Students are starting to make plans for what they will do after high school, some of which include attending college and studying in the fields of either STEM or humanities. This decision can affect the rest of a student’s future. Accordingly, many have undergone extensive thought on what is best for them to pursue. Some of these preferences have led to strong and somewhat controversial opinions around the differing subjects.
STEM encompasses classes in sciences, maths, technology and engineering. Popular majors such as computer science, mechanical engineering and biology fit into this category. Humanities includes social sciences classes like history and economics as well as english, the arts and more. Popular majors here include philosophy, political science and psychology.
Curiosity about how our world works and the passion to use this knowledge for solving problems are some things that have driven students to pursue STEM subjects.
“I want to study biology in college because it interests me the most in how it groups the most sciences in one. I see the world in a very scientific way, I want to know how it works,” senior Phaelen Hackett said.
Though on the other side of the academic spectrum, students interested in humanities and social sciences have similar drives as STEM students.
“I want to be a psychologist because I’m fascinated by how the mind works, and I also want to help people mentally,” junior Gia Lee said. “I feel like a lot of people struggle with that.”
Similarly to how Lee’s curiosity drives her interest in psychology, other students in the social sciences are also driven by a desire to understand how aspects of society work.
“I think political science or maybe just something relating to government is pretty interesting [to study],” sophomore Ethan Wexler said. “I’m interested because it’s good to know what’s going on in the world and it’s important for the world to be good in different ways.”
Having strong feelings regarding a specific subject has caused certain students to form negative opinions about other topics that may seem less impactful from their perspective.
“STEM is way more important because STEM is our future and history [humanities] is our past.” Hackett said.
Speaking with teachers who have spent much time learning and teaching specific subjects can help students make a decision about what field they would like to pursue in the future.
AP Literature and Composition teacher Adam Zeitlin has experience in both STEM and humanities, receiving a college degree in physics and currently teaching in the English department.
“[I studied physics] because I really liked science and I was good at math. So it came naturally to me, but also, I liked answering the questions of why the thing is like that. And so physics can answer those questions when you keep asking why and going down to a deeper and deeper level,” Zeitlin said. “For English, I was always interested in writing and conveying ideas, so like communication, you could say.”
Though these subjects seem to greatly differ, Zeitlin feels as though working and learning in both STEM and humanities have helped him and his overall knowledge. His experience is a different perspective to that of students who feel that one subject area is greater in ways than the other.
“You can find some connections across subjects sometimes, and it can help you feel like you’re living a more complete, fulfilling life than just keeping yourself in one smaller box,” Zeitlin said. “And for me, as a physics major, the science was really easy and familiar, but the history wasn’t, so I got to learn history through this scientific lens that made it a lot more accessible for me.”
