From the Department of Science Doesn't Work That Way, Idiot

[ultranos]

NY Times Op-Ed: The End of University As We Know It.

I suspect that some other people will find this equally as mindboggling as I did. Especially the suggestion to abolish departments and create multi-disciplinary groups focused on ill-defined problems under so-broad-they're-useless headings, like "Water" or "Time".

I'm frothing because, hey, Science And Engineering Don't Work That Way, Idiot. (Case in point, my own major, Mechanical Engineering, used to, waaaay Back In The Day, encompass all of engineering. Eventually, people realized This Was Stupid. Now we have Electrical Engineers, and Aerospace Engineers, and Chemical Engineers, etc. This means we can do really cool things because we're specialized and aren't attempting to learn EVERYTHING.) But it's also pretty unfair to the humanities and social science majors, as it's basically saying "your specializations are Worth Nothing".

I may be interpreting that wrong.

But I'll be over here trying not to beat my head into a wall or slip into a homicidal rage.

Comments

[ultranos]

I mean, from what I understand about grad students in science/engineering, and this is from friends who are grad students, it's not that you really pay for grad school. You find a professor or group to sponsor you, and then you work your ass off working for them and that pays your tuition. And then they give you a stipend to actually live on. But it's not a lot of money.

(I have a friend [I generally refer to him around here and on LJ as "Thyristor"] who was in grad school for his masters, and he gave up on his thesis when his advisor kept going on sabbatical or something. Thyristor now works in industry and...not entirely considering going back.)

But that's science and engineering, and I know other fields are so very much a different story.

(Pssht. As if this place wasn't already covered with bitter ranting. :P )