
Where have all the science majors gone? - ronnier
http://money.cnn.com/2010/06/09/news/economy/few_science_majors.fortune/index.htm
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tansey
This article is using some anecdotes, a few outdated statistics, and poor
mathematical analogies. The reason CS majors declined from 2004-2007 is
because the stigma of outsourcing and failed dot-coms were still in people's
minds. I know because I was helping recruit new CS majors at my school during
that time, and jobs were the big thing we had to stress because parents were
worried about that. According to people in my university, enrollments are back
up in the last couple years because the tech market is still healthy.

Also, saying that you get 50 MBAs and 18 lawyers for every science/engineering
PhD graduate is misleading. An MBA is a 2 year degree consisting of class
work, a JD is typically a 3 year degree with some mock trial work and lots of
book knowledge, and a PhD is typically a 6-year degree but that requires you
to have successfully developed something novel enough to publish in peer-
reviewed journals and/or conferences. Most people never finish a PhD, but that
has little to do with them not liking science; it's about them not being able
to take living in poverty any longer, when there are high-paying jobs in the
real world they can jump to at any point. It'd be more interesting to see how
many masters in STEM areas are given out relative to MBAs and JDs.

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hga
<http://philip.greenspun.com/careers/women-in-science> is 95% or so relevant
for men as well.

Also, if there really was a shortage you'd see salary inflation, which
certainly hasn't been the case in "CS" and I gather not in the other STEM
fields, outside of the occasional hot area for a brief time.

