It seems to have become a common belief that if a major doesn’t involve spending hours studying in the library or doesn’t keep you up until 2 a.m. solving math equations, it is an “easy” major that doesn’t involve a lot of work. But just because the kind of work one student has is different from another student’s shouldn’t indicate that one student puts any less effort in than another. One university alone may have upwards of 100 majors, each with it’s own unique program, schedule and evaluation process. It isn’t exactly fair to assume that you know what someone’s major involves just from your view from the surface. If you look a little deeper, you may be surprised to find out how much work a particular major must complete throughout their time in college.
Although there are a lot of majors that deserve more credit, let’s explore four more closely.
Dance– Sierra Sharratt
Junior Sierra Sharratt has been taking dance classes since she was 5 years old. For Hofstra’s dance major requirements, Sierra takes dance classes, including ballet, Pilates and modern, Monday through Friday. This semester, Sierra is taking seven classes for 18 credits, as opposed to five classes for 15 credits, which is standard for most majors at Hofstra.
“We dance for less credit,” said Sierra, “Our classes count for 2 to 2 ½ credits, but are 5 hours a week.”
Even after Sierra has finished up a long day of dancing and sitting through other academic courses, she still does not get to return to her room.
“I have rehearsals by myself every day for an hour and a half,” Sierra said, “You could be in a faculty show, which requires rehearsing two to three hours every couple of days. We still go in the studio every day by ourselves or with a choreographer and rehearse one to five hours a week, and that’s minimum. Just like how any other major has homework, our teachers expect us to be working on our technique outside of class.”
And if you think that being a dance major means an easy 4.0 GPA, you’re mistaken.
“We’re not really given A’s,” Sierra said, “Professors expect you to comprehend their technique and to start perfecting it. We’re graded on accuracy, alignment, how prepared we seem for class… But the hardest part about it is that, unlike any other major where you take a test and you know exactly what you need to do to get the A, our grades are kind of based off of our teacher’s bias. It’s based on their opinion about how far you’ve grown and how far you should have grown.”
Sierra’s major also requires her to take academic dance courses. “The hardest one is Dance Production. You’re told to learn about what it means to be a dance teacher and own a dance studio [and] what it means to be a choreographer and own a company. [For] our final project, we’re asked to build our own company.”
For Sierra’s project, she created her own dance therapy business, as this is the line of work she hopes to be in one day. This dance specialty is a difficult field to get into, especially considering there are only a handful of graduate schools that offer this major.
“I wish that more people knew that [being a dance major] is not as simple as it looks,” said Sierra, “It’s not showing up in a leotard and tights and looking pretty. I’m bruised and cut up all the time. I’m 20 years old and have sciatica. We’re forced to push through those things. If you give up in class, you might as well give up the major.”
Journalism– Hayley Marks
Hayley Marks is a junior journalism major who dreams of being a red carpet reporter.
Although she only has class on Tuesdays and Thursdays, her schedule is packed with other obligations throughout the rest of the week. Hayley not only works on stories for her journalism classes, but also interns for Nickelodeon, where she works on Mondays and Fridays, writes and anchors for “Newsline” at Hofstra’s radio station, WRHU, and works with Hofstra’s news program, “Hofstra Today.”
“A typical week for me is nuts. “I’m very, very busy all the time,” Hayley said.
On top of all the writing and reporting Hayley does throughout the week, she also notes how important it is to find time to connect with other journalists by networking.
“I’m constantly networking,” Hayley said, “I’m constantly talking to people and applying for internships and looking for opportunities and stories to work on.”
One of the biggest challenges that Hayley faces as a journalism major is the time constraints.
“It’s sort of an unspoken rule that you constantly have to be networking and working on projects and finding new events to cover and new places to go. Finding the time to go to these events and to cover stories and do all the things that journalism majors do can be a challenge,” said Hayley.
Hayley stated that she wishes people knew how hard journalism majors work.
“I wish they knew that we’re not just in this to be on TV or to have our names in a newspaper. We produce content for the sake of helping others,” said Hayley.
