I would publicly like to offer some insight to Dominic Borda, who wrote a letter yesterday about the distinct lack of engineering courses in the underclassmen's engineering curriculum.

The engineering curriculum is merely a test, Mr. Borda, to see if you have what it takes to really become an engineer. Those humdrum freshman courses — physics, introductory calculus, more physics, more calculus and English (because engineers have to write, too!)—are simply devices of torture to see if your brain can handle hours of busywork without being challenged. Once you prove that you can busily produce all the integrals and physics formulae required, without dropping out, you are given the chance to do what engineers are "supposed" to do: engineer things.

Look forward to your project courses and your senior capstone course. This is where the fun of engineering begins. By this time you may be burned out but try to make the most of it.

Perhaps this prepares us for the real working life of an engineer: hours and hours of work, frustration, trial and error, and thinking, and a few minutes here and there of great accomplishments, insight, and pride in our work. Not to be cynical, but this is what engineering is all about.

Thomas Edison says it well: "Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration."

Replacing "genius" with "engineering" (without saying that the two are equivalent) still makes a true statement, I think.