Yeah. Of course.
I’ve been meaning to write about this topic for a while. I tell myself that I don’t have to talk about it; I can just avoid the subject and keep going on with my life, but I’m getting so tired. Tired of my opinions being invalidated because of my major, tired of my intelligence being tested or challenged only because of what I want to study. It’s not like I did bad in high school. I had a good GPA, a much higher SAT score than the Stevens average. I challenged myself just like every engineer, taking tough classes, being a student leader in my extracurriculars, working 20 hours a week, and even volunteering in my church. I did so much before coming here, and I do just as much here. Writing this column every week, helping out with CPAC, joining APO. But the funny thing is, people will say “Oh you can only do that much because you have so much free time as a biztech.” Stop!
I don’t know what I expected at an engineering school. I should have known that most of the engineers consider this place “their territory”. That other majors are inferior, that we’re second class to them, the stars of this school. That they work the hardest, and everyone else has easy classes and are slacking. I didn’t expect to be treated like that from my own peers. I know what I want to major in. “The classic”, my peer mentor called it, Marketing and Information Systems. I’ve had my study plan set since halfway through first semester, multiple schedules mapped out for the next few semesters. I know what I want from my college experience, and what I am working for outside of my time here. Do even half the engineers have their study plan in? Know what major they want? Won’t most engineers change their major because of a quarter-life identity crisis?
It’s not fair that someone can judge my intelligence based off of the classes I didn’t have the choice but to take. I know what I want in a major, and in a career, and it’s not engineering. Just because our mechanics and calculus classes are different doesn’t make us dumb. Sure, call it an easier course with “less work” because less material is covered, but none of that is actually required for our majors.
I just don’t understand it! Why do people go out of their way to undermine our efforts and abilities as people who got into Stevens? Sure, I wont take Discrete Structures or Fluid Mechanics, but I don’t need to. It seriously doesn’t align with any of the job requirements for any place I’m looking at.
Is it because engineers are jealous? That we can graduate from here and have 100% job placement and make a lot of money, despite having taken easier classes? That we’ll have the same university printed on our diploma even though the experience was totally different? That all the courses they have to take really suck and that we’re living easily? That doesn’t make sense. Stevens is tough, but if you came here with your heart set in your dream then you should be able to push through and make your dream a reality. I know what my goals are, and many upperclassmen engineers that I’ve met know what theirs are too, but isn’t it always those who don’t, those who are insecure about themselves, those who have nothing better to do than insult people for the things they like the ones that stoop this low? Dear engineers that bully me and people in my major, figure out how you’re gonna get through mechanics first. No one asked for your opinion. If you can’t take it, I guess you can switch to biztech too, granted you have a 3.0.
I mean, speaking as not an engineer (closer than biztech in requirements, but CS is not engineering), engineers certainly have a much harder time than me in terms of class load. Granted, I don’t know what Biztechs need, but I get the impression that sometimes engineers are entitled to feel a little superior, at least to us CS majors.