“What’s your major?”
“Biology.”
“Oh, so you wanna be a doctor, huh?”
:smack:
NO! Not every biology major wants to be a doctor! I don’t like people enough to be a doctor. But no matter how many times I say this, I’m always asked to diagnose this or that.
I focused on organismal biology and evolution. I’m currently applying to grad schools for paleontology, which is another misunderstanding altogether. “Paleontology? Oh, that’s like Indiana Jones, right?” or “Hey, did you hear about that ancient pottery find in Peru?”
Paleontology is the study of fossils. Like dinosaurs, for instance. “Oh, awesome! So, like, are you gonna clone 'em and stuff, like in Jurassic Park?”
I was a linguistics major and got all the “So how many languages do you speak?” that Kythereia mentions. It would have been easier if I didn’t also happen to speak five languages (four of them well), one of which I did as my minor.
Now I’m studying translation, and I always get questions implying that I’m going to be an interpreter.
Freejooky, how much math do you need for interior design? I had ideas of being an architect, but calculus and I get on so poorly that I finally had to take a restraining order out on it.
Computer science has gotta be one of the worst. It’s not really the study of computers; it’s the study of computation, which can be done on digital computers, but can also be done on paper, or in your head, or on an abacus. The digital computer is just a tool that’s used to study computation, much like the telescope is a tool used to study astronomy. But everyone thinks you’re learning how to fix or program computers. Everyone who flips through one of my textbooks has the same comment: “There’s math in this!”
“Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes.” - Edsger Dijkstra
I got that all the time when I was in computer science. Now I’m in mechanical engineering, and a surprising number of people think that means I’m going to spend the rest of my life operating trains. Some people have actually gone as far as to ask my parents if I’m going to be able to find a job in my field.
And I can’t believe how many people don’t understand that course credits from computer science do not count toward a degree in mechanical engineering. They accepted all of my science, math, and humanities courses - that was it. I don’t bother explaining this anymore; when people ask, I tell them that I felt like spending six years on a four year degree. They either laugh or shut up.
Mechanical engineering is one of the oldest and broadest engineering fields. Many aviation pioneers were mechanical engineers. There are various concentrations within the major, such as mechatronics (basically a combination of mechanical and electrical engineering). Otherwise, the major covers such a wide range of topics - engine design, vibration analysis, heat transfer, fluid dynamics, machine/equipment design, etc. - leaving you with quite a range of career choices.
I’m a philosophy major. Most people assume that philosophers just sit around being profound about stuff and pondering the meaning of life, and lectures consist of competing to see who can think up the craziest shit.
An English major here. The first question I always get is, “So, do you want to be a teacher?” Because that’s the only useful thing to do with an English degree, obviously!
The second question is usually, “Do you want to be a writer, then?”
Well, not really, no. What I’d actually like to do is eventually work in publishing, perhaps as an editor. Specifically, I’d like to work for a company that publishes children’s books.
I was a computer science major. This means that I know how to write software. It does not necessarily mean (like my first boss thought) that I could magically look into a computer and figure out why the hard drive wasn’t working. In the course of the years I have often replaced hard drives, hard drive cards and a variety of other pieces of hardware - BUT, I am a software expert, that is what I trained to be.
I was a math major, and didn’t really have to deal with the sorts of misconceptions that the rest of you seem to run into. People don’t really know what we do, and don’t seem too interested in asking–perhaps they just assumed it was over their head.
But if I get one more confession about how bad at math the person I’m talking to is, I’m gonna start crushing skulls.
Heh, my fiance is a math major, and he gets the same reactions. Granted, a lot of what he studies IS well over my head, but I do understand the basic concepts of what each of his classes is for.
Also, it’s always assumed that he is brilliant (and he’s quite smart, don’t get me wrong, but people seem to assume that, as a math major, he must be some kind of super-human genius).
I was an art major (on and off), but finally got my degree in it. Dumb remarks:
“So, are you gonna work at McDonald’s or something then to earn money?” (said in all seriousness)
“Wow. I can’t draw a straight line with a ruler.” (Well, then you are pretty frigging useless, aren’t you? Who the hell among the nondisabled literally can’t draw a straight line with a ruler? And since when does that constitute art?)
Now that I’m a copyeditor, I get these two charmers fairly often:
“Oh, I suppose I’d better watch my grammar around you, then? Hahaha”
(my personal favorite) “Can’t they just use spell check?” :: boggle ::
I have a Masters in Chemical & Process Engineering with minors in Process Control & Environmental Waste Management.
