# Does/Did your major require plenty of social interaction?



## acidicwithpanic (May 14, 2014)

What did you major in and what was the work/internships like? Did you do work-study? 

Although my major normally doesn't require much socialization from classmates, I'm applying to a research group and would have to work alongside other students/faculty. I'm not feeling much anxiety over it, but I'm just curious about the work, even if your major isn't related to mine.


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## Kevin001 (Jan 2, 2015)

I majored in psychology, I just went to class and got out...so just the bare minimum socializing.


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## acidicwithpanic (May 14, 2014)

Kevin001 said:


> I majored in psychology, I just went to class and got out...so just the bare minimum socializing.


Really? Most psych majors I knew mentioned that they had to do a lot of group work especially towards the end of their program. I think they had to conduct some group research during their senior years. My roommate was also a psych major and had to work with classmates to publish a few papers. But maybe that's just my school.


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## novalax (Jun 7, 2013)

while there isnt much socialized in my majors per se, but they are all business types so they want to network. what kind of research are you doing? I'm looking into joining a research group as well.


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## Kevin001 (Jan 2, 2015)

acidicwithpanic said:


> Really? Most psych majors I knew mentioned that they had to do a lot of group work especially towards the end of their program. I think they had to conduct some group research during their senior years. My roommate was also a psych major and had to work with classmates to publish a few papers. But maybe that's just my school.


I mean there were presentations and stuff but I never did a group research project. I just got my bachelor's though no Master's or phD. Most work was just solo stuff. I did't even take a speech class.


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## acidicwithpanic (May 14, 2014)

novalax said:


> while there isnt much socialized in my majors per se, but they are all business types so they want to network. what kind of research are you doing? I'm looking into joining a research group as well.


Ugh, I applaud you for having to be around business students. That would burn me out. What research are you interested in?

I'm doing cryptography/number theory.


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## acidicwithpanic (May 14, 2014)

Kevin001 said:


> I mean there were presentations and stuff but I never did a group research project. I just got my bachelor's though no Master's or phD. Most work was just solo stuff. I did't even take a speech class.


Ah I see, but no speech class? What kind of school is this lol.


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## Kevin001 (Jan 2, 2015)

acidicwithpanic said:


> Ah I see, but no speech class? What kind of school is this lol.


I took everything and anything I could to avoid it. Somehow did...phew. :laugh:


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## novalax (Jun 7, 2013)

acidicwithpanic said:


> Ugh, I applaud you for having to be around business students. That would burn me out. What research are you interested in?
> 
> I'm doing cryptography/number theory.


haha thanks, but one quickly realizes there is a common parlance when networking to make it relatively painless. It can be kinda rough at times though. I'm primarily interested in macro-economic forecasting, maybe agent based computational economics. I'm still kinda looking around. I'd also consider doing some research in derivative pricing or something else more finance related.


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## acidicwithpanic (May 14, 2014)

Kevin001 said:


> I took everything and anything I could to avoid it. Somehow did...phew. :laugh:


Well **** me. -__- The class sucked but I'm glad I got it over with. I heard that more schools are starting to create speech classes specifically geared towards students with SA and stage fright and can still earn their speech credit. Would have definitely taken that had my school offered it, but too late now.


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## flyingMint (Aug 31, 2015)

As of now my psychology classes have little interaction. In fact, my english class has way more interaction and even that is sparse. However, in the future interaction will probably increase its basically inevitable.


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## twitchy666 (Apr 21, 2013)

so we think an adjective is a noun?


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## Kevin001 (Jan 2, 2015)

acidicwithpanic said:


> Well **** me. -__- The class sucked but I'm glad I got it over with. I heard that more schools are starting to create speech classes specifically geared towards students with SA and stage fright and can still earn their speech credit. Would have definitely taken that had my school offered it, but too late now.


I would of died. When I took speech in high school the teacher told me at the end of they year that I didn't improve at all and how she wished she would of worked harder with me.


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## Virgo (Jun 27, 2016)

As a current art major, my degree does not require social interaction except for during art critiques every class. No one can really escape that. My fear in high school was, how in the world could I be an artist if I can't even get through college/HS critiques?... and in fact, initially, I dropped out of college for a semester for that reason (along with feeling terrified just existing in that classroom every single minute). Now it's still hard, but after medication and experience lol, it's really not as bad as I thought. I get through it, it's really only 30 seconds of public speaking and then maybe you do it again a couple of times that day, if you want. I know an artists' job will definitely require lots of social interaction, though.

