Overheard on the MIT campus:
“Designing robots sounds romantic but you have to major in EE and at that point you’re just a number.” — female student talking to male student as they walked near Building 18
If you’re in school: Good luck picking a major this year!
MIT admissions did a great job on this one. What do MIT students expect to do? Waiting for magic wand and eternal youth elixir from MIT graduates.
You can always design robots as a hobby without an EE degree. 20 years ago, before the student loan boom, self taught ability was how most people got jobs.
Funny. Why didn’t her high school college counselor tell her that everyone at MIT is just a number? Why didn’t a feminist convince her that if a man can be just a number, then a women should do that also?
I know a woman who spent her childhood reading Asimov and dreaming about designing robots. She worked hard to be a top student, earned a BSc in computer engineering, then a PhD from Harvard in biomedical engineering. But it turns out there aren’t many actual jobs for robot designers. Today she teaches intro MATLAB at a mid-tier university.
So if you’re in school: Good luck picking a major this year, but talk to some people working in your chosen field first!
talk to some people working in your chosen field first!
As a high school student, I found it incredible that every practicing lawyer I talked to advised me not to go to law school. So I majored in Computer Science, but still subsequently wasted one year and $5000 in the evening program at New England School of Law back in the mid 80s.
There’s a reason why we have different words for “work” and “fun”.