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Why I Am Interested in Stem Education

Categories: Education System Stem Education

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Words: 519 |

Published: Sep 5, 2023

Words: 519 | Page: 1 | 3 min read

The thrill of problem-solving, the potential for societal impact, the boundless realm of exploration, conclusion: navigating a path of discovery.

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Why Is STEM Important? The Impact of STEM Education on Society

STEM education goes beyond school subjects. It gives a skill set that governs the way we think and behave. Merging science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, STEM education helps us to solve the challenges the world faces today. Let’s see what STEM means in the global context and how it influences the development of our society.

In case you missed it, we recently interviewed Juliana Pereira, an international student studying geotechnical engineering at Purdue University. Juliana has direct experience mentoring international students pursuing their STEM education. If you’re looking to improve your career prospects, Juliana’s tips can help lead you in the right direction. You can rewatch our informative Facebook Live session with TOEFL and Juliana Pereira to hear her story in its entirety. Use code JULIANA30 for US$30 off a new TOEFL iBT test registration. The discount offer is valid through October 21, 2022. For more information, including terms and conditions, visit https://bit.ly/3etrbUn

Preparation of STEM Experts Who Can Make a Difference

STEM education gives people skills that make them more employable and ready to meet the current labor demand. It encompasses the whole range of experiences and skills. Each STEM component brings a valuable contribution to a well-rounded education. Science gives learners an in-depth understanding of the world around us. It helps them to become better at research and critical thinking. Technology prepares young people to work in an environment full of high-tech innovations. Engineering allows students to enhance problem-solving skills and apply knowledge in new projects. Mathematics enables people to analyze information, eliminate errors, and make conscious decisions when designing solutions. STEM education links these disciplines into a cohesive system. Thus, it prepares professionals who can transform society with innovation and sustainable solutions.

The STEM approach to education fosters creativity and divergent thinking alongside fundamental disciplines. It motivates and inspires young people to generate new technologies and ideas. With a focus on practice and innovation, students get to learn from inquiry-based assignments . STEM education gives an understanding of concepts and encourages knowledge application. To keep it short, its aim can be formulated in two simple actions: explore and experience. Students are free to exercise what they learn and embrace mistakes in a risk-free environment. Project-based learning and problem-solving help learners to form a special mindset. Its core is in flexibility and curiosity, which equips learners to respond to real-world challenges.

STEM-Enhanced Teamwork and Communication

STEM education prepares the world for the future. It is based on teamwork and the collaboration of professionals from different disciplines. As a STEM student, you do not need to be an expert in each particular subject. You rather acquire a mindset that enables you to become a part of a highly qualified workforce, which functions in collaboration. Teamwork brings a significant increase in productivity, work satisfaction, and profitability.

Active engagement of experts from diverse fields will drive change in our society. STEM education exposes students to effective interdisciplinary communication. Scientists research and experiment, offering the team discoveries. Technology experts provide gadgets that can make the work of the team more effective. Engineers help to solve challenges by designing and running platforms that enable change. Mathematicians analyze information to eliminate mistakes and provide precise calculations. Our world is continuously changing. The only way we can be ready for its challenges is through communication and collaboration.

Collaborative experience also helps to broaden the impact of STEM education. Working with local experts and our international colleagues, we can promote our values and move towards a single purpose. This way, we improve communities, offering new educational and employment opportunities. Such open access to world-class experience is possible only when we combine our knowledge and capabilities.

Social Awareness

There is a high demand for STEM skills in society. STEM education enables people to make informed decisions within the discussed subject areas. Moreover, STEM awareness is necessary for any job as most industries are more or less connected to science and technology: from an essay writing service and college to a paper company. Thus, such education will allow children to grow into active citizens who can speak up in STEM discussions with sound knowledge of the subject.

STEM awareness promotes interest in a range of exciting careers. Currently, some STEM occupations are understaffed. For example, according to the projections, the U.S. will need 1 million more STEM experts in the near future. Besides, one of the goals of STEM initiatives is to encourage broader participation of women and minorities in the STEM workforce. This allows us to bridge ethnic and gender gaps. We need the engagement and participation of schools, policymakers, parents, students, and educators. This is the only way to continue technological and scientific progress.

