No matter what college or university you go to, you are always surrounded by people who have different majors than you. It is also very common to hear people belittling other people’s majors and complaining about how their workload is a lot worse than someone else’s just because of their major. In all honesty, this is also probably something that we’ve all done at some point during our studies and it is something we all need to work on and stop doing.
If someone is in a stereotypically “difficult” major such as science, math or engineering they automatically get labeled as smart, hard workers, and ambitious. However, if someone is studying in a major that is stereotypically seen as “easier” such as social sciences, music, and literature they aren’t given the same respect and are automatically seen as students who have no right to complain because their major is so much “easier” and doesn’t require much work. Students in these stereotypical “easy” majors are often belittled and shamed for the path they have chosen.
This is not okay. Just because STEM majors are stereotypically seen as majors with high workloads, it doesn’t mean that other majors do not have a high workload as well.
Instead of doing bio-labs and solving calculations, many social science students spend hours writing essays and doing research. Their studies also involve a lot of memorization of different concepts and theories and this is something that not everyone can do. Also, just because someone excels in the stereotypical “intelligent” majors does not make them any more intelligent than someone who does not study in that field.
Just because STEM majors are seen as super important in society does not mean that they are more important than other areas of study. Society would not be able to function at all without non-stem majors such as english, communication studies, criminology, and recreation studies. There are so many aspects to society that do not require STEM assistance such as developing rehabilitation centres, creating entertainment, providing assistance to the elderly, and defending people with their rights. If we did not have people studying social sciences or arts, we would not have the daily resources that we use.
So, instead of belittling people’s majors and career aspirations, let’s support everyone in every field. We all work hard and we’re all good at what we do and we’re all going to contribute to society in one way or another so let’s be proud of that.
