While the idea of a ratio of professional to theoretical classes is a possible solution for making sure all students have industry read skills, I disagree with the ratio idea completely. When deciding what the content of education should be, it should not be something as topical as an availability ratio. The ideal ratio of industry knowledge to theoretical knowledge one must gain is completely unknown. Any system that strives for a ratio will have underfilled classes or overfilled classes. A better solution might be to base it off of year in education. A senior is going to need industry knowledge a lot more than a freshman would. Coming in as a freshman, college should be 100% theoretical. By senior year, maybe the classes turn out to be 50% industry related, but it should be because that’s how many industry topics there are that can have a class surrounding them. In terms of higher degrees, I feel that NJIT’s offered courses provide a nice mix. A majority of the graduate courses I have taken here were industry focused skills. Or if they were theoretically focused, industry skills could be learned from understanding the theory.

I am biased to learning more theory in classes than industry skills. This is because, while it is possible to learn industry skills on the job with an entry level position, it is exceptionally difficult to learn theory knowledge on the job. And some jobs (ex: R&D) require a good understanding of the theory to prosper.