits and wages fit for a garbage collector. There are some jobs that are decent. I finally managed to get a pretty good job. But it is mostly total crap. I would not advise nor even allow anyone in my family to major in science.
The idea that the victims are just "subpar students" is just derogatory, dismissive, blame the victim nonsense. I've seen quite a few very intelligent people have their lives really messed up with a science degree especially the horror show that is science PhD programs. Although not written specifically for science PhD's in the US it very eloquently captures the many problems there. liv | Dear brilliant students:
Look we get it, you clearly are unhappy with your choice to be a chemist. But your experience is a single anecdote. I have 31 years of STEM students data to see that for the good students STEM can be a great choice.
Absolutely. I didn't network very well or early enough given my introverted nature, and that is a mistake which I'm probably paying for. Meetup.com is a good source to find local groups covering almost any interest, including networking. I was also encouraged to do Toastmasters.
True networking it key. Also for anyone interested in research it is vital to work on actual research while pursuing your BS and ideal to get published and go to conferences and present.
Just drop the 'S' and make it TEM. I know many in the tech and engineering fields who do really well. Maths? They eventually went to wall street. Physics and statistics as well. As for the non quantitative sciences (biology, chemistry, all fields of biochemistry)... sorry.
Biology, chemistry and biochem are "non-quantitative"? In what universe?
You also left out one of the fields with strongest growth, envi sci, though I suspect you would still call it "non-quantitative".
I have been pondering this. The periodic table has only so many elements right? There are only so many ways to bond these elements together correct, and only so many combos? So we should have already discovered every possible material that can exists, and thereby their properties and applications? If so, how much do chemists make or should they make?
Or even better yet, biochemistry. There are only so many chemical compounds our bodies will respond too right? Shouldnt they have discovered all of them by now and what their effects are?
You are being facetious correct?
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