It’s in the day-to-day jokes we toss around that proliferate stereotypes. It’s in the comments we make to people we meet for the first time when discussing our major choices. It’s something we write off as a joke, and yet it’s as real as the majors themselves.
It’s major-shaming, making someone feel as if his or her major is somehow less difficult or less important than another. And it is a real problem at Notre Dame.
I interviewed three of my friends, all from different majors, on this topic to help clear some myths from facts.
Becca (B)- a sophomore engineer
Selena (S)- a first-year engineer, originally in the College of Arts and Letters
Marie(M)- a first-year economics major
The first question I asked was whether they think major-shaming happens at Notre Dame. All three were in complete concurrence, giving me a resounding “yes.”
Where do you see this major-shaming occurring on a daily basis on campus?
B: “Everyone shames Arts and Letters, engineering shames business, and engineers themselves only see the mechanical, aerospace, and electrical majors as the true engineers.”
S: “Inside Arts and Letters, there’s even shaming. There are only a few Arts and Letters majors everyone sees as legit, like pre-med, econ, and math.”
M: “As someone in the College of Arts and Letters, people are always getting on me about how much homework I have, like they think I shouldn’t have that much to do if I’m ‘just Arts and Letters.’ But I work just as hard as everyone else.”
Major-shaming is kind of like racial discrimination. Rarely does anyone admit he or she is a racist, and yet people spew out blunt jokes and stereotype people of another race all too often. In the same way, we would all say everyone at Notre Dame has to be really smart to get in, so why do we so often tease the person who switches from engineering to business or from science to Arts and Letters?
Is engineering really harder? And are Arts and Letters majors really easier?
B: Well, I don’t really think Arts and Letters is easier. I have a friend who’s a PLS major who has to read a lot and write a lot.
S: When I switched colleges from Arts and Letters to engineering, my homework doubled. My Arts and Letters classes were still a lot of work, but the difference was this: in Arts and Letters, I understood what I was doing and just had to take the time to do it. But now, in engineering, I need to take two hours to figure out what Im doing before I can even get to work.
M: I think people look at Arts and Letters and just think it’s all reading and writing. But that’s PLS. I have classes like stats and macro, too! Or people will comment on their theo and philo classes being so much easier than their engineering classes, and that’s valid, but theo and philo aren’t really Arts and Letters. They’re intro classes everybody takes. Arts and Letters majors have their share of difficult classes too, just difficult in a different way, like having a lot of reading for a class every week.
I thought that was a really good point my friends made – and that we could probably agree on – that Arts and Letters and engineering are difficult in different ways. Although I’m not an Arts and Letters major myself, it really irks me when people treat those majors like their lives are walks in the park. If you really think about it, Arts and Letters students are really making a lot bolder of a move than anyone! For one, the career fairs rarely have companies featured that would cater to a history major or a philosophy major, for example. That means Arts and Letters majors have to really take initiative to find internships because they are not as easy to find. So, while engineering may require more deliverables, tests, and technical skills, we must keep in mind how many more essays and readings the Arts and Letters students have to do as well as how much more effort he or she has to exert to find a summer position.
My last question was whether or not this major shaming culture could ever be changed. Only one of my friends had an idea. A fellow engineering friend of hers had suggested the university hold something called Exchange Week, where every student is assigned a completely random major for the week and has to do all the work for these newly assigned classes. It seems like it would be a great exercise in empathy.
But for now, while this idea has not been enacted, try to metaphorically walk in someone else’s shoes before making any comments about his or her major. You might just be the first step to starting a community where we support each order’s hard work and applaud each other’s accomplishments. And isn’t that what we all want?
XOXO, HCND
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