A Commentator Investigation: Is Your Major “Forgotten”?
As of 2024, 174 Stern students enrolled to be a biology major and 119 as a psychology major. Guess how many physics majors there are? A whopping one. In the entire school.
The Commentator sat down with nine students from less common majors in Stern to ask how they view their major and what their experiences have been. Are they forgotten because they are less common? What are the challenges, if any, they face in completing their major? And, after all that, do they like it?
A sampling of art history, chemistry, education, history, mathematics, music, physics, physical sciences and studio art majors showed a wide spectrum of sentiments. Some students were almost offended at the suggestion that their major is forgotten while others, such as students of physics and mathematics, emphatically told The Commentator “100% my major is forgotten” and “my major is so forgotten, the school doesn’t even know I exist.”
Physics and Mathematics: Two Truly Forgotten Majors
Approximately 8-18 students enroll annually to be a mathematics major at SCW. However, consistently less than five actually graduate with a degree in mathematics. Markedly, the 2023-2024 academic year had no SCW mathematics graduates. Since the 2017-2018 academic year, there have been all but two students to complete a major in physics at Stern College for Women. Yet, with the exception of 2017, there has consistently been between 2-6 annually who have enrolled to be a physics major.
What is going on inside these majors?
For Sophia Purow (SCW ‘25) who loved physics in high school and hopes to pursue physics at a higher level, majoring in physics seemed like an obvious choice. But she quickly found that majoring in physics at Stern involves multiple requests for required classes like General Physics III and IV to be offered and often taking classes over zoom with YC students.
Last spring, Purow was notified right before the end of the fall semester that her Thermodynamics class was to be cancelled and she would have to travel uptown twice a week to take it in person. This year, Purow is taking General Physics III over zoom with YC students after practically begging to be offered the course — one that is required for her major. Obtaining the course involved approximately seven follow-up emails and still receiving a discouraging response.“I feel like I'm very alone … I ask for the bare minimum.” Overall, she said, “I am not really heard.”
As she approaches the end of her senior year, she will need to take General Physics IV in order to graduate but they are not offering it so now it’s as if she “needs to fight again.”
“I think in general, all of this is discouraging … The only reason why I am sticking with it is because I really like physics and I want to go to graduate school … If it wasn’t for me and how passionate I was with it, I don’t know how anyone could stick with this...”
“They don’t even realize that I am taking classes at YU; they say ‘yes’ and then forget. I feel so forgotten that they don’t even realize what is even happening with this physics major,” Purow told The Commentator.
Purow said it frustrates her that Professor Amish Khalfan is teaching Introductory Physics instead of teaching more advanced physics classes that the department requires but does not offer, which he would be happy and willing to teach. Having more professors, according to her, would help improve the situation.
Naomi Rose (SCW ‘25), mathematics major and pre-law student at Stern, tells a similar story. For her, majoring in mathematics at Stern involved going to Wilf to take Ordinary Differential Equations at the graduate level in Belfer every Friday morning last year. Taking graduate classes in mathematics caused a stress of its own; according to Rose, these Katz classes are many times comprised of half undergraduate and half graduate students and it is difficult for the professor to cater to the needs of both types of students.
According to Rose, the first-year mathematics classes, such as Calculus I, II, and III as well as Probability Theory, were no problem, but once you get to more advanced classes, it becomes an issue. It was a fight to get Differential Equations, a class which is required for a Specialization in Pure and Applied Mathematics: “It’s funny because Differential Equations is a required class for the major but they haven’t offered it here in years and years and years.”
When it comes to Advanced Calculus I, this is a class that is normally on zoom with YC students. According to Rose, learning math over zoom is not ideal, especially given the complexity of these advanced mathematics courses. By coming together as a group of five women, they eventually got it in person for the first time in a long time.
Rose said that there just isn’t enough money being funded into the math department, “[W]hich is crazy because math isn’t some niche major — it’s the ‘M’ of STEM!” She said, “The university won’t hire more professors — it is a vicious cycle because they perceive there is no student interest but the reason why there is no interest is because there are no professors.”
Conversations with Rose and Purow indicate that the low enrollment in their majors is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Both said they had STEM-minded friends who would have majored in physics or math and even began as majoring in one of these subjects, but after seeing the challenges in completing the major, decided to switch. Rose has a friend who transferred from Stern altogether because of the difficulty. Rose and Purow both emphasized that there is a strong chance that if the required classes were offered, more students would choose to major in mathematics or physics as well as stick with it.
The Rest: Less Common, Some Difficulties, But Not Quite Forgotten
For some majors, the situation is more complex. Despite the chemistry major’s reputation, Elana Rosenblatt (SCW ‘25) is majoring in chemistry. Chemistry consistently ranks as one of the majors with the lowest amount of degrees conferred.
