I recently found myself at the dinner table in the midst of an argument between the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) majors and the Humanities majors. I sat there listening to each side go on and on about why they have the “better, more useful, smarter, more creative major.” This comes as no surprise. For a long time, people have been comparing those who are science and math majors to those who study the humanities and arts. But, why? They are completely different.

In the same way that you wouldn’t compare apples and oranges -- because they are too different, yet still both fruit -- you shouldn’t compare the STEM majors to the Humanities majors. It doesn’t make sense.

To clarify, there are four groupings of majors: STEM, Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts -- yes, Humanities and Arts are different.

These departments are different, and they are for a reason. We live in a world where we need engineers and scientists, but also a world where we need authors, artists and historians. We could not thrive with just science and math-based people or just English and art-based people. Rather, it is a collective effort to create new ideas.

We are all students, all doing homework and studying for hours, all getting degrees. Why does it matter if one kid is memorizing formulas while the other is writing an essay? Why did this idea come about that if you major in anything other than the STEM fields, you must be doing something easy? Since when did people start thinking writing essays is easy? I, for one, still get major anxiety over having to write one.

Everything may not be “equally” difficult, but put a STEM major in an English class and they will struggle with writing the number of papers Humanities students do, and the same goes for placing a Humanities major in the STEM department. Each major has its own set of difficulties, and if you aren’t in that major, it is really hard to understand that.

No one major is better than any other. They each contribute something different to society, and you just can’t compare that. It is truly illogical to even argue about why each field of study is better than the other, and chances are it will never get resolved, because there will never be an answer.

As a community of students we should be supportive of our own department, as well as the ones we may not understand as well. We shouldn’t want to compare ourselves to others, and we shouldn’t focus so much on who has the “better” major. Let’s learn to be accepting of all fields of study. Even if you don’t understand why anyone would want to major in a certain subject, keep that to yourself. You should never have to argue and compare your department with someone else’s. At the end of the day we are all paying the same tuition to be sleep-deprived, hungry, broke college students anyway.