Nevertheless, Hayley finds all her hard work to be rewarding. “When I produce a piece of content that has taken a while and I’m really proud of it, it feels so good. It feels good to know that I put all that work and effort into it and that people are going to listen, and they’re going to know more about this topic. Journalism is about telling stories that are important. It’s about really shining light on the issues that are necessary for society. Even though it’s a lot of hard work, it’s really exhilarating and exciting. It’s fun to be a part of this major where things are constantly happening.”
Music Education– Dawn Barrett
When I met with Dawn, the first thing she did was hand me two sheets: one contained all the ensembles that she’s in this semester and the other was the recommended 4-year schedule for her major. Looking at this schedule was somewhat shocking; music education majors are expected to take 17 to 18 credits almost every semester. For some semesters, the schedule had 10 to 12 classes listed, some of which were only for half of a credit, and on top of that, the major also requires that the students take certain online classes that aren’t worth any credit at all.
Being a music education major is nothing like being in your high school band. Dawn begins most of her days at 9 a.m. for choral conducting and ends it around 10 p.m. after practicing with her instruments. The rest of the day is packed with classes, observations of an elementary school music class and rehearsals. Any free time she has in between is spent doing homework.
During Dawn’s last semester at Hofstra, on top of taking 12 credits, she’ll be a student teacher.
“You’re basically a full time teacher from 8 in the morning until 3,” said Dawn, “You take your certification and prepare for edTPA (a subject-specific assessment used by teacher preparation programs to measure the skills teachers need in the classroom), which requires you to write a lesson plan, record yourself doing the lesson in front of the kids and then write, basically, a 40-page paper analyzing yourself.”
Starting in their sophomore year, music education majors also complete 20 observation hours each semester.
“You get assigned a classroom [and] you observe a teacher and watch what they’re doing. Some teachers let you help or even teach a lesson, like last semester I got to teach a full 40 minutes of 2nd grade general music.”
All this work does not leave Dawn with much free time. Music majors at Hofstra often come back to school during Hofstra’s winter break to perform their opera, and Dawn said that she’s never been to Hofstra’s Music Festival in May.
“I’m not someone who watches Netflix shows. [Music majors] don’t socialize as much, and we give up that ‘normal college experience’ of ‘oh, I’m going to take a nap in the middle of the day,’ but it’s nice to know I have an idea of where I’m going. I like feeling satisfied with the work I’ve done. I like knowing that what I did matters and is important.”
Video/TV Production– Nicholas Jacobino
Nick Jacobino began his time at Hofstra as a pre-med major but switched over to television in his sophomore year. Now that his career path has changed, Nick dreams of either becoming a showrunner for a late-night television show or a writer for “Saturday Night Live.”
He works with a number of television programs at Hofstra, including “Thursday Night Live,” a sketch comedy show, and “Hofstra Today,” a newscast for local, national, international and Hofstra-related news.
“For TV majors, we don’t have a typical week. That’s due to the way we have to schedule different shoots and different productions throughout the month,” said Nick.
Nick stated that production weekends are hectic; the meetings often run until 10 to 11 p.m.
“The hardest part about being a TV major is learning to juggle things outside of class because that’s where a majority of your work comes from.”
That can be especially difficult, considering how many people—who all have their own busy schedules—are involved in a shoot.
“A lot of people think all you do is point, shoot and press record,” said Nick, “There’s so much involved with the process. You have to get an idea, write it, develop it, get actors together, get locations together, make sure you have permission to shoot in those locations, set up dates when everyone’s available… and that’s just pre-production.”
He then went on to explain the processes of production, which involves making sure your shots look just right, as well as post-production and editing.
“And then after all that, you make one final video project that could be only two minutes long after two weeks of work. But to see that come together… it’s just the greatest feeling in the world.”
Dedicating yourself to a major isn’t something that many students take lightly. It often requires a full-time commitment to a field; something that students put all their time and effort into. So before you’re quick to make assumptions, it’s only fair to take a closer look.