Talk:Integrated Science and Technology

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[edit] Cleanup

This article is certainly an improvement over the previous article that occupied this space, as the old article was a blatant copyright violation. However, this article needs some serious work, if not a total rewrite. Perhaps someone more familiar with the ISAT program at JMU than me can create the beautiful article for Wikipedia that this program deserves. SchuminWeb (Talk) 11:36, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

I second that. This article needs A LOT of work. It's vague and doesn't tell the reader anything about the program or why it's notable. It does sound like an add and possibly in violation of WP:VAIN --Strothra 10:16, 1 May 2006 (UTC)

I rewrote the introduction to sound more professional, and also found a good reference for replacing the "undergraduate program" section: [1]. SchuminWeb (Talk) 22:16, 1 May 2006 (UTC)

Looks good. --Strothra 02:27, 2 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Sounds like an advertisement

No offense but this entire article sounds like an advertisment for the program. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 72.141.157.24 (talk • contribs) .

It kind of does (I didn't write it), but the bad writing would turn anyone off from thinking that they were serious. There was a previous title at this location, but it was lifted directly from JMU's Web site, and so we had to zap it. This new one just needs a little TLC, it seems... SchuminWeb (Talk) 17:21, 9 April 2006 (UTC)

Added more content about the undergradutate program and removed the content about the LaSalle program as it truely has nothing to do with ISAT.

[edit] Controversy/Criticism

As a recent JMU grad, I can tell you that the ISAT program has come under a lot of fire from students, professors, alumni, and even its own students, but I can't find any sources... anyone?

The criticism is that "ISAT" is merely a euphemism for "engineering lite."-- it's for students who don't want to go through all the math, namely advanced calculus and differential equations. I've heard stories of students who were enticed into the program as freshmen, and when they get close to graduation they realize they weren't given the necessary math background to even consider admission to engineering school. Some end up staying extra year taking nothing but math classes to catch up. Furthermore, most employers won't easily recognize "ISAT" on a resume. Basically, ISAT attempts to give its students a sampling of business, engineering, environmental science, and IT and roll it into one... and that's what they get. ISAT graduates don't receive a full education of any particular field, just a broad but shallow knowledge of many fields.

Although they do claim to have a business aspect of their program, JMU already has a college of business, which draws otherwise interested students away from ISAT; thus ISAT has become more associated with engineering. The program advertises the diversity of their professors which come from many backgrounds. Upon a quick review of their website, the truth of the matter is that less than half of the faculty have a Ph.D. in engineering or physics. Many don't even hold a degree in the sciences.

The story goes that former president Carrier wanted to leave a legacy at JMU, which he wanted to be an engineering program. The plan was rejected by the Commonwealth because Virginia already has a two great engineering schools nearby: Virginia Tech and UVA. So they took the engineering plan and watered it down, creating ISAT.

The Commonwealth recently gave JMU the green light to create an engineering school, and as you likely have guessed, this has got the ISAT folks worried. However, some are also worried that the engineering program will turn out like ISAT due to the fact that JMU has a ridiculously high number of general education requirements (which will not be waived for engineering students), lack of specialization, and again, the fact that outstanding engineering programs already exist within the Commonwealth. --ElectricZookeeper 17:22, 18 May 2007 (UTC)