If you’re a humanities or social science major at Hopkins, you know the struggle of convincing your pre-med friends that you do have career aspirations, and you will succeed (and your future abode made of a cardboard box on the street “will be perfectly warm, thank you.”). Few outside the humanities community know about all of the awesome things that are in store for us “hippies”, so let me enlighten you:
1. We get Gilman. Everyone loves a Gilman sunset and admires its famous clock tower, so we all know that even the scientists secretly marvel at its glory. The gleaming halls and glowing atrium are home to many hipster English majors, many of which are probably writing your new favorite novels in that very room.
2. The professors are awesome. Let me break this down: authors, poets, prizewinners, editors, researchers, anthropologists, stars in the industry. Not only are these instructors distinguished in their academic fields, but also fantastic innovators themselves. Check out the staff here.
3. You get personalized feedback on your work. Writing seminars classes are home to many helpful workshop sessions. Even the most distinguished professors will take the time to review your work and give detailed feedback. Even larger lectures employ TA’s to ensure that students receive constructive comments.
4. Community. Just as professors go the extra mile to help you improve, your classmates will make sure you know what’s great, and what needs another glance. Even if your story about Franken-ferret wasn’t your best, they’ll at least break it to you kindly.
5. *~*~No0o0o0 LaAaAbBbB~*~* 9am? No thanks, I’ll pass. BECAUSE WE CAN.
6. Exploring other disciplines. This applies more to writing seminars majors, but there really is a lot of opportunity to take classes in other departments with the intention of enhancing your understanding of your own major. For example, writing sems students must take history, philosophy, and a language, aside from their English and writing credits. I took an art history class to fill one of these slots, and it was just plain awesome.
Photo source http://cakestructions.blogspot.com/2010/11/archaeology-cake.html
7. There are great study abroad options. There are some awesome programs all over the world that are tailored to student interests. For example, if you are a film and media studies major, you can take a trip to the Cinema Ritrovato Film Festival in Bologna. Italian food with the stars? Yes please.
8. The conversation. “Shall we ruminate on our transcriptions from Thursday’s lecture on the functions of contemporary British literature?” “Quite.” YOU BET WE SHALL.
9. Having an excuse to nerd out about our favorites books, films, political players, articles, or research. Everyone forgets that humanities students like research too. From curating museum exhibits to conducting archeological digs, we have a lot of interests that we can share through our work.
10. Opportunities to learn and teach. Okay, so we probably don’t have the best grasp on the minute concepts of applied math, or how to use the lasers (although I would still like someone to teach me how), but that just means that all of our pre-med and engineer friends can teach us about all of that stuff. Just the same, we can pass on our skills (and editing help) to them. I think the biggest misconception about humanities majors is that we don’t want to learn about other subjects (well aside from the misconception that we don’t have a lot of work, that’s a pretty big one too).
My point? We all learn from each other, and we should continue to pass on the knowledge to our friends, and reach out to others to teach us what they know. My friends in the humanities and social sciences, never fear: we rock.
Photo source: http://openreflections.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/i_love_humanities_tshirt-p235524076469557183trlf_400.jpg