"Major" Misconceptions

As you may or may not know, it is my senior year here at Ohio Northern studying public relations and communications. Even though I am a senior, there are some things about being a public relations and communications major at Northern that haven’t changed over the past four years.

After going through all the obligatory introduction sessions at the beginning of the school year when people ask you for your name and major, I was again reminded of the all misconceptions and misunderstandings surrounding my majors, and I would like to share them all with you.

The first struggle of being a public relations and communications major is the name itself. Every time someone asks me about my major I have to spit out an 11-syllable phrase.  Saying “I’m a public relations and communications major” is nowhere near as easy as saying “I’m a pharmacy student” or “I’m studying physiology.” Instead, I have to mentally prepare myself every time someone asks about my major to make sure I enunciate all the words and don’t get tongue-tied over all the syllables.

The next frustrating thing about my majors is I can’t even shorten it by abbreviating public relations. Believe me, I have tried, but it only creates confusion.  If I say I am a PR student the general response is: “Oh, so you are in HR?” No, I’m not. There is PR and there is HR. They are two very different field and most people don’t understand that right away.

Additionally, I have had some people assume public relations and communications is one major. Contrary to popular belief, I actually have two separate majors. A certain friend, who will remain nameless, went months before realizing I am actually studying two different majors. Then this dear friend still had to be convinced and accused me of “kidding around” about the whole thing. If you are reading this you know who you are and I still love you!

This next misconception about my majors is specific to ONU and makes me laugh every time. Some people do not know you can actually take classes in The Freed Center. When I tell people all my classes are in Freed, they give me a weird look sometimes. They think The Freed Center is just a magical place where there are only fancy dance shows and musicals.

Finally, no one understands what our firm does or what "practicum" means. I don’t even try to tell someone I am working on a firm project without explaining in detail what that means, otherwise all I get are puzzled looks. I received an award for outstanding firm member last year and my parents were confused about what that meant even though I have explained it to them several times. And let’s face it, I really don’t think anyone outside the major will ever understand what it means to get practicum hours. I used to think only pharmacy people or engineers had lingo, but really PR students struggle just as much to be understood by the outside world.

I do not hold anything against the people who have fallen victim to any of these assumptions and misconceptions about my majors. I am sure every major has certain aspects “outsiders” don’t understand. A blog post is just a great way for me to voice my struggles and hopefully give my fellow PR majors a good laugh.