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ENGINEERING AS A VOCATION

the word "Doctor" signifying "A person of great learning; a superior teacher."

In America the degree awarded depends to some extent, in fact, largely, upon the attitude of the advertising department of the school. A false estimate is placed upon the salary attracting value of a degree by the boys who attend engineering schools and by their parents. Students are attracted to a school by the advertisement that upon graduation they will receive the degree of C.E. (Civil Engineer); M.E. (Mechanical Engineer); E.E. (Electrical Engineer), or E.M. (Engineer of Mines). The school, therefore, that is anxious to attract students is apt to give the professional degree upon graduation. The absurdity of this, however, is gradually filtering into the heads of the advertising managers of the best schools and the professional degree is being shelved by some and has been abandoned by others.

No school can graduate an engineer. The engineer must have experience added to the school training. The school can only give an education in the fundamentals of engineering science. Engineering is not wholly an exact science, but is mainly an art depending upon scientific methods for its existence and growth. The school gives only the scientific groundwork and hence should confer degrees only in science. The engineer supplements this scientific training with practical experience so that, by and by, the scientist sent out by the school