Let’s stop comparing college majors!
When I was a junior in college, I had a conversation with a friend of mine that I will never forget. We were new friends at that point, just starting to get to know each other, and as we sat together, we talked about where we were from, what kind of music we listened to, what we liked to do for fun, etc. Eventually, the conversation turned toward academics.
He asked me what my GPA was. I’m not even sure why it came up, and quite honestly, I don’t love talking about grades. It feels as impolite as asking someone how much money they’ve got in the bank. But I answered with the truth: my GPA was a 3.8. Maybe he was feeling self-conscious about his own GPA or maybe he was genuinely curious, but he followed up by asking me what my major was.
When I told him that I was a Theatre major, he replied, “Oh now I get it. Of course, your GPA is high, you have an easy major.”
It wasn’t the first time that I’d heard something like this and it definitely wouldn’t be the last. I’m no longer in college, I literally get paid to work in the theatre industry, and I still hear things like this. I think that just about every arts major out there is all too familiar with that kind of response. There’s a common belief throughout colleges and universities across the country that arts majors have an easier curriculum and that we don’t have to try as hard to succeed.
We’re used to hearing things like, “But what are you really going to do with your life?” or “Don’t you know that you’re not going to make any money?” Trust me, we’ve heard it all before and we already know what you’re going to tell us. But I have to say that my biggest pet peeve is when people try to compare college majors by shaming mine.
Yes, I know STEM majors have a hard time. I’m well aware. They have to put in countless hours of study time and they are constantly grappling with concepts that I would be terrified to even begin to tackle. I have a lot of respect for that, and I would never try to say that they had an easy time of it simply because of what they chose to study.
But I promise STEM concentrations are not inherently better or more difficult than other areas of study simply because these majors are conventionally academic and challenging.
Take Education majors for instance. They are constantly putting in hours of student teaching and fieldwork while putting together lesson plans and attending their classes. Then there are Music majors who basically live in the practice rooms and have to face the fear of student recitals and juries to determine their fate. Or the English majors who are writing their 90-page thesis to complete their degree. Every major has its own challenges. Every major is difficult.
Most Theatre majors are obligated, if not required, to devote their extracurricular time to rehearsals. Want to play a sport or get a job? Too bad. You’ll have to fit that in between the productions you’re working on, your classes, and your homework.
We write papers, we constantly read plays, we rehearse for our studio classes, and are regularly faced with dreaded group projects. Technical Theatre majors often find themselves staying up all night during tech week while still showing up to class on time the next morning with their work done.
Acting majors are consistently put into situations where they have to get up on stage and face insecurities and vulnerabilities at 8 in the morning while having their lines memorized, rehearsed, and ready to go. Being a theatre major can be really hard.
To those who think they are better than arts majors because they have chosen a more traditional college path, I ask you to imagine spending a week or two as an arts major. Want to memorize and rehearse a Shakespeare scene and perform it in front of your peers only to be torn apart? How about writing a paper analyzing Aristotle’s Poetics as it applies to classical Greek theatre? Or maybe throw together a theatrical lighting plot and see how that goes.
Let’s stop comparing majors. Let’s stop making college a competition. All majors have their difficulties and all majors have their joys. I know that I could never major in Biology, but I also know plenty of people who could never major in Theatre. We all have our strengths and we all have our weaknesses. Let’s celebrate our own strengths and let’s marvel at the strengths of others.
And remember that your college major doesn’t have to define your life. I chose Theatre and I happened to end up working in the arts, but that doesn’t mean that your major is everything. Enjoy the opportunity to learn, celebrate the privilege that it is to even attend college at all, and enjoy discovering your passions.
And most importantly, allow others to do the same.