Enough with the shaming: Communications is not a ‘joke major’

“What’s your major?”

It’s a simple question each and every college student is asked millions of times. We get it from employers, old high school friends, dentists, grandparents, and strangers in coffeeshops.

It’s a question that bodes interest and spirit. It tells so much about who we are not just as students, but as human beings looking to navigate our curiosities and put our passions into real-life action. Our majors give the world a glimpse into what excites us, it tells people whether we are qualitative or quantitative thinkers, whether we are kinesthetic or auditory learners, and whether we are (how our teachers like to put it) right brain or left brain scholars.

As college students, we eat, sleep, and breathe our majors almost to the point where they become apart of our identities. Majors define what courses we must fulfill, what familiar faces we take every class with, what professors become our mentors, and they guide us to who we will become once we leave the college bubble.

So how would it feel if you attended a university where the student body actually ridiculed and made fun of your major? How would it feel if your answer to the question “what is your major” made the person laugh in your face because the reputation of the Communications major is that it is “the easiest major at Boston College”?

I was told, “when in doubt, be a Communications major” 

Before coming to Boston College, I had no clue what I wanted to do with my life, let alone what I wanted to major in for four years. But I was certain of two things: I despised solving math equations and I absolutely loved to write. I was never a strong math student, and in fact I think my body actually rejected mathematical equations when my brain tried to compute them. So, it only seemed fair that any major that required me to do long division or multivariable problems be ruled out (my math tutors will vouch for me on this being an excellent decision on my part).

Since I knew I was more of a reading and writing type of kid, I decided to explore the Communications major and its many facets: broadcasting, journalism, media studies, television, radio, public relations, business communication, etc.

I enrolled in Rhetorical Tradition with Professor Wells, and I guess you can say the rest is history. Never had I been more genuinely excited to go to a class everyday, than I was to attend Wells’ lectures. I remember feeling so confident and satisfied with my choice to declare a Communications major that I blabbed about it for a solid 15 minutes during lunch, and was stunned when someone actually had the nerve to say to me, “Good call, my RA told me when in doubt, be a Comm major.”

And that is the exact moment I discovered that the Communication major not only at Boston College, but at universities across the country, is widely undervalued and frankly dismissed as being a legitimate college major.

We are not a ‘joke’ major

I am a junior at Boston College and over the past few years, I’ve had a lot of time to uncover the stigma and cruel judgement that surrounds my major. People call it a joke, they ask me if I even have to take notes in lectures, and they tell me how lucky I am that all my exams are a piece of cake because they would ace school if they were a Comm major, too.

For the record: our major is not a joke because every single Communications major at Boston College had to apply to the university in the first place and get accepted just like the other thousands of students here. Just because people think Biochemistry majors or Accounting majors are more intelligent, doesn’t mean we didn’t deserve to get into this school in the first place. The world needs Communications majors just as much as it needs chemists and accountants.

 

Communication classes are not an easy “A”

I have never been commended on the fact that I am a Communication major. Quite the opposite, in fact – I have been told that my classes are so easy, if I slept during them I would probably still get an A. I have been told that people take Communication classes for a GPA booster, and because everyone said the course was an easy A.

I wouldn’t exactly call a writing intensive class that requires students to write a 30-page research paper on an issue within the broadcasting industry “easy,” but hey how would I know? I’m just a Comm major, right?

It is exhausting to have to defend ourselves and our majors over and over again to people who think they know more about it than we do. We are told on a daily basis that our classes are easy, our professors are lenient graders, and our major is essentially an elementary waste of our time and money.

We find ourselves having to be our own source of encouragement and support because those around us somehow feel it is better to undermine our academic work, than it is to support it.

There are actual job positions that prefer applicants to be Communication majors

Did you know that the fear of public speaking is America’s biggest phobia? Did you also know that every Communication major at Boston College is required to take a Public Speaking course in order to graduate? Which means that, contrary to popular belief, there are actual companies out there looking and genuinely hoping to hire applicants like us because we are skilled and eloquent speakers.

We are incessantly asked, “what do Communications majors even do?” because apparently it’s not impressive or admirable that we do something the entire country is scared shitless of.

Enough with the major-shaming

While we do really appreciate all the criticism and the inadequacy that is bestowed upon us Communication majors, I challenge those who are skeptics or nonbelievers of our studies to ask us why we chose to declare Communication as our major. I guarantee you we will not say because it is an easy major or because all the athletes do it, but we will say because it is our craft. It is the thing that fulfills, enriches, and intrigues us each and every day. It is the thing that tests our boundaries, yet grounds our knowledge. It is what we love to do, so why do we find ourselves being trivialized and dismissed by our own classmates and community?

We deserve to be respected, not ashamed because you never know which one of us could wind up becoming the next CEO of Disney, and then you’ll be sorry you ever said we were a joke.