Ignore the hate: All majors are created equal

Raise your hand if you’ve ever felt personally victimized by a Pitt engineering or pre-med major.

It’s safe to assume most students pursuing liberal arts degrees have both hands and a leg in the air.

Our students, like so many other college students across the nation, constantly argue with one another over whose major is more demanding and important.

I’ve heard science majors slam gender studies majors, English majors slam philosophy and business majors slam economics. This superiority complex is rampant across all majors, in all schools. Why is it that we all believe our own studies are the hardest? And more importantly, why do we feel the need to prove it with endless complaints about workloads and requirements?

As an English and history double major, I have been called “lucky” and told I have it easy. No wonder I have a high GPA — I’m an English major, for heaven’s sake.

It’s because I’ve selected an “easy” major in which professors toss out top marks willy-nilly in classes during which we talk about whatever we please. We spend our classes filling our heads with ideas that have no bearing on the real world or our future careers — careers that will obviously involve the question, “Would you like fries with that?”

Typically, education, language and humanities majors are considered “easy,” while STEM — science, technology, engineering and math — majors are “hard.” This difference usually comes down to GPAs, average hours of homework per week and credit hours. And for some reason, students in both majors tend to toss insults at each other from across the educational aisle. Therein lies the issue with collegiate academics: We subscribe to a culture of self-superiority.

But the reality is that all students who care about their studies work hard. Frankly, which major is quantitatively “hardest” is irrelevant.

People have a tendency to only see what they do, and not what others do. We think we work harder and more than everyone around us, a phenomenon psychologists deem “overclaiming.”

This is certainly evident when one major scoffs at another. But each major is different, and subject to its own difficulties. Just because I have less lab reports to do than a chemistry major, doesn’t mean I have less work — my work might just involve less memorizing and more documenting.

Students choose majors based on their future careers, and we should value the diversity in majors which ultimately allow for diversity in professions. We can’t all be mechanical engineers.

But somehow, it’s inevitably what your family questions you about at Thanksgiving dinner and what students want to know when I tell them I write and study the past.

“Really? That’s your major? What are you going to do with that degree?”

This reaction comes not only from crotchety uncles but from other students. When we are kids, we are told to follow our dreams. When we reach college, we are told to follow our wallets

I have no idea where I will be in three years. I could be working for a magazine, a non-profit or a museum. I could be in media, marketing or grad school. I could be teaching, working in fashion or one of those people who dresses up in period clothing and sells rock candy in Colonial Williamsburg..

So if I can’t predict the future, why would I waste four years — or even one second — doing something I hate? I have zero interest in engineering, and an absolute zeal for English and history.

I certainly want a return on my investment — or, more accurately, my parents’ investment — in a college education, but not at the cost of being perpetually unhappy at my job. It’s not pure naivete to be confident in saying I’ll be able to find a career that I enjoy, in my field or a related one, without having to live on the streets.

It’s frustrating when someone ridicules my choice in majors, because my majors are a significant part of my personhood at this stage in my life.

There are hardworking engineers and lazy engineering majors, just as there are hardworking and lazy English students. When it comes down to it, a major is only as difficult as a student makes it.

If you are overburdened by your workload or unhappy with your GPA, remember that you chose this path, and it is up to you whether you choose to rise to the occasion or complain.

More importantly, understand that just because someone is pursuing a different major, doesn’t mean they are taking an easier route.

Stop judging, and start applauding.

Emily primarily writes on culture and education for The Pitt News. Write to her at eks50@pitt.edu.