The latest issue (12/5/09) of Science News introduced me to the acronym “STEM,” which stands for science, technology, engineering and math. (I presume that statisticians fall under the last field.) They published an alarming graph* showing that less than half of all STEM grads remain in their field beyond three years.
“Highly qualified students may be choosing a non-STEM job because these other occupations are higher paying, offer better career prospects such as advancement, employment stability, and/or prestige…”
— B. Lindsay Lowell, Hal Salzman, Hamutal Bernstein, with Everett Henderson
Stat-Ease specializes in design of experiments (DOE) for industrial research. Therefore, the more who stay with STEM the better, so far as I’m concerned. However, I plead guilty to going for the money by pursuing a master’s degree in business administration. This led to me being promoted out of my chemical engineering job in R&D to a position as product manager. My business partner Pat Whitcomb went for a master’s in chemical engineering, thus sticking with STEM. He and I enjoy ribbing each other about our diverging paths, but it turned out to be very synergistic having these complementary mindsets (technical versus business). I figure that in high-tech companies like ours, it can’t hurt to have managers with a STEM degree, at least undergraduate, thus it may not be worth trying to stem this tide.
*See Figure 4 from this October 2009 report on three generations of students by researchers (quoted above) from Georgetown, Rutgers and The Urban Institute.
PS. The STEM Education Coalition co-chaired by the American Chemical Society (ACS) and the National Science Teachers Association works to maintain the USA’s edge in technology – primarily via K-12 education.. The American Statistical Association (ASA) is a participating organization along with dozens of others in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math.