Photo Credit: Glenn Carstens-Peters// Unsplash.
If I had a dollar for every time I’ve seen a STEM-major post in the Columbia Facebook group, asking for a Global Core that required only a short paper or no paper at all, I’d probably have enough money to afford at least 2 Joe’s Coffees, because wow, is that place expensive. Okay so maybe that didn’t have as dramatic of an effect as I was hoping for, but the point is, some STEM-majors really hate writing papers.
I understand the fear of writing papers and I understand how much fun it is to have that conversation in Butler with your Poli-Sci friend, saying “I’d so much rather write a 10-page report than do this 3-page paper.” I get it, I get it. But as I look back on my time at Columbia, I’m struck by how much I enjoyed my Global Core classes. And I’m struck by the beauty of simply being able to study something for no other reason than being mildly interested in it. In life, it seems like so much of what we do is for some purpose outside of the thing itself. You go to college not to go to college, but to get a job. You read that paper so that you can discuss it in class and get good participation points. There are pretty few opportunities to enjoy something only for what it immediately offers to you. And as a STEM-major, a Global Core is one of those few opportunities.
To take that opportunity and squander it—to turn a Global Core into something you use only as a GPA-booster— is to waste a gift. But, like I said earlier, I get that fear of writing a paper. And I think that fear plays a big part in why people are afraid to take that class on Middle Eastern Politics or Buddhist history that they’ve always been sort of interested in. That’s why my next few blogs are going to be on exactly this subject— how to take on the dreaded Humanities Global Core Paper. I want to make sure you understand that I am by no means an expert in writing. If you need proof, please just read my blog posts. But I still do think that I have some wisdom to share, so I hope you find it mildly useful. If not, don’t blame me. I’m a STEM major— I’m not supposed to know how to write.