What’s your major?
At my university, every person I meet asks me this question. I often wonder why people care to ask which subject of emphasis I chose to study. How much information could they possibly extract from my answer? Thinking about this further has led me to a realization that might come as surprise to you. The amount of personal information that leaks from your answer is quite frightening.
Allow me to bring a new term to the discussion: “The Major Stereotype”
Like any other stereotype, this one generalizes a group of people in an arbitrary taxonomy. Someone’s major can reveal his or her hobbies, social status, mannerisms, intelligence, virginity status and much more. Of course, these are just generalizations that should be taken with a grain of salt, but what makes them different than other stereotypes? For example, unlike ethnic stereotypes, people choose their major not their ethnicity. This ‘major’ difference sheds some light onto the reason why people choose their majors.
People take into account ‘The Major Stereotype’ in the decision process for their major. After all, picking a major is also picking an identity, the identity that people will assert onto you when answering the question: “What’s your major?” With knowledge of the new stereotype that may loom in your future, you choose the major with the most lucrative stereotype. Similar to how people buy Ferraris because they want to look wealthy. Once the major has been chosen, a new personality is born.
What came first, the major or the personality? Simply put, they affect each other in sort of a feedback loop. Some people choose a major because they want to fit a certain category and some choose it because they like the subject. Playing ‘the major stereotype’ usually occurs in the former situation. In a society that values the ego, it wouldn’t be far-fetched to assume that people choose a major they want to be associated with.
P.S. those who are undeclared have no soul.
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3 comments:
People who switch from undeclared to business are the living incarnations of the "default" option.
I was expecting a bit more, but the way I see it when I ask somebody what their major is, if they're doing anything with business as the first poster mentioned, especially accounting, I see it as they have little to no ambitions in life.
Testing this hypothesis out, I find it to be relatively true when talking to them.
Ben,
I think that being undeclared and being a business major are closely related. Both are very general and could apply to any other field. In a sense, personalities an undeclared person might have would be the same as a business major.
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