Quality vs. Quantity in Engineering

by David Epstein Inside Higher Ed, 3 Mar 2006 Every spring, Jitendra Malik, chair of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of California at Berkeley, has a sitdown with students who have been accepted to the College of Engineering and are mulling over whether to attend. Malik has noticed a recent theme in the questions he gets from students, and especially from their parents. They want to know if they’re entering careers destined to be outsourced. Why might students admitted to one of the nation’s top engineering programs be worried about being getting a good job? And if students with enough ability to get into Berkeley engineering are afraid of enrolling, is the debate over increasing the number of engineering graduates nationwide missing the point? Read more