By now, I know the conversation like the back of my hand. It usually happens when I’m speaking to men, and even more so when those men are STEM majors. The exact wording varies but it goes something along the lines of “you’re majoring in Psychology? Oh, so no science classes for you” or “what are you complaining about? You’re a Liberal Arts major!” It’s at this point when I usually clarify, “I’m studying Psych with a focus in neuroscience,” and then I revel in watching their faces fall as they take back the demeaning words they had just shamelessly said to me.

As much as I’m proud that I am studying a STEM (or at least STEM-adjacent) subject, these interactions bother me every time they happen. Throughout my life, I’ve always been considered smart. Even if I wasn’t at the very top of my class or taking the hardest subjects, people generally never questioned my intelligence when it came to school work, and I didn’t realize how much of a privilege that was until I got here. While at home, I was branded “smart” as a result of stereotypes about Indians excelling academically, here I’m labeled “less intelligent” before people even know me because of a different stereotype, centered around my major.

What the people who are questioning my intelligence fail to understand, however, is that even if I were in a field that was purely artistic, chances are that I could still outperform them in an essay contest or any communication-based exercise, just like they could beat me on a chemistry test or an engineering assignment. So why is my intelligence only being operationalized by the level math course I’m in and how difficult my major sounds? While I believe that STEM education is absolutely essential to helping people succeed in the future, I also think that our movement to enhance STEM studies has completely taken the importance off of artistic education. As wonderful as it is to be able to build a robot or write a new code, if the people who are in charge of these projects can’t critically think, then they risk their invention being applied wrong or failing to reach its full potential. The arts, humanities, and social sciences teach a whole different set of equally important skills, like writing and speaking, creativity, logic, empathy, social intelligence, and political literacy. Without these skills, even if someone is the best surgeon or programmer in the world, it would be difficult for them to succeed.

I love neuroscience and the concept of uncovering the intricacies behind every thought, movement, and feeling that we experience; however, I’m also grateful that my major also allows me to dedicate some of my education to learning about the struggles people face and how professionals in my field have tried to ameliorate those people’s conditions, including the times that they have failed. I think Penn State does a great job combining the natural sciences and critical thinking courses for students of all majors, but this is a much broader issue. While I believe that we should continue to push for STEM education from a young age, I think it’s equally as important that we place some emphasis on being well-rounded and that we recognize that every field provides its own value.

Without people studying a broad range of subjects, our society would not be able to function the same. Liberal arts education helps to preserve our morals, history, language, and culture, as well as placing a continuous emphasis on helping people, and for that reason, it is just as valuable and important as STEM education.