By Hadar Katsman, Staff Writer
While many students on the Beren campus choose to major in biology and psychology, which are by far the campus’ largest majors with 174 and 119 students declared respectively, they are not the only fields that students choose to pursue.
Lia Edery (SCW ‘26) | Studio Art Major (emphasis in pre-architecture) and Marketing Minor
The studio art major in Stern is a shaped major, and therefore, students have the option to further focus their studies in various fields. These avenues include architecture, graphic design, photography/videography, art therapy, fashion design and animation. While Stern does not offer an architecture major, there are still classes geared towards architecture which students can take to best prepare them for a career in this field.
“A lot of people just don’t go into careers involving art which makes sense why it’s less popular. Architecture is even more specific so it’s why we don’t have a major for it,” Edery told the YU Observer.
Contrary to common belief, majoring in studio art requires an extraneous amount of time and effort, possibly more than several other majors. “People might dismiss it because they’re like, ‘Oh it’s easy, it’s just drawing,’” Edery said. “But actually, it’s a lot more time consuming than studying for any test will be because you have to put a ton of effort into each piece.” She also noted that as a student pursuing pre-architecture, in addition to her art classes, she has to take physics with a lab, which she said is very time consuming.
On top of the tedious hours spent in the studio, “Each art student has to buy their own supplies,” Edery said. Given that studio art is one of Stern’s smallest majors, the budget is not large enough to cover communal supplies.
Although the shaped major fits most of Edery’s needs, there are only a few architecture classes for her to take. “I wish there was something a little bit more specified in addition to 3D design and model making that could be really helpful for my background in architecture,” Edery said.
Despite these difficulties, Edery loves the studio art major. “Traci and Mary are amazing,” Edery said about the professors in the department. “I’ve definitely learned a lot of new skills and techniques just from these classes.”
Naomi Rose (SCW ‘25) | Mathematics Major
Naomi Rose (SCW ‘25) is a mathematics major with a specialization in pure and applied mathematics, who plans to pursue law. Rose discovered her enthusiasm for math in high school and told the YU Observer that applying to law school with a “unique major” can help her stand out.
Rose said that her classes are usually small, with around five to seven students per class. “Because there are so few people, it’s very much individualized attention, very much one-on-one, and you can ask as many questions as you want,” she said. However, Rose also brought to light several issues within Stern’s mathematics department.
“The university won’t hire professors and won’t fund the department because they perceive that there’s no student interest, but there’s no student interest because the university won’t hire the professors,” Rose said. “It’s like a cycle that’s never ending.” She added that it is this cycle that led many people she knows who came into Stern as math majors to either switch their major or transfer colleges.
On top of this, Stern does not offer classes that are absolutely foundational to the rest of advanced mathematics. “If you’re a math major, you have to take graduate level classes just to complete the major because it doesn’t even offer the undergraduate level classes,” Rose said. Sometimes, girls even Zoom into the boys’ math classes just so they can take a math class at the level they need, which is what Rose did last year for a Friday class.
“I was talking with a tutor and he was like, ‘You didn’t learn this in an intro to proofs class?’ and I was like, ‘We don’t have an intro to proofs class,” Rose said. “We jump straight into it because they don’t have any of the basic classes that should be given to give you a foundation in order to take the advanced classes.’”
Every student should be able to enjoy the classes they take for their major. Unfortunately, Rose as well as other math majors are not left with many options: either take classes on Zoom at their level or take advanced graduate classes. “I’m just swimming to pass the class versus actually learning and actually enjoying and understanding what I’m doing,” Rose said.
The math department’s lack of electives also means math majors don’t have many opportunities to develop new skills and enhance their knowledge in specific areas of math. “I would love to take intro to number theory or modern algebra as an elective, which really should be offered as a prereq,” Rose said.
“I don’t think the university provides the proper funding for a major that is so basic,” she continued. “It’s not like underwater basket weaving! It’s the ‘M’ in ‘STEM.’”
While Rose emphasized that she loves YU and the opportunities the university has given her, the school needs to do more to support majors like hers. “I want to make it clear I’m not bashing Stern. I love Stern. I’ve genuinely had the most incredible experience here,” Rose concluded. “I’m saying all this to bring awareness and to improve the department with my major and with other underrepresented majors.”
Elana Rosenblatt (SCW ‘25) | Chemistry Major and Jewish Studies Minor
While many students at Stern who are pursuing a career in the medical field must take general biology and chemistry classes, the chemistry major itself is small. Elana Rosenblatt’s more niche chemistry classes at most have six students, but sometimes she is the only one in the class.
“It is sad it isn’t more popular,” Rosenblatt told the YU Observer. She said there are girls who came to Stern to pursue chemistry and switched majors in the middle of their college careers due to the classes’ difficulty levels, lack of reliability of class offerings, or students who want to go into pre-med realizing a bio-chem major may be better.
“Since there aren’t so many people, it’s not always guaranteed there will always be a course for something.” Rosenblatt said one of her classes, Physical Chemistry II, must be taken as an independent study, “which is obviously not ideal when you’re doing a very hard subject.”
Students also automatically assume a chemistry major will pursue the medical field, leaving out any other possible career paths, which Rosenblatt has expressed makes her “a little bit sad.” “When people hear I’m taking orgo, they immediately say ‘Oh you’re pre-dent’ or ‘Oh you’re pre-med,’” she said.
While the chemistry major itself is not very popular at Stern, those who major in it enjoy their classes and find a lot of value in the major.
Will Stern Improve Their Ways?
Given that YU is a small, Jewish university, it is understandable that they do not offer all the classes and majors that many larger, secular colleges do. However, bringing these students’ perspectives to light, it becomes clear that there are many more majors in YU that exist outside the biology lab that could do with some representation.
Photo Caption: Student artwork on the art floor of the Beren campus
Photo Credit: Aliza Flug