10 Things That Only A Humanities Student Can Relate To
The humanities, namely history, English and philosophy amongst a handful of others are the area of expertise of thousands of students nation-wide who all share certain things in common that other students just quite simply don’t.
Here’s our list of the ten things that only humanities students can relate to!
1. Being told by non-humanities students that you’re a fraud
Because humanities subjects aren’t practical-based and are, of course, studies of humanity, most humanities student can relate to the frustration of being told by non-humanities students that they don’t do a real degree.
This is particularly angled by students of the sciences and engineering departments, taking some kind of moral high ground with their more practical-based degrees, when in reality, the humanities aren’t inferior by any stretch of the imagination.
2. Barely using any of the uni buildings
Due to often living in the library and only having a handful of contact hours per week, humanities students can all relate to barely using any of the uni buildings other than the library.
What contact hours they do have are often held in the same boring rooms in the same old buildings, meaning they never get a chance to step foot in some of the university’s most iconic buildings that are the home to other departments, unlike most other students. A crying shame.
3. Being asked constantly what you want to do with your degree
Unlike other courses, humanities subjects are non-vocational, meaning there’s no obvious career path following the degree. Law students become lawyers, engineer students become engineers, etc.
As a result, all humanities students can relate to being constantly asked by friends, family and even strangers what they want to do with their degree, making it a regular ordeal that’s all the more frustrating if you’re not yet sure exactly what it is you want to do.
4. Living in the library
Humanities students love their books, the primary source for all the information they so desperately need for their course, meaning they use their university’s library facilities more than any other student.
So when deadlines come thick and fast and exams loom, library trips become so frequent that every humanities student at some point or another can relate to practically living in the library, sluggishly grinding out their work in the hope that they can one day return to the warmth of their student house.
5. Skipping lectures because of another hangover
If there’s one thing that humanities students can afford to do, it’s skipping a lecture. That’s because unlike other subjects where there’s essential lucrative information or practicals to participate in, humanities lectures are often fairly basic and skip-able if you catch up by doing independent reading and research after.
This means humanities students are more guilty than any other student of going on another night out and inevitably skipping another lecture because of another hangover, a deadly cycle that all humanities students can easily relate to.
6. Unending Deadlines
Due to being heavily writing-based, the humanities entail a lot of essays and coursework which inevitably means lots of deadlines.
When these pile up, every humanities student can relate to the stress of having to endure a seemingly unending series of deadlines that students in other departments would never experience.
7. Going to extreme lengths to reach a word count
With far more writing to complete than any other student, only humanities students can relate to going to extreme lengths to creep over the word count for an extensive piece of coursework… 5,000 words is too much surely?!
8. Constantly changing career plans
Even if you go into your humanity degree knowing exactly what you want to do, chances are you’re going to end up changing your career route in some small way or another.
Meanwhile, the great majority of humanities students, more than any other type of student, will end up constantly changing ideas about what they want to do after they graduate due to the non-vocational nature of a humanities degree… Choices choices!
9. Having a panic attack over references
With more reading and writing comes more referencing, and so humanities students more than any other student can relate to having at least one panic attack caused by losing references, struggling to find them, or simply trying to format them correctly, before proceeding to have a mid-term breakdown.
10. Reading reading and more reading
More than any other student, the humanity student spends an unholy amount of time reading to do well in their coursework and exams, making it a painful and arduous point of relation amongst all humanity students.
