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By Design News Staff -- Design News, September 5, 2005
No regrets over school work
I read your editorial (DNWEBLOG 07.18.05). I am an engineer and went through many years of engineering school. Stressed? Yes. Overloaded with work? Yes. Unhappy? No. Of course, I had absolutely no time to party and neither did my classmates. It was study, study, study, homework, more homework, labs and projects, six and seven days a week. But how else would we ever cover the necessary material in a reasonable amount of time to graduate? I watched as others in liberal arts casually sauntered on to campus to start class at 10:00 a.m. (we were in some by 8:00) and off to relax at the beach by 2:00. They had plenty of time to just "hang out," read and enjoy campus life. Regrets? No! Who's laughing now? I get paid 3 to 4 times more what they do, I come and go from work as I wish (haven't used an alarm clock in nearly 10 years) and more importantly, I'm happy with my job! The work brings me a great deal of satisfaction. My engineer friends (including my wife) are easily the happiest and most satisfied and stress-free of all my acquaintances. Four to five years of "torture" for a lifetime of happiness and career satisfaction? I'd do it again in a snap! When you look back at our shared hardship, it doesn't feel so bad.
Isaac Leung, Santa Clara, CA
Engineering education=work
The survey got it half right, workload is the number one downer. My years at Rochester Institute of Technology were run like hell for 10 weeks and hope you don't get flattened. How many of the other "bottom 20" engineering schools were also on the quarter system? As for the other half, access to professors was never a problem. Also, one inescapable truth about engineering education is that engineering is a lot of work! Anyone who can figure out how to truly "teach" engineering without experiments that don't always work, projects that go awry, tedious reports, and higher math will make a lot of money. Those things are reality in the world off campus. That might be why it pays better than whatever it is liberal artists do. Finally, satisfaction has a lot to do with perspective. I used to study with a group of Vietnamese students, all of whom endured monumental struggles just to get to here. Next to them, I didn't feel I was missing out on a thing. I wonder how many in the survey knew what it was like to really struggle as my newly arrived classmates did?
Tim Collins, Rochester NYBSEE, RIT Class of '98
But do liberal arts majors get better tips?
My stay at University of Missouri-Rolla from 1978 to 1982 was not the happiest time in my life, but I obtained an education that enabled me to be creative and provide a good standard of living for my family while contributing to the betterment of society. I am not the least bit unhappy when I am able to go to my local restaurant and enjoy a good meal and bottle of wine. I always tip liberally the nice history, art, or sociology graduate who waits on me.
Bill Gillette PE, Seymour, TN
Misery loves company
Perhaps it's not untold that a type B personality (laid back, sociable, happy) could make it in the engineering realm? But they are few and far between. If you are one, there is nobody else around who shares your traits.
Tim P. Cooper, Houston, TX
Less socializing, better jobs
I have to concur with the point that "engineering students do not have the time to take advantage of quality of life programming . . . " Having been a parent of an Ad/Marketing major who shared housing with three engineering students, my perspective is in line with that supposition. My son, a Penn State grad, roomed with a chemistry major and two computer science majors. I have never seen a workload to match the chemistry majors'. It took him five brutal years to get out with a BS. One of the computer majors got out in five with a masters. The other took four. None of them had a well-rounded social life. The chemistry major had no social life. Big Blue snagged both the computer science guys while AmGen got the chem major, so the struggle was probably worth it for them.
Steve Barndt, Souderton, PA
Engineering students are more serious
One item you did not address in your article about engineering education and happiness was schools that had strong engineering programs, but were not exclusively engineering schools. I checked out my alma mater, Brigham Young University, and found it rated #6 on quality of life, and #7 on happy students. The workload of an engineering student was still there, but I, for one, thoroughly enjoyed my experience as a student. Perhaps the general education and religious classes required by the school helped to spread out the workload and keep us from feeling overwhelmed by a single focus on engineering.
I think self-selection plays another part. Engineering students are probably more serious about their studies. Engineers also tend to be critical and perfectionists. Perhaps the engineering schools rated lower because their students were pickier. One of my roommates, an electrical engineering student, was extremely studious. Occasionally we would drag him to a dance. We were trying to help him maintain a little balance in his life. Maybe that's what some engineering schools need.
