#like this is sociology linguistics psychology language science all put together into one major. to me. and i looove that | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

shamemp3 · 1 year

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sociology and anthropology are everything to me … like they are so broad because they are the study of humans and their lives and interactions and feelings and etc etc and its broad enough that you can have a class about genuinely ANYTHING because sociology is engrained in everything around us…and the message my profs leave us with every time is that the human experience is so unique and dynamic and yet universally there are still so many similarities and connections that keep us bonded together. and these studies make us find bits and pieces in humanity literally everywhere like you can look at a piece of string or like garbage on the floor or be placed into the strangest situations and have the most mundane interactions on the street and you will find yourself going like ‘:] wow humans are so interesting and this world is so interesting. why did this happen what made this person like this?’ like!!! i just like how broad this study is and how every class can be abt smth completely different but the main idea will always be about the human experience and connection. i love my major sorry im done now

#never in my life did i think i would acc have a passion for studying bro it sucked the soul out of me up until like last year #and my prof going like studying soc & anthro have made her be able to distance herself from a situation even a really shitty one and just be #like. huh. this is so interesting time to observe. And jts SO TRUE like u notice the little things in like hand gestures or pauses or a way #someone moves their arm or literaly anything and u go like omg this is so <3 what made this person do this rly small thing like even our #smallest subconscious actions are a part of us [symbolic interactionism moment]#and my prof saying how anthro and ethnography projects need u to adapt all the time and be able to let go of yourself and change your #identity and expect new things all the time like thats all ive ever been looking for is constant change & stimulation i need this PLEASW #like this is sociology linguistics psychology language science all put together into one major. to me. and i looove that #ok sorry done

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hylianengineer · 2 years

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I think it would be good if everyone took one introductory course in as many fields as possible because a) it changes the way you think about the world and b) you have no idea how often information and skills transfer.

Your English teacher told you you have to obey the grammar rules; linguistics teaches you that language is alive and fluid and free. The only rules that matter are already embedded in your brain anyways (and you can break those too). People who use unusual slang and have different accents and phrase their sentences differently are correct actually, it’s just dialect variation. Which is amazing and beautiful and deserving of respect.

Anthropology’s core tenet is cultural relativism (aka not judging people just because you don’t understand) and you also won’t get an intro class that doesn’t debate it’s limitations too. There is nothing quite like realizing that thing you thought was universal is really, really not. And that thing you thought was universally bad is really not.

Statistics will teach you how numbers can explain the world, and how people will try to manipulate them and you.

Literature is literally about the human experience, and I don’t know what more you could want from a class. Also great for honing your critical thinking skills. Being able to analyze the media you consume is generally a great skill to have.

Sociology teaches you that everyone has a perspective and how to be aware of yours. Also if you aren’t aware of systemic inequalities yet the realization will smack you in the face. (I have know people this has happened to.)

Chemistry is cool. It also has basic lab safety practices that transfer to any STEM field and also some other things. I’m taking a metalsmithing class right now and it’s surprising how much transfers. Eye protection, tying back long hair if you’re working with fire, cleaning up chemical spills, using ventilation when you’re doing stuff that produces fumes, there’s even an eyewash station and a book of Safety Data Sheets in the studio.

Physics is surprisingly practical. In high school physics, I learned (among other things), that taking slower steps on ice will reduce your chances of falling, and if you need to pull something heavy it works better at a slight angle. We tested that last one with a rope and the teacher’s truck, I can confirm it works.

I haven’t taken psychology but I kinda wish I did because I have had to figure out how my brain works the hard way. I’m still learning.

As an environmental science major who’s more interested in emissions than wildlife, I thought biology would be useless to me. Now I’m working on a project about wetland methane emissions, and guess what? Molecular biology is the only reason I understand what’s going on.

If nothing else, learning the basics of computer programming will teach you that while it’s initially not as incomprehensible as it sounds, code does weird shit sometimes. Have some empathy for the programmers, they don’t understand it all either.

Economics is a fun counterpoint to sociology, and I suspect that putting experts in these fields in a room together would be either very entertaining or end very badly. Possibly both. The worldviews clash so much. But it’s also useful stuff, and it can help you understand how lots of people make decisions- including the politicians you vote for.

History! You can’t understand the present if you don’t know how we got here, but that’s far from the only point of this class. A good history class can improve your writing skills, reading comprehension, and ability to back up an argument with sources.

Government / civics: know how the government works so you can understand why the news is so weird all the time. And be an informed voter and stuff. But seriously, this stuff does affect you and it’s good to know how it works. Heard about the filibuster in the news lately? Supreme court nominations? Constitutional rights? It’s all here. (Sorry I know this is obviously for an American perspective and the examples won’t apply elsewhere, but the utility of knowing how things works will always transfer.)