P.S. Speech class, I dropped out of that sh*t in college. Hellllll no. I have a W for that class. Changed my major from visual arts to the veterinary technician program, required speech class. Quite shortly after, decided I was going back to visual arts. Realized that VA didn't require speech, and questioned why the hell I was still putting myself through this??? Bye speech class


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## littleghost (Oct 29, 2016)

I majored in Molecular Biology and it didn't require much interaction. Only in the labs, both Biology and Chemistry, sometimes you had to work with a partner or at least share some supplies and workspace. Other than that pretty solitary. My jobs didn't require much interaction either. Just worked in a lab with about 5-6 people and those were the only people you had to talk to occasionally, and most work was done solo.


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## komorikun (Jan 11, 2009)

Speech class is required for *all majors* at my university. You have to take it before you can even transfer from community college.


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## Kevin001 (Jan 2, 2015)

Atheism said:


> P.S. Speech class, I dropped out of that sh*t in college. Hellllll no. I have a W for that class. Changed my major from visual arts to the veterinary technician program, required speech class. Quite shortly after, decided I was going back to visual arts. Realized that VA didn't require speech, and questioned why the hell I was still putting myself through this??? Bye speech class


:grin2:


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## thetown (Aug 16, 2014)

I'm a Computer Science major and there is not much social interaction. Some classes have programming assignments in which having friends and working together on the assignments can help, but it's not necessary.

The interview process for internships don't requires much social interactions either. Interviewers ask maybe one or two questions about your background, and then they jump right into the technical part where you have to explain and write a program. I find answering technical questions a lot easier than behavioral-type interviews. 

But the internships themselves (like any job) requires good social skill. Just like any job you need to be able to work well in a team and have good public speaking skills.


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## Blue Dino (Aug 17, 2013)

Most of the interactions were just group project and group presentations. And most of these are groups are anywhere from 10-20 people. So even during presentations, only the few "leaders" will be talking. Group projects, usually the "leaders" will hog all of the work and most of the other group members will chime in here and there or when the project is due.


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## acidicwithpanic (May 14, 2014)

komorikun said:


> Speech class is required for *all majors* at my university. You have to take it before you can even transfer from community college.


Yeah, I thought this was an absolute requirement for everyone given that my high school teachers usually made sure we knew this. But I'm seeing some people on here claim that their schools and programs don't require it, so now I'm starting to think that it varies by state? I've checked the curriculum for most public Florida universities and all of them stated that speech is needed in order to graduate. Can't escape it. :frown2:


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## komorikun (Jan 11, 2009)

acidicwithpanic said:


> Yeah, I thought this was an absolute requirement for everyone given that my high school teachers usually made sure we knew this. But I'm seeing some people on here claim that their schools and programs don't require it, so now I'm starting to think that it varies by state? I've checked the curriculum for most public Florida universities and all of them stated that speech is needed in order to graduate. Can't escape it. :frown2:


It's part of the general education requirement for the majority of public universities in California. I took "Interpersonal Communication" rather than the usual "Elements of Public Speaking."

I still had to give 5 speeches but it was a little more foofoo than the regular Public Speaking class. I actually got an A even though my speeches were pretty horrible (I barely looked at the audience and read my speech off a piece of paper).


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## thetown (Aug 16, 2014)

acidicwithpanic said:


> Yeah, I thought this was an absolute requirement for everyone given that my high school teachers usually made sure we knew this. But I'm seeing some people on here claim that their schools and programs don't require it, so now I'm starting to think that it varies by state? I've checked the curriculum for most public Florida universities and all of them stated that speech is needed in order to graduate. Can't escape it. :frown2:


My university doesn't require me to take a speech class. Heck, I didn't even actually take speech in high school either. In high school, I just took speech online, and I all I had to do was post videos of myself reading off a script lol.


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## SplendidBob (May 28, 2014)

The economics undergrad one didn't need much, was almost entirely lectures (and tbh those could almost entirely be skipped because of the way they set up the exams), the postgrad weird I.T. thing had a lot more, but I managed to avoid a lot of it, because master of avoidance.

Was a long time ago though, so wouldn't be relevant really now I guess.


