Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeE
Over the past two decades, approximately two thirds of all engineering PhDs awarded by US graduate schools were earned by foreign-born students (Table 11, Survey of Earned Doctorates, 2007). A larger percentage of US PhDs stay in academia, add in PhDs earned in European graduate schools so my experience of >80% foreign-born candidates is as expected.
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I suspect that the vast majority of U.S. born engineers who do not have a PhD (I fall into that category) have performed their (our) own cost/benefit analysis and concluded that pursuing and obtaining a PhD isn't in their (our) own economic self-interest. I believe that analysis often yields a different answer for foreign-born engineering students, for a variety of reasons. The outcome of the analysis will also vary naturally over time. I don't believe that statistics such as those above (which are consistent with my own observations as well) are symptomatic of a problem with the US STEM educational system, or indicative that US students aren't still interested in science or technology.
Why do I feel that way? The PhD is a prerequisite for very few career objectives for engineering practitioners, and in many cases it negatively impacts one's own marketability. It's a long-term investment and the anticipated rewards don't materialize for everyone. As long as US students continue to have the choice and ability to pursue such degrees, I'll not be losing any sleep over the ratio of "those who do" to "those who don't" or the ratio of "those from here" to "those from there".