Regarding this story from the Times:

How do we emphasize the importance of rigorous, often tedious work while acknowledging the potential for great achievement? Are we setting our children up to fail with unrealistic expectations, or loading down our college freshmen with theory divorced from its natural context?

“Studies have found that roughly 40 percent of students planning engineering and science majors end up switching to other subjects or failing to get any degree. That increases to as much as 60 percent when pre-medical students, who typically have the strongest SAT scores and high school science preparation, are included, according to new data from the University of California at Los Angeles. That is twice the combined attrition rate of all other majors.”