The best thing any art class can teach you is that you can just do it. It doesn’t need to be perfect, you don’t need to be an expert, and people will both like it and dislike it no matter what it is. Seriously. Go read about the artist who taped a banana to a wall and sold it for $120,000. But wait! It gets weirder. You don’t buy the banana, you buy the rights to reproduce the work and the instructions for making it. Which makes sense because the banana would rot. But it sounds kinda like a proto-NFT now that I think about it. Anyways, the point is that art is literally whatever, the meaning is what you make it, and nobody knows that better than art people. There was an art movement where you didn’t even have to make stuff, you could just find stuff and go “I think this is art” and that was that. Look up “Fountain” by Marcel Duchamp. It’s a urinal turned sideways with “R. Mutt” written on it. That’s it. Duchamp described the phenomenon as "everyday objects raised to the dignity of a work of art by the artist's act of choice.” Art is what you make it and that is so cool. Embrace the chaos.

#a rant #I honestly don't know where this came from #long post #I'm on my bullshit today and idk why #academia #college #university #all the academia disciplines are cool actually and we should all be friends #I don't understand why people fight over this #perspectives are good! more perspectives are more good!#get all of them you can!#but also non academic perspectives are valid too!#all knowledge is important and valuable and you don't need a degree to be knowledgable #non academic knowledge is just as important

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hagiographically · 7 years

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Could you talk more about Stanford stereotypes regarding literally anything (idk majors?) bc they way how you explain them is literally so funny/good

lmao aw ily, you can always come to me if u want my opinion related to anything stanford (stereotypes about dorms, sports teams, greek life, a cappella ??) because i have A Lot Of It - i only wish i was more integrated with the school cuz most of my opinions are hearsay instead of personal experience

major stereotypes….hmm thats hard cuz there are So Many majors but i can just go with the most common ones and group some together, etc

engineering:

aero/astro - small department full of space nerds, most of them are in SSI, drones, i personally consider them very brainy and if i were better at engineering i would be aero/astro cuz i think it’s the next frontier. there should definitely be more women in it for sure

bioe - my ex was bioe, they’re a bunch of nerds but they have good enough hearts. they care about curing diseases and shit

CS - oh boy. ohhhhhh boy. here we fuckin go. honestly CS is barely even a sterotype at stanford cuz its such a dominant culture…..the people who decide what stereotypes even are, are probably CS. it’s gotten to the point where if i meet someone and they aren’t CS it’s worth noting. it’s gotten to the point where, in my psych/literature/communications/education classes, i expect the other people to be CS. i have so many Opinions on CS Boys because CS Boys are such!!!!a!!!type!!!! (and different from just, a boy who does CS). they worship the trinity of google, facebook, and microsoft. their junior summer internship is at least one of these. they buy into all silicon valley startup culture and they love elon musk and talk about venture capital when its really not welcome. they love talking about how much work they have and how little they sleep. all INTJs. probably virgos. there is also a subgenre of CS boy who didnt come into stanford wanting to do CS and ended up switching because its easier to be a CS Boy at stanford. they criticize the culture all the time. to this you can say, “it’s all right, craig, i know you just want to make money.”

CME - people major in this when they dont love themselves

design - i personally think this major is fuckin cool and considered it before i realized physics was a pre-req. the d school is thought to be d for douchey though because their whole shtick is so ~ideate~ ~prototype~ ~We Are Quirky and Put Post-Its On Walls~ but i dug it as a frosh. they can be kinda condescending, but theyre by far the most interdisciplinary dept in the engineering major (although its also full of white men who think theyre hot shit cuz they can use photoshop)

EE - again for people who lack self love, its supposed to be so fuckin hard

MS&E - white frat boys who glorify jordan belfort

ME - similar to design. live at the PRL. stay up till ungodly hours carving wood. somehow this is enjoyable. also white male heavy

who knows how the f to categorize this:

education - if i could do stanford over i would major in this. usually very diverse, woke, often come from underprivileged backgrounds so they want to make it better for other people and reach communities that arent currently benefited (unlike silicon valley or wall street :) ) i respect them because they do what they love and not to make $ although if educational engineering were a thing im certain people would jump ship. it’s also not in the humanities dept so i feel like theyre Above the stanford hegemony and i love that

earthsys - i considered a minor in this. usually sweet, earth-friendly people. white but woke. possibly queer. granola loving hippies and maybe some frathletes who want an “easy” major but not sure (im not shitting on easy majors. i have one. love ‘em)

generally i like girls in any of the engineering depts because they are dealing with sexism and doing it. the boys are oftentimes extremely self-congratulatory and will usually say something dumb about the humanities. even the girls will hit you with the “oh i wish i could study that!” about any non-engineering discipline, and it’s implied that what they’re really saying is “but i care about my future too much!”