Newel Stephens, Madison, IN
Engineering schools need quality control
The conclusion that engineering education is a modern form of medieval torture is right on. Of course students are unhappy: They have instructors trying to teach engineering who have no idea how to implement quality in their own classrooms. The professors would be thrown out if they applied the same teaching methods in manufacturing. Furthermore, there isn't an administrative staff that recognizes the student as a customer.
Thomas Malinowski, Plymouth, MI
U.S. colleges are overrated
I found your article interesting in several aspects, but one of them more than others: "Is student unhappiness an acceptable by-product of engineering's intense educational experience?" Your hypothesis seems to be that students go into the engineering field happy, and the educational process makes them the opposite. I believe all serious students achieve a level of personal happiness when gathering knowledge and understanding of a subject. Putting the pressure on colleges to make students "happy" is not what the focus should be, however, colleges should provide the proper environment for learning. I believe that U.S. colleges are quite overrated and European and Latin American universities far underrated. The amount of money paid to colleges in the U.S. is so vast that when compared with Latin American counterparts, it is a shame they are not 10 times more than what they are.
Jose Grioni, Twinsburg, OH
McMaster Carr site VS. Thomas
Your recent column extolling the virtues of the McMaster Carr website (DN WEBLOG 08.15.05) really hit the mark. What made it more interesting was a few pages further on, where Thomas announced the demise of the Thomas Register in print. Thomas's website is so poor that when a Google reference lists Thomas as the source I normally pass it up, unless I'm really desperate. Sad for the company that once was the paper equivalent of Google.
Gary H. Lucas, Design News reader
McMaster.com is terrific
I just read the editorial "The Perfect Site," and I couldn't agree more. I am a machine designer that gets his hands dirty and I almost exclusively go to McMaster Carr first for components and product information. I get extremly frustrated at the miriad of useless junk and corporate propaganda that can be found on most "world class" industry websites. I don't care about the shareholder information and the fact that they have an office in Rio de Jeneiro. I want product specs and CAD drawings and I want them now. Not only does mcmaster.com offer a plethora of products, specifications, and pdf and cad files, they have the items in stock and I know I can get them delivered the next day (sometimes the same day)! Other suppliers should take note of mcmaster.com's format.
Chuck Eiter, Franklin Park, IL
McMaster Carr saves time
I read your article. My colleagues and I have been instructed by the bean counters to diversify our product acquisition by utilizing McMaster Carr's competitors . . . the ensuing storm was inevitable. When bean counters end up with more beans in the pot after they've implemented a "cost saving" measure, then all is well. What their beeny-blinders are shielding them from are the time-saving intangibles McMaster Carr offers. Those time-savers are abundant engineering data and tables, bearing tolerance, material properties, and so on. I don't have to waste time looking up the details in one of my reference manuals. One of my favorite McMaster Carr perks is the availability of CAD drawings for most of its products. When engineers design a new machine, most already have the general design in mind. The faster they materialize the design, the less it will cost in errors, redesign, re-calculating, etc. The design process is difficult and meticulous enough without having to spend valuable time drawing mundane screws, cylinders, bearings, etc. I don't mind spending 5 or 10 percent more on McMaster Carr's products when the benefits offset the difference.
If I had one complaint, it would be the lack of original supplier information. This can be valuable in critical design aspects.
The website is easy to navigate and cross-referencing is a snap. Maybe the time we save during design using McMaster Carr should be equated to dollar savings. I would guess that the bean counters might then be unnecessary . . . what a savings that would be.
Dickie J. Brewer, SPE, Charlotte, NC
Amazed by McMaster.com
Joseph Ogando's piece on the perfect site is dead on. I have been using that site for 5 years and am constantly amazed at the depth of information provided. Need a CAD drawing of an odd size screw? It's there. Not only is there a lot of information available but McMaster's customer service and shipping policies are amazing too. I have had only one item back ordered in all the years I've ordered from the site. And in southeast Pennsylvania if you order by 11:00 a.m., its at your desk by 4:00 the same day!
Christopher Corrado, Hatfield, PA
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