Sustainable Solutions to Challenges

STEM subjects are focused on providing solutions to the concerns society has today. Human history had seen years of thoughtless exhaustion of natural resources. Such a lack of environmental education led to numerous challenges. These issues affect the health and well-being of all living organisms on our planet. Our environment needs protection. Thus, sustainability became one of the most urgent aspects studied by STEM disciplines.

The youth is more worried about climate change than the older generation. As statistics show, 70% of young people aged 18 to 34 worry about global warming. STEM education can answer their questions. It can teach them how to find the necessary solutions for sustainable development. Education is a powerful tool that ensures the rise of a STEM literate society. Well-educated community members can find ways to work in a competitive world. They will use sustainable practices that do not harm nature. In the bigger picture, economic and social progress is tightly connected to the environment. We need to work our way to a sustainable future. Yet, it is possible to accomplish only with STEM skills, experiences, and a multi-disciplinary approach.

The world we live in is changing, and we must keep pace with it. STEM education changes society by offering learners a new mindset and skills valued in any profession. They allow young people to be flexible, look for patterns, find connections, and evaluate information. Besides, STEM education raises social awareness. It communicates global issues to the general public. Therefore, STEM opportunities move us to a knowledge-based economy and enhanced sustainability literacy.

Maria Norris

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Six Inspiring Reasons You Should Pursue a STEM Major

NASA-Imagery / Pixabay.com

Note: This post was submitted to Student Caffé by Amanda Wilks. We would like to thank her for her submission and credit her as the author of this blog post. Amanda Wilks is a Boston University graduate and a School Choices contributing author. She has a great interest in everything related to education and social activism and she writes on these topics every chance she gets. If you’re interested in reading more of Amanda’s work, visit her Twitter profile .

Choosing a college major is no easy task. After all, it's a choice that's going to affect a lot more than just your class schedule for the next four years. If you're like most college students, you're hoping to find a major with interesting classes and real-world applications. You want a major that means you won't have trouble finding a job after graduation, and not just any job either. You want something with good financial prospects and a secure future.

While there are plenty of options out there, choosing a STEM major—that is, a career path in the field of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics —can easily check off every item on your wish list, plus a few items you maybe haven't considered yet. Check out these six inspiring reasons why you should pursue a STEM degree.

1. You can make an impact.

From the synthetic fibers in our clothes to the designs of our houses to the computers in our pockets, it's obvious that without the contributions of scientists and engineers, we'd still be living in the Dark Ages! If your career goal is to make a lasting impact on the world, what better way to do it than through technology?

In fact, the power to make a difference in the lives of others is one of the major reasons why women are choosing STEM fields for their professions. Take, for example, the work of biochemist and professor Jennifer Doudna . She helped invent CRISPR, a system used to edit gene sequences, which has already had huge impacts on research and medicine, and could potentially lead to gene therapies for genetic diseases. Her undergraduate major? Chemistry.

2. You can explore the world—literally!

Have you ever heard that math is the universal language? It's true—not just of math, but of many fields of science. If your ambition is to travel the world as part of your career, a degree in a STEM field just might be your ticket. Imagine, for example, helping to design the next generation of airplanes and spacecraft!

From making consumer air travel faster, cheaper, and more comfortable to planning the first missions to Mars, you'll find graduates from some of America's best aerospace engineering colleges collaborating with material scientists, software designers, and other STEM professionals from all over the world. While professions in some fields don't translate well to others, the skills you'll learn by attaining a STEM degree are immediately applicable around the globe, even if you don't speak the local language!

3. You can break new ground.

Every year, new technologies create jobs that have never existed before. Who could have imagined in the 90s that "app developers" would one day write programs for tiny pocket-sized computers? Before the advent of Facebook and Twitter, no one foresaw the day that there would be a need for statisticians to turn their skills to analyzing the wealth of data generated on social media platforms.

The rate of change hasn't slowed in the slightest. Between 2009 and 2015, the number of new STEM jobs grew at a rate more than double that of non-STEM jobs. As much fun as it is to guess where technology might take us next, wouldn't it be better to be at the cutting edge of that new wave yourself? With a STEM degree, that's exactly where you could be—not only abreast of all the latest developments, but maybe even leading them!

