Stereotypes about your major?

 When I tell people my major they ask me if I'm going to save the whales. XD That's not even my area of interest.

Psychology-> "What are you like constantly psychoanalyzing me or something?" or "Can you, like, give me a profile of why I am the way I am?"

I'm sure there are more, but those are the first two that pop in my mind

I find myself constantly having to tell people that actually, yeah. We do schoolwork. Actually, yeah. My classes are difficult and time consuming.

A lot of people tend to assume that art majors 'screw around' or 'sit around doodling all day'. You don't know how many comments I get that are along the lines of 'Gosh. I wish I had such an easy major I could sit around and do nothing and draw pictures and play around on the computer all day.'

HAHAHA. NO.

Depends if I say Psychology or Neuroscience.

for psychology..."your not going to psychoanalyze me, right?"
for neuroscience...wow you must be smart.

I'm going into social neuroscience and most people just look at me like they have no idea what that is...which I guess is understandable.

 I get the same kind of response for Psychology.

I guess something I've noticed is that unless you major in a science or math field, your major is kind of seen as being 'less-than' or not as important.

Has anyone else noticed this?

My finace's major is history and so people always joke that he will end up working in a textbook factory or something.

I myself am a psychology major and I have to reply with "no I can't read your mind.."

Somehow people think psychology and psychic are related...

Say history and you get quizzed.
I'm a History major, thus I study the history of anything and everything. haha

"What, are you going to be a banker?"

"oh geez.."

or..

"you know econ majors have no future unless they get a PhD right!?"

I kind of agree that I've seen people taken more seriously by strangers if they were a science or math major, which I don't think is fair, or reasonable.

When I tell people I'm a math major, stangers (particularly older people) seem to act impressed, and tell me, "Oh, Einstein was a mathematician, too." Yeah, no shit. He was a lot of things. I don't want to be compared to these historically brillaint folk.

Whenever I tell someone my major, their eyes widen and I hear something like, "wooow..." Then I tell them what I do specifically, and I can see their eyes glaze over with every inching word.

i tell people i haven't decided between linguistics or archaeology

linguistics-always the same thing "so what job does that lead to..." and i've also had one guy actually say to me "so you want to be a housewife then..."!!!

archaeology-they just are surprised that i'm pretty and that i bathe.

I often have to explain what Anthropology is and explain all of the subfields. I am also often told that there is no money in Anthropology. There are things more important than money.

 I only get three responses.

1.  Plastics Engineering?  What's that?
2.  What career do you get with that?  (The list is off possibilities is pretty extensive)
3.  So you're going to be making stuff like rubbermaid?    

Yep, rubbermaid is the only company in the world that uses plastic...     HAHAHA

 Had to delete a multiple post. 

I'm Actually a Math Major and whenever i tell people this, I just get that look of 'Why' with the response of a sacastic "Sounds like fun"... "I Hate Math"... to follow.

and i just usually srug my shoulders.

they tend to back off slowly.

Einstein was not a mathmatician....he actually struggled...well relatively when it came to mathmatics...it was one of is lowest scoring classes in university. He was a theoretical physicist. Sorry...just had to clear that up.

And yeah there is definately a divide between hard sciences and everything else. Everyone gets impressed when I say neurosciene....but not so much when I say psychology...oh and with psychology they always assume you are going into clinical.

I'm double-majoring in neuroscience and communication. 

When I tell people this, I get a lot of "that doesn't make sense"s.

When I tell people neuroscience, it's along the lines of "you're smart"/"are you going to be a brain surgeon?"  Because, apparently, there's no other reason for me to major in this.

When I tell people communication, I'm asked what size of cardboard box I want to live in after college.

When I tell people particulary my Grandparents its always:
"English what the hell are ya going to do with that? Do you want to teach? "
and finally..
"Do you even want to make money?" 
I always try and explain it to them that there is other jobs out there and money is not everything but I end up saying;
"Well I hate math..."
Then they leave me alone. lol

" So you are going to marry rich?"

"Could you BE more boring?!?"  [true quote]

1. they're like oh so you're not planning to graduate on time.
2. they assume I'm a liberal, which I am not.
3. they tell me I'll never find a good job with 3 random degrees (i think they aren't random, and actually compliment eachother nicely).
4. then they ask what I plan to do with my degrees, to which I tell them I'm going to lobby for the NRA.  It's true and it usually shuts off the conversation pretty well.