humanities/sciences:

AAAS/chicanx studies/asian-american studies/CSRE - woke poc who use lots of buzzwords and say things like folx

art - the people who major in art are usually more quiet than you’d think. we have an Artsy Type at stanf that are kind of extra (theta chi/EBF types, also very woke QPOC) but i dont think theyre art majors for the most part. i barely know any actual art Majors. lots of engineers just do art on the side

bio - i love bio majors because they are sciency but also get shit on by engineers so we’re in solidarity. they are sweet and study all the time and just wanna make the world a better place. there’s also the pre-med kind of bio who i would hate if i were also pre med but since im not i just kind of admire and fear them

chem - i like chem people much more than i thought i would. again a very small major and they just live in lab and have varied non chem interests. this year i accidentally became friends with like 6 people from the chem fraternity and i was surprised how much i liked them

complit/english - i was this major! english in creative writing are usually chill, interesting people. complit and english in literature…….it’s a shakespeare circlejerk and they hit you with the Discourse. overly educated white people. avoid the boys specifically but the girls can also be incredibly self-satisfied. maybe 50/50. but if you take a creative writing class instead of a lit class, the CW kids are usually awesome

taps - our drama department. they’re nice, but extra and intimidating. (also stanford theater is…..okay….not really as good as they seem to think it is yikes that was mean but) however, like with english, take an introductory class and you’ll meet very cool non-taps majors.

econ - oftentimes wonderful people! outside of class that is

femgen - same people as the AAAS/CSRE crowd except whiter. queer girls with undercuts. upperclassmen are intimidating to many. everyone shares their opinion even when its not warranted. my honors is in this

film studies - this was almost my minor and if i werent CW i might have doubled in film and comm! i dont know any film majors but if they arent a cole sprouse im sure theyre fine (they are probably a cole sprouse)

german/italian/french/spanish language or studies - spot the person who studied abroad!

history - like english, can be cool, more likely pretentious

humbio - the other premeds! actually humbio gets shit on alllll the time for being easy or having a fluff major, bio majors think they’re soft. thus, i like them. their course catalog is awesome and its a huge major but all the scary pre meds are straight up bio and humbios are softer but in a good way its a lot of sweet girls

intl relations - one of my favorite majors. usually very down to earth, the best of the IR/poli-sci/pub-po trinity. however, they can also be self-congratulatory for being So Woke and also they love to educate you when You Didn’t Ask

linguistics - weird, diverse people. very small major. similar to anthro, my old major. i love small majors they always have cute dinners together

MCS - a hard fuckin major. not as “Look How Smart I Am” as a bad CS. mostly quiet and stay in and study their ass off

math - love to wax poetic about the beauty of math. fun when drunk. not when sober

philosophy/MTL/classics - avoid. classics can be okay if it overlaps with archaeology because theyre just a bunch of nerds and they get really excited and its cute. phil majors would rather just educate you about how free will is fake and youre like tim can you please just get out of the way we’re in the dining hall and you’re blocking the cornbread

physics - Avoid. they think all other sciences are lesser. women and POC are ok

poli-sci - hit or miss. generally pretty friendly. very talkative. fun to talk to about Not Politics

psych - the best major hehe. generally liberal and woke and often queer. however, non-psych people in psych classes can be a nightmare (unlike english, taps, etc) and problematic as fuck. also sometimes psych majors are extra (exhibit a: me)

pub policy - probably in student government. im biased against it, but go in with hesitation. student government is by and large not as effective as they seem to think (however, a “woke” person in pub po might be cool because they will campaign for sexual assault awareness and economic diversity and good stuff)

STS - ohhhhh man. probably the major that gets most shit on at stanford. i think engineers think it’s fake. (humbio, design, and STS get shit on the most i’d say, because they are interdisciplinary STEM majors, so engineers think that they’re for people who arent smart enough to do hard majors. whereas with english or IR, engineers know they couldnt do it because they havent written an essay since 2009, so they offer grudging respect) a frathlete major. i personally like it because i dig interdisciplinary shit, but i don’t dig frat boys or athletes so i avoid. some of their courses are great but it does seem kind of scrapped together as a major and i dont know how people outside of stan see it

sociology - a small major, seems cool. stigmatized but not by stanford because stanford students dont know it exists. “dont you mean psychology?” no

urban studies - skaters? who knows. i respect them tho. i think they care about….like….architecture? and city development? its a very niche thing and i feel like it’s pretty hip n happening

#stanford #stanford university #majors #college #advice #stereotypes #stan

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