Why you shouldn’t study sciences

English Lit would’ve been so much easier


With the epiphany term dragging its heels, and the steady accumulation of summative deadlines approaching faster than you can utter ‘40% pass rate’, it’s about time you start questioning what you thought was so enticing about studying science.

Was it the early morning trek up to the science site for a six hour day starting at 9am? Or was it just being able to drop into conversations that you’re (pretty much) a scientist?

Whatever it was, it’s evident that it is not all it’s cracked up to be. Here are a few things you should’ve thought through before choosing to study a science subject.

The excessive contact hours

The moment when you realise you’re in a group of friends who are predominantly science-haters is a low point.

From the get-go you’ll be stumped for any last-minute, late-night, much-needed study sessions with any fellow scientists. But the final straw is when you realise that a large proportion of them are English Lit or Anthropology students. You’ll think; fair enough, each to their own, someone’s going to be missing out on the rat dissections. But then, slowly but surely, you will realise you might have made a big mistake.

Practicals

A word synonymous to “dread.”  As if lectures aren’t enough, four hour practicals were invented to make scientists even more traumatised.

The fact that we get to wear lab coats during four hours of pipetting solutions that all look like water into other solutions that also resemble water is the only redeeming factor that just about pulls us through.

The lack of rom-com watching

Initially, you may have thought English Lit requires copious amounts of reading, and that it is just about as strenuous as a science degree. But then you get back home after a long day and see the arts students binge-watching Gossip Girl, and you realise they haven’t actually picked up a book for about a week.

Meanwhile, you don’t even know what Netflix has to offer these days, because in your free time you’re attempting to understand what was going on in those lectures where a good 90 per cent of the words didn’t make sense.

Getting no sleep

When getting five hours of sleep a night is an impressive achievement you know something has gone wrong somewhere. Especially when you start becoming too tired to frequent Jimmy’s more than once a week.

They say at university you can pick two of three things; sleeping, doing a degree, or having a social life. Not true! Just pick an arts subject and you’ll have it all. Lectures at 2pm, a lie in pretty much every day, the energy to go out and get wasted at least four times a week… You can even do a DU sport on the side!

Less college food

Yes, less college food might sound like a good thing. But if you think college potatoes are bad just wait until you’ve had a packed lunch. With a good 80% of your days starting at 9am, breakfast isn’t even an option. If you’re lucky enough to have the time to enjoy a blissful cup of coffee and a freshly toasted piece of bread in the morning, you might have spotted those sad-looking packed lunches.

It turns out, those foul sandwiches can be lifesavers when you don’t have a break from 10am until 2pm. However, missing fish and chips on Fridays at lunch-time is less than ideal.

No wonder you find yourself wondering why you made such a rash decision about what subject to study. Why oh why did you decide to choose an impressive sounding degree over sanity? Arts students will forever and always have it better.