MATLAB's foothold in academia is due to legacy familiarity, cheap (but not free) academic licensing, a nice IDE, and good toolboxes for certain niches (Simulink, Control Toolbox). I used MATLAB for 12 years in academia and would consider myself an advanced user.
However, when I left academia (engineering) 8 years ago, its use was already declining in graduate level research, and right before I left most professors had already switched their undergrad instructional materials to using Python and Scilab. I observed this happening at many other institutions as well. Anecdotally, this trend started maybe 10 years ago in North America, and is happening at various rates around the world.
I'm in industry now and MATLAB usage has declined precipitously due to exorbitant licensing costs and just a poor fit for productionization in a modern software stack. Most have switched to Python or some other language. My perception is that MATLAB has become something of a niche language outside of academia -- it's akin to what SPSS/Minitab are in statistics.
I'm not denying any of this and agree with your analysis about MATLABs use. I'm just saying that it's still used a lot more than people on Hacker News like to think.
The University I work at still teaches MATLAB to new engineering students still.
Oh I understand, I was more responding to your original statement "None of them use Python either. A lot just use MATLAB" which would be an unusual state of affairs in this day and age, though I have no doubt it is true in your specific situation. It's just that your experience seems circumscribed and uncommon in academia today (well insofar as I can tell -- I don't know the culture at every university).
However, when I left academia (engineering) 8 years ago, its use was already declining in graduate level research, and right before I left most professors had already switched their undergrad instructional materials to using Python and Scilab. I observed this happening at many other institutions as well. Anecdotally, this trend started maybe 10 years ago in North America, and is happening at various rates around the world.
I'm in industry now and MATLAB usage has declined precipitously due to exorbitant licensing costs and just a poor fit for productionization in a modern software stack. Most have switched to Python or some other language. My perception is that MATLAB has become something of a niche language outside of academia -- it's akin to what SPSS/Minitab are in statistics.