<p>So, I am a third year. A nursing major. I also work 8 hours a week as a sitter for a hospital. I have a friend who is journalism major. She is a second year. She has complained to me that we don't spend a whole lot time together. She also works a job that is flexible and allows her to do her homework (10hr/week), unlike mine.</p>
<p>I have heard of her and her boyfriend (photography major) complain about another friend who turns down offers to hang out to study. His major? Engineering (which type, I do not know).</p>
<p>Do people with notoriously harder major have a harder time with a social life? Do you have friends with "softer" majors who do not understand your workload? How do you deal with this? Do you hang out with people in the same major?</p>
<p>I find that a lot of my friends with “softer” majors always seem to have more free time than I do. I’m a pure math major, and they’re studying things like psychology, communications, and public policy, which are typically - though not always - easier. Not to step on any toes, but sometimes I feel that their workload allows them to not worry as much about doing well. That the material’s not as stress-inducing, and they don’t need time for intense studying. </p>
<p>I still hang out with people, but my social life is limited to when I’ve finished work and studying. I’ve talked with other STEM majors, and they express the same sentiments, so I don’t feel bad.</p>
<p>my best friend is an engineering major (who goes to a different school) so I hear a lot about how much work she has to do in her classes. I’m an international relations & economics double major and I’m in a residential college that is known for its greater/more difficult courseload, but I still don’t have anywhere near the amount of work my best friend has. I also have a 20 hour/week job and am an e-board member of my school’s Econ. Association so that takes up quite a bit of my time, but I still have way more time than my civil engineering friend to have a social life. Most of my friends are also in the same residential college as me/have similar majors, but have differing commitments - most of us have jobs and lots of extracurriculars so we all keep pretty busy. In general, I tend to get along with engineering/hard-science types because I understand what it means to work hard (whether in classes, a job, an overabundance of extracurriculars). I am lucky to have surrounded myself with hardworking friends, so I don’t feel out-of-place or complained about when I can’t attend a certain social event because of another commitment. </p>
<p>If your soft-major friends are complaining to you about your workload and not hanging out enough, just nod your head and go about your own business. Don’t let it get into your head…because ultimately only you know what you must do to succeed grades or career-wise. Try to hang out with some kids with similar majors, or hang out with kids who are just as busy as you. Otherwise just deal with it and know that working hard in college will payoff more for you, because nursing majors such as yourself will get better prospects/a higher paying job right out of college than the average journalism or whatever other major.</p>
<p>I had an easy schedule frosh year with 12 credits so I had a lot of down time. My roommate was an engineering major and was always studying late. I’d come back from a party at like 5/6 AM and he’d be asleep with his face in the book and with all the lights on. </p>
<p>I wouldn’t say that harder majors have a tougher time socially because there were times that we both went out to a party. It just depends on time management and work ethic which you have to work on. </p>
<p>When you have other obligations like work that’s when it gets tough.</p>
<p>I think a big thing is that, though both types of majors require a significant amount of time, engineering/sciences majors are constantly working, whereas, as someone in the humanities, I see the workload pile up only near breaks. Maybe it’s different in other schools, but that’s been my experience.</p>
<p>I completely agree with clarinette52. I have a softer major, and my work load is pretty light through the semester, but piles up really badly near breaks. My boyfriend is a chemical engineer, and his workload is really heavy throughout the semester. He doesn’t have anywhere near as much free time during the semester as I do, and will usually turn me down when I want to go out to a party with him or something because he has to do work or study.</p>
<p>I kind of had the opposite problem. Most of my friends complained about how it never seemed like I ever did any work. I completely understand a huge workload and having very little free time. I mean, when I was in high school, I had jazz band from 7-8, seven academic classes from 8-3, after school band from 3-4, and sports practice from 4-6. By the time I got home, I had about three-four hours of homework, and so I just never had any free time with my work load. It’s completely miserable and it is not made any better by having friends guilt trip you into hanging out with them. The entire time you are, you’re just thinking about how much stuff you have to do and how you’re not getting it done.</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s right that someone should complain about a friend not being available to hang out because they have a lot of work to do. College is expensive and academics should be a priority. If they’re your friend, you should be supportive of them and that includes realizing that they can’t always be as social with you as much as they’d like to.</p>
<p>It definitely does feel like a lot of majors are not “created” equal. Every single one of my engineering friends are dying from all their workload, even though most of them are only sophomores or freshmen. And then you have one of my Political Science friends, who literally has not had to do much these past two years and is usually out and about every night of the semester.
It’s kind of a sad (but true) joke at our school that engineers have no lives and liberal arts kids don’t do much, though I know a few humanities majors who have done a lot for our school and some engineers who do go out and join clubs and talk to others, so sometimes it may really depend on the person and how far they are willing to go to make things work.</p>
<p>It definitely isn’t right for your friends to be bashing on your pals who have more work-intensive majors, but finding buddies who are in the same major(s) as you helps a lot. That’s pretty much how most of my engineering friends get their socializing done: by doing group study sessions haha.</p>