1.You must be really smart if you’re a STEM major:

I am a STEM major myself, specifically Biology, and I’ve gotten this comment a hundred times. This is usually the one comment made whenever someone asks me what I’m going to college for. However, I can honestly say that you

have to be smart, not in knowledge, but in time management and study skills. In college, a student generally has to be good with study skills and time management, but STEM majors are specifically time consuming, generally because there is a lot of information and “facts” for a student to consume. Even the smartest person could fail a STEM class if they do not know how to prioritize and manage their time.

2. There are limited career choices for STEM majors:

People automatically assume that if you are a STEM major, there are very few jobs for you in the world.They automatically give you the “what can you do with that” question.The answer is that you can actually do a lot with an STEM major.There are at least 117 careers that can be found on www.careerwise.mnscu.edu.There are more than likely even more than that. They range from doctors and vets to research and developers. Anything that could possibly involve math, engineering, science, or technology.The fun thing about STEM majors is that you can get one major and it can help you go into many different careers.I am a STEM major and I still don’t know quite what I want to do because there are so many choices.

3. It is harder for females to be successful in the STEM careers than males:

This is an assumption that is partly true.Woman are underrepresented in the STEM career fields. Woman make up only thirty-nine percent of chemist and material scientists, twenty-eight percent of environmental scientist and geoscientists, sixteen percent of chemical engineers, and twelve percent of civil engineers, according to U.S. News, As a student in an all-female college majoring in STEM and going into a STEM career after I finish school, I can say that we are underrepresented from personal experience. It is less likely to run across a woman that conducts research or does something that is strictly STEM. Usually, when I ask other woman what they want to do with their major once they finish, the answer is mostly that they want to go on to medical school or something more than just a STEM career, specifically science.It’s rare to find a woman who wants to conduct research or something of that nature.

4. STEM majors are very expensive majors to have:

Some STEM majors can be highly expensive, but I wouldn’t say the most expensive. The price of the degree depends on which specific major you are going for and the level of degree that you need. If you are going for your PhD, then it will be more on the expensive side simply because you go to undergraduate and then graduate school for however much time it takes to get the PhD of your choice, (typically between ten to twelve years altogether). According to www.degreesource.com, the tenth most expensive major to have is engineering because some universities cost an “engineering fee,” or they require special equipment to complete the classes. I’ve learned personally as a biology major that it can be expensive between lab fees and special equipment we need for labs and classes.