Engineers

Why is the drop out rate so high in engineering. Most students take 15 semester hours which means 15 hours per week in class but engineering like some science classes have on average another 4 hours a week of lab. The rule of thumb is three hours out of class for every hour in class. This means 19 hours per week in class and 57 hours per week out of class for a total of 76 hours per week of school work. This is a little over 10 hours per day on a 7 day basis but if you want to survive you have to take Sunday off so it means 12 hours per day. Here is a typical day. 9 to 12 in the morning for class and then homework from 1PM until 10 PM. In most class work in college much like high school the information is presented then committed to memory long enough to pass the test. Engineering courses require leaning the material but then using that knowledge to solve problems. It is not just a matter of memorizing but being able to think through situations in a logical manner. Because of this type of leaning many companies higher engineers not so much for what they learn but for the fact that they know how to problem solve. When you see students protesting it is highly unlikely that they are engineering majors. Full time engineering students are not working at part time jobs unless they take off a semester to Co op.