Desperately seeking math and science majors
Applied Materials had to fly in 100 interviewers just to screen all the job applicants for its new Solar Technology Center in Xi’an, China, last year. The company wanted to fill 260 high-tech jobs. It got 26,000 resumes. A fraction of those applicants were invited to interview. The final selectees, board member Andy Karsner tells me, “were top-of-their-class, English-speaking engineers. They’re the best of the best.” Now some of the most advanced research in this high-value, fast-growing field is being done in China — instead of in the U.S. with American engineers. Why should we care? Because it’s graduation season, when we see how starkly the direction of the American educational system differs from the way that faster-growing economies are headed. Those Chinese solar researchers are the cream of an engineering crop that included an estimated 10,000 Ph.D. graduates last year. This spring the U.S. will graduate about 8,000 Ph.D. [...]
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