No-one seems to know what I did the weirdest question I had was asking how the “synthetic oil molecules” work in a car engine as I obviously working with molecules right. They seemed shocked when I didn’t know but that I could design & control a refinery to make the gas that goes in the car. That or a penicillin plant.
The closest I got to this type of experience was with my own parents (both computer programmers) when I told them I wanted to major in biology. They already knew I wasn’t interested in being a doctor, so they told me that as a bio major I would end up cleaning mouse cages for a living. :rolleyes:
Er, no, Mom and Dad. Actually I use the scientific method to study the processes that occur in living things, the goal being to try to help cure various human diseases.
Pretty much what I thought I would be doing when I chose it as a major way back in 1984.
I majored in anthropology and have discovered that most people are unclear on what it even is. I get a lot of “Oh, like dinosaurs?” (um, no, that’s paleontology) or “oh? So, you like digging stuff up?” (that’s archaeology, which is actually a subdivision of anthropology, but no, archaeology is horribly boring).
In case you, too, are among the befuddled, anthropology is the study of human beings. It’s divided into three (sometimes four) subdivisions - archaeology, cultural anthropology (ie, how cultures operate), and physical anthropology (evolution and primatology). The fourth semi-related field is linguistics, but that’s usually seperate nowadays. For my degree I was required to study all three fields a little, but most people end up specializing on one area. I studied cultural anthropology, focusing on religious studies.
When I explain this, I get a lot of “wow, so you don’t use it very much, do you?” I work in finance, but in all seriousness, I use my schooling all the freaking time. You can’t figure out that studying human beings could be useful in my daily dealings with…I don’t know, human beings?
Which is one of the reasons we all hate you guys who intern in the computer lab. The other is that you don’t know how to use a common business program like Word or Excel.
Heh. My friend wishes he had your problem. He’s an Anthropology Major, and all he ever gets is questions about dinosaurs. It’s so fun the watch him rant.
See, badbadrubberpiggy sort of explains why people like pepperlandgirl get asked if they are going to be an editor. She did choose to have that as her career path. So odds are, at some point, all these people who are assuming things about your major assume them because they know someone who was/is that major, and is doing/is going to do the thing they are assuming.
For instance, all but one of the computer science majors I was friends with in college did, in fact, know just about everything about computers. They could rid you of a virus or spyware. They did know the best video card to put in your gaming machine for your budget. In addiotion, comsci majors at my school got very little math, comparatively. They took calc I and II, and then Discrete Sctructures. I think that was it. In addition, architecture was very very light on math. They took calc I, and then an easy version of calc II, called “Calculus for Management and Architecture Majors.”
Anyways, my major was biomedical engineering. This is usually accompanied by a dumb stare, as both the words ‘biomedical’ and ‘engineering’ are something the average person doesn’t seem to understand. To put them both in a sentance nullifies any attempt they had at trying to figure out what I would do.
What do I do? Well, right now I’m just a technician. I test, fix, and calibrate equipment in a hospital. But what could I do? Well, biomedical enigneering is one of ther broadest, and newest, engineering fields. I could:
design prostetics
design pacemakers
design other medical equipment (defibrilators, infusion pumps)
analyze car crashes (both tests and real ones)
help shoe designers
other crap, I’m sure.
Not only is comp sci so often misinterpreted, but it’s another one where people are dying to tell you how bad they are at what they think you do. “Oh, I’m terrible with computers!”
Computer engineering. No, I will not fix your AOL. No, I cannot ‘hax0r’ your cable box. No, this doesn’t mean that I attach heat sinks to processors.
And I do NOT drive trains. ‘Bet you gotta learn computers cause all them trains are computer controlled now, right?’ WTF? I don’t know the first THING about trains.
Oh, also ‘So that’s like having an MCSE right?’
Oh yes, four years of intense study and multiple projects being reviewed and potentially assassinated while going without sleep and studying the fundamental theories of physics, electric circuits, chemistry, mechanical/structural/industrial/civil/etc engineering … yeah that’s JUST like taking 7 tests from Microsoft as many times as necessary to pass.
French is just the opposite. People are dying to share their French with me. Which I don’t mind really. I just dislike the people who think they’re being clever by shouting, “Bonjour, mademoiselle! Fromage! Brie! Champagne! Hon hon hon!” Yup, that’s all there is to the French language.