However, the reason for this doesn’t seem to be based on a lack of class offerings. Many of the courses that are required for the chemistry major are already offered or required for pre-med students, the biochemistry major or chemistry minor. Rosenblatt explained that although she did receive some discouragement when she first got to Stern and expressed interest in majoring in chemistry, overall, the department has been helpful and has been working with her when it came to more specialized classes for the major.
In other ways — perhaps mostly by peers — chemistry is a forgotten major. Rosenblatt mentioned how when people hear she is taking Organic Chemistry they say, “Oh, so you’re pre-med?!” and she answers “no” and they say, “Oh, so you’re pre-dent?!” and she answers “no” and they say, “So what are you?” She responds, “A person!” Many students who started as chemistry majors with her in the beginning of Stern, eventually all switched out.
“Everybody who was signed up for chem in the beginning, either they realized there is no chem major here, so they drop out of it or they decide that whatever they want from life, would be easier to do with not a chem major.”
“People don’t really think of it as being valuable in and of itself, which I think is an issue,” Rosenblatt said.
Studio art also finds itself to be a small major. Shalva Englander (SCW ‘25), a current studio art major, said, “I don’t know if it’s forgotten, I just don’t know if people outside of art see it as a major.” She says a better characterization would be that it is “overlooked or neglected a bit.” Since they are a minority, it is natural that they don’t get as much attention as other majors do.
One issue that studio art majors face is getting locked out of foundational courses like Beginner’s Drawing, Principles of Design and Principles of Drawing. This happens because these courses get filled by non-studio art majors interested in taking it as an elective. Englander, a senior, still hasn’t taken Beginner’s Painting.
“Although being in a small major can be hard because you don’t get some of the same attention as other majors do when it comes to solving issues, but when it comes to the people who are running the art department, they work the hardest that they can to make sure that our experience as art students is the best and I really appreciate that from them.”
Several majors, though small, are not necessarily forgotten. Art history and music are both well-known majors because many students take courses in these departments to fulfill gen-ed requirements.
However, once one moves past the introductory course, the class size shrinks tremendously. Hayley Goldberg (SCW ‘27), a double major in music and education, and took Music Theory I and Music Theory II with only two other students, something she appreciated because she got to know her classmates well. However, the two other students Goldberg was in class with are music minors and don’t need to take Music Theory III, whereas Goldberg does. Thus, she might be the one and only student taking Music Theory III, in which case she would take the class as a directed study.
Eden Lippe (SCW ‘25), an art history major, shared that Stern students “value making money in practical jobs over maybe creativity and passion, which makes sense.” Lippe landed on art history because she views college as a time and space to explore and understand herself.
Another feature of small but non-forgotten majors is their limited pool of classes to choose from. Both Kira Jacobs (SCW ‘26), an education major, and Meira Steiner (SCW ‘25), a history major, expressed that though they do not struggle with getting into classes for their major, they do recognize that there are very few to pick from. “There are very minimal classes available for me to take,” Jacobs shared.
A small major may mean that the curriculum is not personalized to each students’ needs. Jacobs plans to go into special education specifically, however the education track does not cater to this field.
The history department, being small and usually catering towards more general history courses, is not going to offer specialized classes in Steiner’s interests, medical and military history. Despite this, she made it work by writing her thesis on this subject and she told The Commentator that her professors are invested and happy to set up an independent study with her.
Overall, Steiner has had a positive experience in the history department. “I really enjoyed being a history major,” Steiner shared. “I think the professors are really interesting here. I just wish there was more.”
The small but not forgotten phenomenon appears outside of the humanities as well, for different reasons. Aviva Klahr (SCW ‘26), who is studying physical sciences, is taking a range of science classes, all with varying sizes. Chemistry classes that align with pre-med or biology majors are very full. Math classes are moderately sized. Physics classes are the smallest with 3-5 students in the past three semesters.
Klahr does not have issues with getting into classes, since a lot of the classes also fit with other majors. The exception is physics: “This semester only one physics [class] is being offered, which doesn’t make it so hard to complete the major but gives you very limited options of when and scheduling.” This is not surprising at all based on what we have learned from Sophia’s experience. What is a relatively minor issue for a physical sciences major is a mountain of an issue for a physics major.
Exploring nine small majors in Stern, revealed a wide swath of student experiences. All small majors besides physics, math and studio art, have little to no trouble getting into their required courses. Those majors who can get into classes, wish they had more options to choose from.
Despite all the difficulties, almost every student mentioned their appreciation for the faculty involved and for having small, close-knit classes. Even Purow, who faced her share of difficulties being a physics major, told The Commentator, “When you’re in a smaller class, the professor is genuinely teaching people who are interested in the subject,” and, “The tests are just there to review it … sometimes I feel like you are learning to learn.”
Photo Caption: The undergraduate major/minor declaration form
Photo Credit: Hadassah Reich / YU Commentator
