Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Why Science Majors Change Their Mind (too hard)

I think that the article in the Times was too hard on students in some ways. There are students who drop out of science because they learn about 1) the lack of permanent academic positions, 2) the low pay structure (NIH postdoc salaries are $38K for first-year postdocs and top out at $53K for 7 years of experience, and 3) the extreme difficulty of getting a grant. For example, the average age of people getting their first R01 grant from NIH is well over 40. R01s are the meat and potatoes grants of the NIH.

Many people have to postdoc for years and years until they get a permanent job, if they get a permanent job. Try paying off your student loans on $38,000 or $40,000 a year. Try saving for a house or for tuition for your children. It's not really going to happen, so it's understandable that people who start looking ahead decide to bail out.

We have an underclass of scientists who can't get jobs. It's not their fault; there just aren't enough to go around. So they get stuck working as adjuncts at community colleges and elsewhere (f they're lucky). They don't get benefits, either. I don't really understand why we keep pushing young people into graduate degrees when the job prospects are so grim (and have been for at least 20 years). It's also very hard to get a job as a Ph.D. level scientist in industry, though it's easier than in academia.

And, as a nation, we're guilty of pushing people who may not be capable of earning these degrees into them anyway. Our national mantra of "everyone has to go to college" pushes people who would do better in other areas into science and other difficult programs. I have firsthand knowledge of well-meaning (?) programs that encourage students who failed high school or freshman biology to stay in the field. It's insane, and it's no wonder that they drop out. They aren't being lazy or running from a challenge. The courses really are too hard for them, and that's not their fault.

It's even worse when your scholarship is tied to continuing in engineering (or other STEM), so you are chained to a subject about which you know virtually nothing.

As I recall, the career information and guidance that I had as a teen was approximately as follows:

College = $uccess!

Although I didn't have any interest in a "career" of any kind, I just knew that there were a list of things you had to do and you had to choose *something* to go do with yourself.

Master Chiefs in Nukes, Electronics, and Radar walk on water. Ditto Master Sergeants from similar specialties in the Army. Their schooling is equivalent to MS with the nukes knowing more about physics than many PHDs.


Or saying you know how to do something and then know nothing about it.

Confirming Val's point regarding scientists' career prospects:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203733504577026212798573518.html
Generation Jobless: Students Pick Easier Majors Despite Less Pay
By JOE LIGHT And RACHEL EMMA SILVERMAN
Wall Street Journal
November 9, 2011

...

Time will tell if the poor job market persuaded more students to push into disciplines such as engineering and science. Although the number of college graduates increased about 29% between 2001 and 2009, the number graduating with engineering degrees only increased 19%, according to the most recent statistics from the U.S. Dept. of Education. The number with computer and information-sciences degrees decreased 14%. Since students typically set their majors during their sophomore year, the first class that chose their major in the midst of the recession graduated this year.

Research has shown that graduating with these majors provides a good foundation not just for so-called STEM jobs, or those in the science, technology, engineering, and math fields, but a whole range of industries where earnings expectations are high. Business, finance and consulting firms, as well as most health-care professions, are keen to hire those who bring quantitative skills and can help them stay competitive.

...

Meanwhile, only a third of science and engineering college graduates actually take jobs in science and tech fields, according to a 2007 study by Georgetown University professor B. Lindsay Lowell and Rutgers University professor Hal Salzman.

hat may partly be because the jobs don't pay enough to attract or retain top graduates. Science, technology, engineering and math majors who stay in a related profession had average annual earnings of $78,550 in 2009, but those who decided to go into managerial and professional positions made more than $102,000, according to an analysis of U.S. Census data by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce.

"If you're a high math student in America, from a purely economic point of view, it's crazy to go into STEM," says Anthony Carnevale, director of the Georgetown center.

Some science and math graduates also say they would rather channel their analytical skills into fields that pay higher and seem less tedious.