The Daily Campus

Issue date: 1/30/08 Section: Focus

Media Credit: Jamie Dee Fish Students of all different majors gather to study at the library. Clockwise from front left: Adam Genuario, 1st-semester undecided major, Stephen Mahier, 2nd-semester nursing and human rights double major, Drew Culmo, 2nd-semester finance major and Andrew Christiem, 4th-semester philosophy and history double major.

Talking to new people is hard. We have the full range of human experience to discuss, and a language with more words than any other with which to do so, and still we generally have nothing interesting to say to each other. Love is awkward. Politics and religion are like sledding through minefields. Weather is boring, barring special circumstances ("Help! I'm being carried away by a tornado!"). Everything else is too personal.

So we're limited to easily observable, clearly relevant topics. This is why majors are great! They give us a straightforward, easy to parse, all-encompassing way to define ourselves to each other, with no fuss. It's better than all the obvious alternatives ("So you're male, huh? How's that working out?"). Conversations just wouldn't be the same without them.

However, we all make judgments, and it's a bad thing. It's a bad thing because it is basically a bunch of lies. We really like to judge people on their majors, except that we have no idea what other majors actually involve. Philosophy is for people with thick glasses and tweed coats. Engineering is for people with no life. Anything with an acronym is for workaholics. Business is for lazy schmucks. English is for future homeless people.

But which major is really the hardest? Which major "beats the system?" Which majors let you drink on Thursday because you don't have any classes on Friday?

In a semi-random poll ("Hey! You!") conducted at Whitney Dining Hall, UConn students answered these important questions, and more. Some were caustic and quick to judge; others were compassionate and gentle with their words.

Agreement was sure and swift about one thing: engineering is rough. Cliff Birtwell, a 2nd-semester computer science and engineering double major, claimed that he had heard CSE was the most difficult major.

Continued...

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