My boss at that stage told us a situation one of his old lecturers had
    at that stage. He had given the class a simple project to design and
    build a preamplifier suitable for use with a dynamic microphone, specs
    to be 60dB s/n ratio with 1mV input, I forget the required gain. This is
    not an onerous specification, even then with suitable low noise
    transistors. I am not sure of the class size, but there were a handful
    who did about 10dB better than s/n spec, about 1/3 to half of the class
    reached spec, and the rest were hopeless, and not within the ballpark.

I have a BSEE from a "F**cking prestigious" Ivy League University.  The
cirriculum was strong in math, physics, circuit analysis, solid state
theory and (labwise) measurement of contrieved circuits.  We didn't
learn about building actual working circuits.  We analyzed a 555 timer
at the transistor level, but we didn't go further than the basic two
circuits you can make with it.

Assuming no other educational input beyond the BSEE requirements (including
the 'liberal arts' requirements, but not necessarilly the "other
science&Engineering" electives), I would have graduated with knowlege that
would have equipped me to go to either grad school, or some large
engineering company equipped to round out my education (ie Bell Labs,
Hewlett Packard, etc.)

I've worked at Stanford, and with PhDs from assorted places, and I've hired
people with nothing more than high school diplomas.  I've participated in
the hiring of people for C coding positions that didn't know C (yet.)
EVERYONE has apalling gaps in their knowlege.  What matters is how well
they'll be able to FILL those gaps that are likely to get in their way in
the job they're being hired for.  As a guess, people with advanced degrees
will be better at filling theoretical holes, while people with large
amounts of practical experience will be better at solving the practical
problems that creep up.

Things work best if you can get the accademics and the wizards to work
together...

BillW

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