pgbhat wrote:gakakkad wrote:I have a question about the quality of American enginnering grads... How are they? I am not referring to the top 5% which can be compared to our top 5% .. I am talking about your average mango khanlander engineer...
Massa mango engineer quality is all over the place. However even in a community college set up the amount of resources and hands on experience available is pretty good. For eg. A remote community college in rural Alabama will have budget to pay for materials to build robots by interested students.
My 2 cents- the average engineering student here will likely be better (
prepared) than the average desi engineering student. The yardstick I use for comparison is the performance of the engineer after finishing school and when s/he starts a job. I am not looking at marks/grades got in a school environment. (From your post
gakakkad, I get the impression you are assessing the performance in an academic environment and not in a job). Here are the reasons.
i) In the US, engineering is not like 'Injeenearing' in desh where if you are not doing 'injeenearing' or medical (or IT nowadays), you're good for nothing. Students in desh who dont like engineering are forced to study and stick with it. In the US, there are enough job opportunities for non-engineering disciplines *and* those disciplines are respected by the society, so youth who do not like to do engineering will go to other areas like law, liberal arts, biology, zoology, social work, automotive repair, plumbing etc. I realize that things are getting tough lately for the 'soft' areas but this is a very recent trend. So, students who dont like or are not good at engineering have other options. They will just drop out and move on. Natural selection biases the pool towards better-performing students.
ii) Engineering education (like all other educational cirricula here) is focused on not just textbook learning but is actually weighted quite heavily towards applying the learning in the real world. So the graduating student is better prepared for a job. During academics, there is a heavy emphasis on projects and internships. Teachers here have to keep in mind why and how is this useful after the student graduates. In desh, this question is not as important because it is all (mostly) about passing the exams and getting good marks. These marks/grades are important during job interviews (unless the company has its own entrance exams to begin with). The focus is different.
iii) There is not an emphasis on rote learning (mugging, ratta marna etc.). This helps the student to focus on understanding problems and solving them. So, the student thinks differently and this is more in tune with the challenges s/he will face in a job. In a job, there is little need (not zero, but it is not very important) to know things by heart. One is free to refer to any books/notes while doing a job. (Having said this, I am beginning to see the benefits of rote learning- long story).
iv) The point pgbhat brings up above is very major one. Even second-tier and 3rd tier universities have reasonably good facilities, and if there is interest, one can tie up with outside labs for advanced projects. There is a lot of that flexibility. Even high school students work on some fairly sophisticated projects like making robots etc. So, one is not as constrained by the pedigree of the university as in desh.
This is not a commentary on the student. It is a commentary on the society in which the student lives in, and the educational expectation, environment and facilities. If desi students had access to such facilities the same student would come out much further. My 2 cents.
The Math methods course was split into an Intro level in 1st semester and later at Advanced level in the 4th sem to be prepared for more fun and thrashing. But then there were some who did General Relativity level math by the 3rd sem itself on their own. With such a varied level of aptitude in the class, it was difficult to tailor things to help all. 
Yup , I agree with the newer colleges , especially the private ones sprouting rather frequently. Most of these are just shops to sell degrees , and profitability depends upon cost cutting by not getting the desired equipments . These instis flourish under the aegis of corrupt AICTE or MCI officials . But job potential is extremely low . Most people don't get placed. I believe in the force of market. Eventually they ll be forced to shut shops as people will realise that they 've been duped .