4. You can feed your curiosity.

Were you one of those kids who couldn't stop asking, "Why?" With a degree in a STEM field, that kind of curiosity will be your biggest asset. Creative thinking and a drive to know more can lead to advancements in all kinds of fields.

Why does a treatment work for some patients but not others? How can a bridge be made more flexible and stronger at the same time? There's always more to learn and discover, and when you're the one asking the questions, you could also be the one to make those discoveries.

5. You can count on job security.

Scientists and engineers are, at their cores, problem solvers. Their job is to analyze a situation, come to a conclusion, and develop a solution. While automation is taking over menial jobs like data management and other once-reliable career paths, robots and software packages still can't top the human brain when it comes to critical thinking. These are skills that are hard to teach, but the interdisciplinary nature of STEM fields means that you'll have plenty of practice honing your critical-thinking abilities.

6. You can pursue your passion.

In the end, the major you choose is a reflection of your personal interests, goals, and passions, so why not choose a major that gives you the freedom to follow your dreams ? With so many different potential jobs to pursue, a STEM degree can give you the hard skills you need to get hired, plus the flexibility to adapt and pursue what matters to you most.

From becoming a surgeon for Doctors Without Borders to designing greener cars to coding sleek and functional new apps, the sky's the limit when it comes to applying the tools a degree in the sciences can give you. Where will your STEM major take you?

Sparking Excitement About STEM Through Exposure to Career Pathways

Ask a child to draw a scientist, and research says they’ll often draw the typical stereotype of a “mad scientist”—– an older, usually white, man, with wild hair, wearing a lab coat and goggles. This mental image perpetuates myths about who can and can’t work in STEM careers. The reality is that anyone can do science. Five educators at the Smithsonian share insights and ideas on inspiring the next generation.

Educators from the Smithsonian Community

Moments that highlight the joy and excitement of scientific inquiry—such as this student using a Van de Graaff generator—can spark interest in a STEM-related career. Here are some career-focused resources that can supplement that interest. (National Air and Space Museum)

Ask a child to draw a scientist, and research says t hey will often draw the typical stereotype of a “mad scientist” – an older, usually white, man, with wild hair, wearing a lab coat and goggles. This mental image perpetuates myths about who can and can’t work in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) careers. The reality is that anyone can be a scientist or support the work of scientific institutions, regardless of age, gender, race, personality, or even perceived predisposition . The Smithsonian includes a community of diverse people working in STEM fields and many resources to learn about the wide range of STEM careers available. Read on to hear from five educators from across some of the Smithsonian’s museums and centers about resources to excite and inspire!

Maggy Benson from the National Museum of Natural History shares:

Scientists at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History study everything in the living world, from the deepest depths of the ocean to the farthest reaches of our solar system. Boundless curiosity drives them to explore Earth, the species that depend upon it, the cultures that inhabit it, and the forces that alter it. Their work underpins our understanding of critical issues of our time, from conservation to public health, climate change to food security.

And these scientists have an important message: “Anyone can do science!”

Explore this collection of Scientist Spotlight Videos to encourage your students’ connection to science. Designed to push back on scientist stereotypes, these videos emphasize ways in which students are already connected to and doing science, by making observations about the world around them, asking questions, finding patterns, thinking creatively, and being artistic.

In each video, a Smithsonian science expert shares their personal story of how they became interested in science, the challenges they have faced, and advice they have for students interested in studying science or for those students who don’t feel very “science-y.”

"You never know what is going to happen in your life, and you should always take any opportunity that presents itself. Just to say: Don't worry if you don't feel very “science-y”, but you have an interest now. That will come with time. Just because you're not a scientist right now doesn't mean you can't become one." – Stephanie Bush, Smithsonian Marine Biologist

Emma Grahn from the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation, National Museum of American History shares:

If you asked your learners to name an inventor, who would it be? Thomas Edison? Alexander Graham Bell? Or was it astronaut and musician Ellen Ochoa , kid inventor Alexis Lewis , or Lonnie Johnson , inventor of the super soaker? In Spark!Lab , everyone is inventive. We know you don’t have to be a scientist in a white coat, or create the next world changing innovation to be inventive. Have you and your learners ever had a challenge that caused you to think up a creative solution? That action of problem-solving flows from your inventive thinking.

