What’s your major? The question, often repeated in first-day icebreakers and conversation lulls, is anticipated, but the answer may be unclear for many college students. Due to familial expectations, for many Asian Americans, it often takes one of two forms: STEM or law, regardless of our true passions.
The trend is a well-documented one. In the 2021-2022 school year, AAPI students earned 6.5% of all associate degrees and 8.9% of all bachelor’s degrees — but, according to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, only 4.3% of undergraduates who majored in the humanities in 2015 identified as AAPI. While that percentage has likely changed somewhat in the past nine years, a more recent study conducted by the National Science Foundation found that, in 2019, Asians comprised 16% of workers in STEM with a bachelor’s degree or higher. Perhaps not all of them earned their degree in a STEM field. However, using data from 2022, the Education Data Initiative confirms that “Asians are most likely to graduate with a bachelor’s degree in one or more STEM fields.” Given the pressures many Asian students face to choose a profitable or prestigious major, this disparity is understandable — yet far from ideal.
Years ago, these same pressures affected my mother. Born into a family full of doctors, she started college with the intention of becoming one herself. Yet, while her brother entered medical school, she fell in love with art history, the discipline where she eventually earned her degrees.
Because my mother had already bravely blazed this path before me, I grew up with immense, dual privilege. Not only could I afford higher education (my college attendance was taken for granted despite the mountains of student debt looming on the horizon), but I also lacked the pressure to choose a certain major — two blessings for which I am deeply grateful. My parents always encouraged me to study whatever made me happiest. For me, that was one of two disciplines: English or…
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