 When I tell people I'm a dance major, people usually ask me, "Well...what are you going to do after college, then?"  That, or they assume all I do is prance around and don't get anything productive done, which is quite the opposite--I spend about 4 hours outside of class per class working on things.  Also, being a male gets some weird faces.  

I agree with the psychology comments so far (as far as having gotten those, not agreeing with the content), but I tend to get more silent responses than verbal ones.  I'll tell them my major and the people kind of scrunch up their noses, take a few steps back, and are like, "oh."  I'm guessing they want me to stop reading their minds.

I'm an environmental science double major in forest ecology and environmental education. No one believes me because I don't look like the dirty tree hugger they've envisioned when they think of environmental scientists.

Then "Wow, so what, you want to poke at some fish or play in the dirt all day? Whats that going to do?"

I have actually responded yes to that. Just to make them stop.

Because most of the time if I explain that I want to educate kids on how to better take care of their environments and ultimately raise more awareness and begin to reverse the effects of carbon in the atmosphere all I get is "So like global warming and stuff?"

:)

People generally assume that all physicists live in laboratories, wearing white coats and thick glasses, never to see the sun or interact with other human beings. We're also apparently painfully dull and unimaginative, but brilliant. It also seems like no one has any idea what physics actually applies to, either, so I get a lot of questions about mathematics. Sure, math is extremely important in physics, but there are so many conceptual ideas that have absolutely nothing at all to do with math.

I just have to say that this thread is terribly amusing; good call, Casey.

 The response i get is usually "So... like you're going to be a teacher?" Well DUH.

People also tend to think this is an easy major, and that being an elementary school teacher is an easy job.

Well guess what, its not! 

My major is Biocultural Anthropolgy. Everyone thinks that it sounds really impressive and must be a lot of work, thus I must be really smart. My response is that it is like cultural anth with some science, it just sounds fancy. Plus I am by no means a fantastic student.

 So are there any majors out there that have some kinda of positive stereotype associated? It seems that most majors here are receiving negative feedback. These comments are quite amusing though and having just started on my major (community health) I wonder what kinda of dumbfounded responses I will be receiving. 

You can't be any kind of physicist if you don't have a grasp on mathematics. Physics uses theory and advanced mathematics to explain the bahvior of the universe! Did you think all that scribble he wrote on those chalkboards were just doodles?

I always get "So what stocks should I buy?" or "Are you voting for so and so..." I really want to say no, I am not a finance majar, and no I am not a political science major...and do you even know what econ studies? Because even people who have taken the intro courses really don't know what the subject is half the time, at least in my encounters...

Psychology:

"That's not even a science."
"What a load of bull shit."

And there's my ex who contradicts anything I say about it no matter how obvious it would be layperson. Douche.

I'm in the old sleepersons econ 206 class and I have no clue what it means to study econ, except maybe that your policies on things like income tax, minimum wage, and rent control (really politics in general) will make all political groups hate you. 

that and men don't eat vegetables...

(ha ha seriously though Sleeman is a really great prof... I'm still not sure what econ is all about though. Supply and Demand? Marginal Benefit equals marginal costs?)

oh never mind.

"So... how many languages do you speak?"  Then, they get all disappointed when I only say one, though I've studied a lot of them.

Even in the 200-level Linguistics courses, you always get the, "Linguists don't always speak a bunch of languages" speech.

 my grandpa: "what are you majoring in again?"
 me: "sociology and communication, papa."
 my grandpa: "SOCIOLOGY!?!!?"
 me: "sociology papa, not socialism."

as for communication, I feel like people think I'm dumb for also majoring in this...you know communication is more than just talking, its an art.

People are always like, "PE?!" you aren't going to make any money teaching kids about running around. or "all you do is play games and sports." No, actually, we take classes like Biomechanics and Anatomy and Kinesiology, it isn't all fun and games, mostly it's studying.

Can I just say that if you have a degree you don't have the right to refer to people as laypeople.  Or maybe you do... but you shouldn't .  It means I am an expert and you're not so listen to me because I have the RIGHT answer.

And to stay on topic: Computer Science , and they don't really say anything.

Wait, heres one: "Can you fix my computer?"

To which I invariably say yes but I always take a really long time to get around to it and by then they have fixed it themselves.

Every time: "What the hell is that?" (plastics with vehicle engineering technology for those who were also wondering)
Followed by: "what are you going to make? plastic cars?"

