The Social Stigmas of Engineering

With every conversation with whoever it may be, every conversation tends to stray towards education: what, where and why you are studying what you are studying. I'm not sure about you engineering students out there, but I sometimes double take whenever someone asks me what I'm studying in school. Now, I'm not the type of person to actually care about what other people think of me (u mirin brah?) but we all have to accept the fact that there is a social stigma out there for people pursuing an education in Engineering.

That is, Engineering students tend to:

- Have no social life

- Constantly study

- Have an absence of female individuals in the faculty of Engineering

- Are just dope as hell

*Warning: All of the above points may be completely true

So basically, whenever someone asks about what you're studying in college/university, you have two choices essentially. You can take the easy way out and dance around the fact that you're in Engineering, effectively avoiding the nuisances which I'll outline in a second. However, if you do decide to be honest and admit that you're studying Engineering, here's what a typical conversation will be like:

Them: So, what are you studying?

Me: Uhhh... I'm studying _____ Engineering at _______.

Them: HOOOOLY! That's really tough man, how do you do it?

Me: I don't know honestly.. I cry every night while slitting my wrists. It provides lubrication for the rectal violations that occurs on a daily basis.

Them: Oh I see. Do you actually like what you're studying?

Me: I don't know, leave me alone! *Runs away crying*

Note: The above conversation was completely hypothetical. No pandas were hurt in this process.

Basically, there are intrinsic core values that are associated with Engineering, like it or not. Hell, I'm studying Engineering and I'll admit most of the stuff that I outlined at the top of this article is true, though we as Engineers joke about it a lot (refer to photos in Engineering Memes Facebook group). I have the opportunity to interact with a lot of strangers on a daily basis due to the nature of my part time job and there's usually two common reactions to which people have when you tell them you're studying Engineering:

1) Shocked

- Usually in awe of how a person is dumb enough to pursue an education in a grueling field of study such as Engineering

- Shocked at the presence of greatness they are witnessing of someone pursuing a god- tier field of study such as Engineering

- Common Phrases: "Isn't that really hard?", "How do you do it?", "Do you even sleep?"

2) Impressed

-Doesn't really follow the trend of this article, these type of people are usually impressed at the fact that you are studying Engineering and will compliment you accordingly

- Common Phrases: "You must be really smart", "You're going to be rich once you finish your studies.", "Your parents must be proud." Most of the time, I'll usually get the latter reaction. Sometimes, a mix of the two. I'm not really surprised that I get the "impressed" reaction most of time, due to the notoriety that Engineering entails being one of the more difficult undergraduate degrees one can pursue.

I do speak from personal experiences; however, I do understand that depending on the types of people you interact with will result in different types of reactions. I'd like to ask you all then, what are the types of reactions you get when you tell people that you're studying Engineering? Are they corroborative with the social stigmas associated with Engineering? Or are they more positive? Please let us know in the comments section below.

This post was written by James Reyes and he is currently studying Mechanical Engineering at Ryerson University located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.