Is the title BE really worth it......

Today i have completed my engineering degree.... I look back with several thoughts in my mind at what i have achieved in the past four years. Of course from now on i will be able to announce myself as a graduate to the world.

But what have i achieved in an intellectual sense?
What educational value does the degree i hold have?
Or Is the degree i hold has value as nothing but a degree?

I have majored in electronics and communication field. I have been placed in a software concern. Whats the real use of my gained knowledge in mobile communication and other electronics related stuff now???

I feel kind of empty even after spending 4 years in pursuing BE....

Where have i gone wrong? Why wasn't I able to judge what course in BE I would relate to when i was attending council ling 4 years before.

I can still remember with vivid colors the day i went for BE council ling. The long phone calls my father placed to almost every single graduate he knows to enquire the present trend(and the funny thing is most of his graduate friends completed their BE a decade ago),their diversified opinions which never had an end to them, the blank expressions that my father gave me when the most reputed of the colleges got filled, the way everyone went to a battle for electronics and communication branch, and to see after all these years that i have been just another gladiator in that arena......

I feel like I might have taken a better decision if i am to take now. Yes, Of course every body makes better decisions the second time,but i really wasn't equipped to take my decision at that time. I did not know that the exam system in BE is so full of holes that whatever branch i take i will end up with good marks and with practical knowledge nil.

Well people can argue that if you are interested then you would have studied what you wanted to learn. After all "hunger gets what hunger wants".

Yes, I agree with the notion. But if education is about self interest, what part does the education system play in it. I might have been well of by studying the needed skills via the net along with doing the needed software courses for my aim as a gaming programmer rather than wasting the four years of my life for attaining a degree. So how has the education system really helped me.

The exams that I have faced in my BE have always been of the same pattern with 5 sixteen mark questions. I personally think that this question paper cannot estimate one's understanding of the subject, but again Is BE really about understanding the subject?

The only solution that may answer this problem is diversification of the engineering education system. Students must be given the choice of selecting their subjects with their courses which must be in sync with their future career interests. They must be fed with the pros and cons of what they are doing.

This would not only answer to the call of the students but also give the student an identity in his future and he would not be "just another software engineer" who is graded based on how much his annual income is rather than what his knowledge and skill is all about. This would not only allow us to polish our students for future potential employment but also create employers.

And nowadays when I answer to my junior friends on what college to take and what course to pursue in BE, I stick to " Make your own decisions. BE is not about making the right career choice but making your own choice the right one. After all "hunger gets what hunger wants"