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No, not doubt as in questioning the capabilities or fact of the matter (as connoted in the western usage), but doubt as in general uncertainty / question (as I see from many Indian / Pakistani users, and grad students around my department!)
Maybe this is just confirmation bias, but I notice a lot of threads started by (often new) users from India (not really Pakistan, for some reason) wondering how to parlay their B.Sc. or B.Tech degrees in Electrical Engineering into physics grad school (Indian, American / Canadian, UK, or Europe). In a large (and not quantified) percentage of cases, these are people who are still on the outside looking in! (As in, they haven't yet started university, or have yet to even take the various entrance exams!)
The aspirant sociologist in me wonders--why is this the case? Why not just start out in physics (or math) and go from there?
One of those 4 AM insomnia-driven musings...
EDIT: Maybe it's just selection bias, and lots of folks (who happen to have EE-ish degrees) that decide, like many other non-Indian posters, that their first degree isn't for them, and that Physics is the way to go?
Maybe this is just confirmation bias, but I notice a lot of threads started by (often new) users from India (not really Pakistan, for some reason) wondering how to parlay their B.Sc. or B.Tech degrees in Electrical Engineering into physics grad school (Indian, American / Canadian, UK, or Europe). In a large (and not quantified) percentage of cases, these are people who are still on the outside looking in! (As in, they haven't yet started university, or have yet to even take the various entrance exams!)
The aspirant sociologist in me wonders--why is this the case? Why not just start out in physics (or math) and go from there?
- Is it that physics is harder to get into than EE (in particular)? (My inclination is no)
- Could it be that, based on the idiosyncrasies of the entrance exams, ranking systems and sharp drop-offs between good and not-so-good universities, it's that it's easier to get into (the bigger) engineering programs--and EE in particular--than science programs, at better universities?
- Is it a matter of family / societal pressure, valuing the more practical and higher-SES (socio-economic status) engineers over science / arts (math) grads?
- Is it a fall-back position, so that they have an engineering degree / experience?
- Is it simple supply and demand? Lots of EEs, fewer that have advanced theoretical understanding?
- Are the engineering programs (at least, at the undergrad level) just that much better, more sophisticated, and with better resources than science ones? (I guess that, at least resource-wise, that'd be in common with a lot of western universities)
- Maybe it's just my confirmation bias, having chipped in on a few of these threads in Academics / Careers?
- Am I so out to lunch that I haven't come close on any of my western-centric musings?
One of those 4 AM insomnia-driven musings...
EDIT: Maybe it's just selection bias, and lots of folks (who happen to have EE-ish degrees) that decide, like many other non-Indian posters, that their first degree isn't for them, and that Physics is the way to go?
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