Yeah, cars are not the only vehicles in the world people

hey "repart" :)
im in the exercise sports science major too! and yes, everytime i volunteer my major they usually look at me and try to figure out if i workout everyday or ask me a sports related question.  so far i think that people don't give our major very much credit. i mean we are learning about how the entire human body works, and what to do if it doesn't work.
but then i dont take comm or business majors very seriously. so i guess i should give a little appreciation to get some.

The immediate response everyone says to me when I say I'm an English major is ALWAYS:

"So, you want to teach?"

It's really annoying and starting to get on my nerves.  Heck no I don't want to teach.

The very common for all the majors mentioned: "what are you going to do?"

It was cool when I was trying to be a Phil major and Astronomy minor. My answer then was "be the BEST SCIENCE FICTION WRITER OF MY GENERATION." or "because having that kind of degree would make for really good cocktail party conversation, assuming that people who live in their cars get invited to such parties." They were mostly jokes but people always chuckled and agreed that would be hella cool. And that would fit me so damn well. Currently I'm looking into a Science-Fiction Studies master's program. In LIVERPOOL. How awesome would that be? Extremely.

People sometimes think I'm pretentious. I'll admit that I have that impression of English majors. Sometimes they are extra-impressed. Both annoy me, even though the latter is positive.

Also: people ask about what we talk about and I then have to tell them about some problem which gets kind of boring, especially when they think they can solve it. I feel bad shooting them down-- sometimes I say so-and-so philosopher that maybe they've heard of thought the same thing to make them feel good. They will probably never look into it and see that I was wrong, if I was.

"What's the difference?" in response to my saying that Nietzcha (sp?) was a continental (sp?) philosopher, so I know almost nothing about because our department is all analytic.

I love talking about my profs, though. They are every single one of them badasses.

"Oh."

Hahaha, I enjoyed the responses here.

My major is Graphic Design, and when I tell people, they're usually very...enthusiastic?
Mostly when I tell that to the customers at my mom's salon.  They go "Ohhhh, fun!"  I've gotten that exact response at least 3 times.

And they're almost always very supportive of it.

I haven't gotten any negative reactions to me telling my major to people...yet.

I'm a music education major. Usually I can't get far past "music" before they scoff and tell me that I'm going to end up as a homeless street musician, and then I don't actually work at all in my major (quite the contrary; music is one of the most credit-intensive/time-consuming majors out there; especially music education). If I get through the music education part, they usually tell me that I'll end up working in retail because there are no teacher jobs out there. Then I mention that I'm getting an additional endorsement to teach math. Theeen they usually stop talking.

Also, teachers are seem to generally be thought to be super brave for ever wanting to teach those people [meaning kids in general], which I don't really get; teaching seems to me to be like the only thing that I can do with what I love [music], and it just seems like an obvious career choice in general. Oddly enough, the only other person in my family that views things this way is my aunt, who teaches art.

More like:
Them: "Can you fix my computer?"
Me: "Can you cook?"

"So, do you criticize people's grammar a lot?"

"Who are your favorite authors?"

and, yes, inevitably..."So, you want to teach?"

My answer to the first is of course not and usually some abstract politically correct poetics on how I take no greater pleasure than interacting in a nonjudgmental manner with a wide variety of human beings and how I am nourished by the richness of every individual's unique way of speaking.

My favorite authors...I admit it, I really do get a kick out of sounding smart dropping obscure or foreign sounding authors' names and offering some heady (albeit genuinely enthusiastic) description of the work...hey, we all have something to show off, don't we? Some people have great bodies, some great cars...I happen to be very well-read.

And, yes. I want to get my doctorate and teach; I also want to get my TESL and teach overseas after I finish my bachelors but before heading into grad school.

I love English major in-jokes, the way knowing an author so well allows us to make satirical comments about him/her. I love memorizing and reciting poetry at whim.

I guess I could seem pretentious to people who don't know me, but I really really love school and am success-oriented.

Mara

Usually when I tell people I'm a Poli Sci major I get:

"Oh, so you want to be President, right?"
"You know people hate politicians" or sometimes "I hate politicians" or a silence that means they are thinking "I hate politicians" but are too nice to say it.

People always assume that if you are a political science major that all you want to do is run for office. :)

Heh...

I don't get questions like that... But of course, it helps that I'm Deaf and people just usually go *wave* and walk by me unless they have something they want to tell me or want to try and talk to me...

I'm an English - Literature major... I'll be leaving at the end of August to begin Graduate School to get a degree in Education of the Deaf. After that, it's a whole new ballgame.

But yea... *goes back in my corner*