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## TreborHG9 (Dec 22, 2013)

I'm majoring accounting. It doesn't require any talking since you are mainly working on a computer, but still, like all other office jobs, your boss will want you to be able to talk at least and you sometimes have to talk to clients on the phone which stresses me more than the actual paperwork, but I still find a way to "fake it til I make it." I did work-study in my school last semester in their accounting office. I pretty much got away with not talking much during the whole w-s session.


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## Nitrogen (Dec 24, 2012)

In my experience, STEM majors tend to not require much social interaction, with the exception of labs where you're kind of forced to interact and work with other people. My university has a very small physics/astronomy department and having talked to some people in that program, they're interacting a ton with people daily because it supposedly takes a lot of collaboration to get through those degrees.

I'm in biomedical science, and most of my lectures are made up of a smorgasbord of biology, nursing, chemistry and pre-med/pharm students. There's so many people in my lectures that it's difficult to actually talk with someone and get to know them because it's such a large department, and most people keep to themselves and do their work independently. I do see a lot of fraternity people that sit and talk with each other, I mostly just find it odd wondering how they managed to coordinate getting into the same lecture and if they purposely do that.

I've gotten more social interaction in my research position but that's far more interpersonal.


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## saragetsassy (Mar 27, 2017)

I picked journalism as my major and I picked it because I like to write. But you have to talk to a lot of people and strangers to do interviews. It's still a little hard for me, but I am getting better at talking to strangers.


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## DepecheModel (Mar 27, 2017)

Speech is needed yeah but the trick is to avoid everything that is avoidable.. Sometimes it takes a lot of effort, I was a psych major.
In my case everyday normal social interaction is fine, but being a center of attention is killing me. So the trick was to avoid all classes that has any kind of seminar work, presentations etc.

In my speech class I started the representation by telling everyone how scared I was. I told them my nervous system tells me it's life or death. Everyone found it funny. The main thing though is that by telling that aloud I took SOME of the power away from the fear, you know?


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## May19 (Apr 25, 2012)

My major requires field work. For my minor it's civics and community engagement, which if you couldn't tell already requires a lot of social interaction. Imo despite your major, it's always good to get more involved and meet more people. It's nerve wrecking for sure. The quarter starts tomorrow for me, and I'm already feeling anxious that I have to make new friends in my classes. If I don't, I feel really meh in the classes. Plus, it's nice to know people so you can help each other out


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## ShiftyShifty (Feb 26, 2017)

Speech class was an easy elective at my college, which many took, but I had no reason to take it. I graduated in chemistry. Required social interaction? Only in labs. However, meeting your professors can help you, and attending a study group before a difficult exam is time well-spent. I recall on my last semester I was a little lost in Physical Chemistry and some guys invited me to a study session where we figured out some tricks which were not covered in the lecture.


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## The Scrub Ducky (Apr 4, 2017)

Yes. Tons. 
It's been a pain but I did it anyway... dont let SA stop you from what ya wanna do.


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## mezzoforte (May 16, 2010)

Computer science - My programming classes did require a few group projects, but the bulk of the group work was in my electives.

I never had to take any public speaking classes, luckily.


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## UltraShy (Nov 8, 2003)

I earned a BS in finance, graduating with honors in May 1995. It was a waste of time & money.

I recall when John Stossel was still on 20/20 and he got an economist to call a bachelors degree "THE BIGGEST FRAUD IN AMERICA."

Damn right. I recently saw a company that sells precious metals, seeking phone reps. $13-$15 per hour + full benefits package.

They demanded you have a degree, didn't matter what it was in.

Can anyone explain to me how any degree that exists will help you sell bars of silver? A degree is just a very long and VERY EXPENSIVE IQ test. Having a degree demonstrates that you are at least minimally competent. Isn't it thrilling to pay $100,000 and piss away 4 years of your youth to show the whole world that you are at least minimally competent?

Couldn't we do a test that takes no more than an hour to produce the same findings?


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## copper (Nov 10, 2003)

UltraShy said:


> I earned a BS in finance, graduating with honors in May 1995. It was a waste of time & money.
> 
> I recall when John Stossel was still on 20/20 and he got an economist to call a bachelors degree "THE BIGGEST FRAUD IN AMERICA."
> 
> ...


Heck my dad use to work at John Deere factory back in Iowa until he retired. He said that they now require a BA degree just to just work on the factory floor making parts and assembling cotton pickers. When he started there in the late 1960's he just had a HS diploma.


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