Please, engineering majors, try to learn two languages at once. Try to write several long papers per week analyzing what types of interaction and what styles of communication are needed for successful integration or methods that will stem the conflict in the Middle East. If you’re about to come at me with, "Well you try to do math/chem/physics problem," just stop. We get it. You like numbers. You like concrete answers and linear logic. You’re smart. But so are the students that in other, non-science or math affiliated majors.
What made me need to write about this was listening to and being part of conversations during sorority recruitment that sounded like this:
“What major are you?”
"*insert biochemical engineering, aerospace engineering, mechanical engineering…*"
"Wow that’s so impressive you must be so smart, how do you handle all of that?”
“So what major are you?”
"*insert a liberal arts or communications major*"
“Oh that sounds fun. I bet your classes are interesting.”
So only math can be impressive and difficult? Was Jeb Bush right in saying psychology majors all end up working at Chick-fil-a? I bet after his embarrassing attempt at the presidential race he needed a psych major to talk to about his feelings, not to serve him a chicken bucket.
The ins and out of how capable individuals are to create as much destruction as Stalin is not fun. Learning German at the same time as Spanish is not fun. It’s confusing. Yeah, my studies are engaging and interesting and I actually enjoy them, but they’re still difficult. Liberal arts and communications majors should get just as much respect as any other.
While engineers have all those long tough problems to work through, they all have concrete answers. Do I know how to do them? Hell no. Hats off to you. But in the world of liberal arts, especially in my own majors, international politics and sociology, everything is subjective and you’re never correct. It’s not as easy as saying X is the answer and showing your work to prove it. If your professor has a different opinion, you’re wrong. Literally just wrong.
No, we don’t use y=mx+b every day, but that doesn’t mean we’re lazy or idiots. And it definitely doesn’t mean we’re going to work minimum wage jobs serving fast food.
If discussions about war and global treaties and pacts were left up to those who received "valuable and impressive" degrees, then we'd be at World War III by now. It takes a certain intelligence, skill and finesse to think outside the box to break down barriers and cultural borders.
The world needs thinkers that can philosophize social phenomena and create theories of cultural interactions, not just theories of planes and chemical reactions. Yeah sure, science is important. I’m not refuting that. All I’m saying is that liberal arts majors and communications majors are important too.
Just look at the political sh*t Brexit caused or the hole America is digging with its political nightmare of a hyper-polarized election. Please, engineers, solve that problem. Then tell me my majors are "fun" and not impressive or difficult.
