You meet a million people in college. Or so it seems as you go from dorm to class to frat party, seeing thousands of new faces along the way. How’s a busy college student to determine who she’ll like or who she’ll want to avoid?

Well there’s no better instant-indicator than judging someone based on their major. Sure it’s a stereotype and sure it’s not always right, but as most college students can attest it’s usually pretty accurate.  So step into our judgmental world and check out our ultimate major translator. You’ll have your entire campus figured out in no time!

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As a senior in college, I’m scared to graduate. I’m terrified of turning my tassel because it’ll mean I’m leaving a world of overly caffeinated morning classes, Greek life costume parties and, apparently, the opportunity to play competitive Quidditch. And like most of my generation, I might possibly find myself (not) contributing to the nation’s economy by suddenly joining the unemployment rate.

If that were to happen, then I would take responsibility for it. I would acknowledge that it was my fault for wanting to be at the top of the beer pong tournament bracket instead of at the head of my class curve, and for being too anxious/lazy/[insert excuse here] to apply for graduate school programs. My socioeconomic failure would not be simply boiled down to the fact that I didn’t major in some form of engineering.

But Dori Jones Yang over at The Huffington Post disagrees. According to her, studying anything that does not directly lead to a future career in technology will “speed up our own decline as a society.” These supposedly impractical majors include literature, theater, art, politics, creative writing, psychology, English—fields of study that Yang categorizes as “all the fun stuff.” Apparently, we liberal arts kids live in a “dream world” that is lit by Hollywood stars and concert spotlights, and we inevitably aspire for contentment after graduation on Mom and Dad’s couch. We drop our calculus classes when they start to get difficult because we don’t like a challenge. Because we can’t handle it.

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While every college girl shares many of the same college experiences (selling books, sexiled, one shot too many), she also carves her own path and has her own unique adventure. Have you ever wondered what it’s like for other girls? What it’s like to go to an all-girls school? To go to fashion school? To double major? To get married?! Well wonder no more. Our one-of-a-kind CollegeCandy writers (and readers!) are sharing their unique experiences and opening our eyes to different college worlds.

Are you doing something spectacular/different/interesting that you want to share? Send your ideas over and perhaps you could be telling your story right here.

I’d bet my graphing calculator that you don’t have many girlfriends that are engineers. It’s not because we’re antisocial (well, I’ll speak for myself on that one…), it’s because there aren’t many of us to begin with. Sure, it may seem like a pretty sweet deal to be one of seven girls in a class of 100, but I promise its not all it’s cracked up to be.

Let’s start with a day in the life of. Unlike most other college girls, I get taken less seriously if I dress well. Yes, wearing a cute blazer and jeans (or make-up and accessories) actually diminishes how seriously my peers and professors take me. For some reason, certain professors seem to hold it against me that I am a girl going into a seriously male dominated world. However, being taken seriously is seemingly on the bottom of my to-do list when it comes to classes.

For example, this past semester I had one assignment due per each one of my five classes per week. An average assignment is about 5 problems long, making around 25 problems due per week. Not so bad, right? That is until you take into account the level of difficulty, the amount of time spent and precision required for each section of each problem. Whether it’s the 16 points I got off an assignment once for writing Page 1 instead of Page 1/8 on each page, or the time I neglected to box my answers properly (apparently circling them wasn’t sufficient that day…), every assignment seems to bring its own headache in a unique form. Four hours, two lattes, and nearly half a pad of engineering paper later, I might have finished half of an assignment.

That is, if I had no other commitments and rarely made a mistake. Read More »

I am twenty-two years old. In November, I am turning twenty-three. I graduated high school almost five years ago. By my calculations (and yes, I suck at math, but I can’t be that bad) I should’ve graduated about four months ago. Roughly. Give or take a couple of weeks or so. Okay, the point is, I’m wicked behind.

I’m sure you may be wondering what kind of time-warp I fell into that I didn’t graduate four months ago. Or maybe you’re not. The truth is, I did what a lot of people do—I got burnt out. First of all, I picked a ridiculous career: Computer Engineering. Not to say that the career itself is ridiculous, it was just a bad choice for me. Three semesters and only two true Engineering classes later, I was burnt out. And hard up for cash. I ended up withdrawing from classes my fourth semester in school. I was just going to take a semester off, work hard enough to save up the money and go back later in the fall. Yeah, right. That “semester off” turned into three years!

I’m almost twenty-three and starting over. And so I present, the top differences in College: Then and Now:

As a freshman four years ago, I couldn’t legally drink. Or smoke. Or do much of anything except hole up in my dorm room doing homework. Now? I am free to drink as I please. And smoke. But my inclination to do both has significantly lessened. What is it about forbidden things being so much damn cooler?? Read More »

While at a bar last weekend, a guy casually asked me what I did for work. When I told him I was a writer, he wanted to know what kinds of things I wrote. “I mostly do technology writing,” I started to tell him. “What?!” he laughed. “You’re too pretty to be interested in technology.” I almost slapped him, but instead just said, “What’s that supposed to mean?” He didn’t have an answer for me, so I just walked away. And yes, I was a bit insulted.

Why is it not acceptable for girls to be interested in technology? Unless you’re an ugly girl with no social life and no social skills, of course. I guess it could be because there just aren’t a lot of women who work in technology jobs, such as IT, science, and engineering. But why aren’t there? Read More »