It's Monday afternoon, and I'm finally leaving work. It's around 1:45, and I forgot my lunch so my stomach is growling, but I'm about to go to class and I could not be more excited.
A lot of students seem to dread going to classes, and I can't help but think it has to do with their major. The constant lab lectures, the labs, the regular lectures and recitations/workshops—it's all way too much for one person to handle, especially if they're taking more than the mandatory four to qualify as a full-time student. If that's how a class is structured, a student could be taking three to four classes or extensions of classes every weekday. To me, that just doesn't sound appealing.
Something that people don't like is the comparison between other majors and English majors. That's right, English majors. People who study poetry, linguistics, diction, grammar, arguments and speech—yeah, those guys. Surprisingly, they do have a lot of stressors, just like the rest of you. Maybe there's a little bias because I, myself, am an English Literature major, but that doesn't mean I'm necessarily wrong. Here's why.
While your major may have four classes combined with the original class you were going to take, an English Major is probably reading book after book after book. Last semester I bought 12 books for one class, and this semester that number was bumped up to 15. So while there may not be as many classes to attend, there's quite a bit of reading that comes with each course, and from personal experience, I can say full-heartedly that there were a few novels last semester that did not get finished. Sorry, professor.
A big thing that distinguishes English majors from the other majors, is that there aren't as many tests. In fact, some classes have no tests at all. A lot of courses that don't relate to English, such as Biology, Economics, Public Health and so on, will have tests that take place, whether they be midterms, quizzes or finals. While this may seem more difficult, understand that English majors have papers. Sure, the papers may not seem difficult at all, but that's just to the naked eye. Starting a paper that's meant to be five to seven pages and fully identify a theme with examples from a book with your own interpretations is one of the hardest things I've ever had to do personally. Writer's block comes at the worst of times, and sometimes the only thing that inspires an English major to write their paper is their due date, and the paper can cost just as much as a midterm or final.
And finally: the professors. While all professors can potentially have a bad reputation, once someone knows how the professor is in class, it becomes a bit easier to know how to study for the class. Unfortunately for English, that's not the case. English teachers come and go, but exams and papers are different for every single class you take. Some let you opt out of the final exam and write a longer paper, some will have you do an extra paper to bring up a grade and some will surprise you with a quiz that is actually entirely made up of short essay responses.
I'm not saying that the other majors are easy, because they aren't, and that's very clear. I'm saying that English majors are often overlooked because of their reputation as an easy major that keeps you stagnant in life unless you double major. But I promise you, it's just as hard to read 15 books a semester and summarize all of them as it is to study for that next chemistry exam.
