Where have all the engineers gone? (engineering education)

Abstract

It is pointed out that engineering enrollments have moved up and down like a roller coaster for the last 20 years. The author examines the causes of shifts in engineering enrollments using several regression models. He finds that enrollments are very sensitive to comparative starting salaries, but not to shifts in national averages of math SAT scores or a variable that measures freshman interest in science. Along the way, he discovers that despite huge increases in engineering graduates and shifts in the structure of the US economy, engineering starting salaries remained high and the market for engineering graduates good.<>