Fake EE Degree

[skeptic]

Has anyone considered the possibility that there are contributors on this forum who claim that they have EE's, when they really don't? I still find this one of the most humorous aspects to this forum, as if their EE's make them somehow an "authority".

I find it strange that on your second post on this site you are already challenging people who have posted here far longer and made far more contributions to other peoples' real knowledge than you probably ever will.

I generally avoid mentioning my background, especially my educational background because I think that the arguements should stand on their own merits and that people who read them should make their decisions of whether or not to believe them based on their logic and their own experience.

That having been said, I will say that I do NOT have an EE degree. I personally have a BE (Bachelor's of Engineering) degree which I received from Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken New Jersey in 1969. I majored in Electrical Engineering. I graduated 108 in a class of about 240 with a GPA of 2.85. Stevens offered only two undergraduate degrees at that time, Bachelor of Engineering and Bachelor of Science. They had what they called a "Unified Curriculum" which meant slightly fewer courses in the student's major discipline and slightly more in other engineering disciplines. The philosophy of this was that the education would be less likely to become obsolete and be of greater use over the lifetime of the student. This is a fine distinction but nonetheless I feel it should be stated.

Engineering grads really begin to pay their dues and become full fledged engineers after they leave school and start accumulating real world experience in the working world where they integrate their theoretical knowledge of the classroom with the practical knowledge of real life. It takes at least five years for most engineering students to become full fledged engineers. Some never make it and I've known many who even had PE licenses who had little or no useful engineering knowledge relying on other people to do their work for them. Others go into other fields right out of college including law school, medicine, business, or get jobs in sales or management and never become true engineers.

Engineering and scientific educations are different from say a Bachelor of Arts education. While BA students read history, english literature, sociology and then parrot back what they read to the professor in exams, usually in the form he wants, get their credits, and eventually their degrees, Engineers read development of mathematical models of physical situations in physics, chemistry, material science, electrical and mechanical studies and use them to solve problems. And while they inevitably forget much of what they knew in college, the way of thinking about problem solving stays with them for life so that when they need to, they can teach themselves whatever is new that they have to learn. In other words, BA students are taught what to think, engineers are taught HOW to think.

Do frauds, shills, wanabees and other fakers come here to post? Yes. I exposed one would be engineer here who misrepresented himself about two years ago. Anybody remember what happened to WarrenWarren? He claimed to be a candidate for a PHD in rf engineering until I pointed out in the course of one thread that he had made an error saying that the mathematical model of twisted pair wire was the same as coax. He then admitted he was in fact a technician, blabbered on about his wonderful job, his family, wrote a long thread on flipping coins and disappeared.

I do not know if John Risch is a degreed engineer. There are many troubling and puzzling things he says and does which make me wonder. I'm not going into them now but usually one engineer has a nose to sniff out another of his own kind. For instance, I have no doubt that John Neutron was trained as an electrical engineer or in some closely allied field such as physics. Engineers inevitably become skeptics early on in their careers after being taken in a few times by false advertising and misleading claims when their supervisors remind them that they are responsible for the wise use of other peoples' money. After that, they instinctively demand scientific proof of claims by independent testers whose results can be verified and always hold all conclusions as tentative. That's one big difference between engineering and religion. That's what makes me a maysayer and not a naysayer.

OK BO130 you got your answer. I hope you are satisfied.