To anyone who thinks majors that aren’t STEM are easy, please stop. Stop thinking that English, Religious Studies, TCF, Art, Education, and all of the other many, many different majors offered are easy As. Don’t say that we are wasting our scholarships in a major that won’t be rewarding. Stop thinking that the thousands of college students in these majors only chose them because of how easy the exams are or how high their GPA’s will be when they graduate. Nothing about non-STEM majors is easy.

I personally have experience in both a STEM and English and Religious Studies major. I know that Organic Chemistry is a stupidly hard class. I know you have to study hours upon hours learning 12-step reactions and why one may be more likely than the other. I also know that your Biology exams cover way too many chapters in not enough time. I know that the professors talk too fast and erase the information on the board before you can even get half of it. I have been there and cried many tears because of it.

That doesn’t mean that I think any STEM major is harder than my English or Religious Studies major. Just speaking from this past semester, I had to write 22 papers, read 12 books and 7 plays, do 2 in-depth research projects, and take Lord knows how many exams. The thing about English or TCF or Religious Studies is that you can’t just simply open up a textbook, memorize information, and then regurgitate it on your scantron exam. For our exams, there is no one right answer. We can’t just fill in a bubble. We have to understand the 4 plays or 20 poems we’ve read for one exam. We have to be able to analyze, in-depth, each topic and write about it for our wonderful essay exams. Even if we have a grasp of the topics and can analyze it, it is all still subject to the teacher’s opinion. There is no one right answer for anything.

The next time you think writing an essay every week, reading two novels at once, and identifying a play from a 4-line quote is easy, stop and think about all the work that we put into our classes too. Don’t just assume that because it isn’t Biochemistry or Engineering that it is easy. People in these majors don’t choose it because they think they will get lots of A’s (which is completely false), they pick it because it’s what they love and want to pursue a career in. These classes are just as challenging as STEM, maybe just in a different way.

Everyone is entitled to study whatever subject they want. So, I will gladly continue to work very hard for my Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Religious Studies.