Visitors to the National Museum of American History, and in National Network sites across the country, explore their own inventiveness through hands-on invention activities in Spark!Lab. Incorporating STEM skills with art, history, design, culture, and creativity, Spark!Lab immerses learners in the process and history of invention. On the walls are photos and stories of diverse inventors. Objects from the museum’s collections inspire learners to broaden their idea of invention. They are given the opportunity to flex their inventive muscles through invention challenges . Through the activities, learners experience success, failure, frustration, and inspiration. In Spark!Lab, learners become the inventor and use inventive creativity to reinforce skills and habits of mind needed to succeed in STEAM careers today.

Melissa Rogers from the Smithsonian Science Education Center shares:

Smithsonian Science Education Center is transforming K-12 Education through Science in collaboration with communities across the globe. One way we do this is by developing STEM curriculum, writing stories, and producing digital media for K-12 classrooms that feature STEM and STEM-adjacent careers. Smithsonian Science for Global Goals shares stories of real-world researchers focusing on socio-scientific issues that affect everyone, the Stories of Women in STEM at the Smithsonian e-book highlights STEM career pathways, and Smithsonian Science Stories Literacy Series , available in English and Spanish, introduces elementary readers to STEM-related careers.

For example, Dr. Anish Andheria is a scientist. Anish leads a team in India that tries to find out what causes problems between people and tigers. Anish identifies as a Hindu who is a big brother. He enjoys singing, rescuing snakes, and chemical engineering and loves to make people laugh. Anish is a research mentor for the Smithsonian Science for Global Goals Biodiversity community research guide. This series of guides provides youth around the world, ages 8-17, with the knowledge and skills to understand the world’s most pressing socio-scientific issues and to become agents for change in their own communities. Each guide introduces students to real-world researchers from different STEM fields. These research mentors share an identity map so students see the mentors as whole people and can find shared elements. The mentors share why they care about the issues discussed in the guide and offer advice on how students could research the issue in their own community. Students then use engineering skills to design a solution to the issue locally.

Shellie Pick from the National Zoo and Conservation Biology Insitute shares:

When you imagine zoo careers, you might picture a zookeeper or veterinarian. But what about a web developer, landscape architect , or videographer? In the monthly webinar series , The Wild Side of STEAM , educators from the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute explore the “ unZOOsual ” careers in science, technology, engineering, arts and math (STEAM). Each month, we invite a Zoo staff member to introduce their lesser-known STEAM career to students and describe how their job contributes to the Zoo’s conservation mission.

Through coding, Zoo web developers design and maintain the Zoo’s website, attracting millions of visits a year and teaching about our animals. Zoo horticulturists care for the plants in both animal and public areas of the park, ensuring the plants are safe for, and sometimes safe from, the animals. And population biologists play ‘matchmaker’ with many animals to ensure a genetically diverse population. Beyond learning about each unique career, viewers also gain insight into the education paths for each individual, as well as some of the hobbies or interests that could lend themselves to a future STEAM and/or Zoo career. With engaging polls, staff chat experts, and a live question & answer period, students have multiple opportunities to interact with and learn from diverse staff about the variety of careers that help play a crucial role in saving species.

Last school year , we highlighted eight careers at the Zoo, and we are excited to bring the series back in October 2021 to learn about nine more! With a focus on Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Inclusion (DEAI), webinars celebrate staff diversity, include live captioning and American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation when requested and are free and available to learners of all ages. There are so many career possibilities in STEAM and we can save species in any job we do!

Beth Wilson from the National Air and Space Museum shares:

STEM in 30 is an Emmy-nominated program for middle school students produced by the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. New episodes are released every month during the school year, followed by an Air and Space Live Chat , where students can tune in live and ask our experts questions. STEM in 30 covers a variety of topics from the Wright Flyer to the International Space Station and all the jobs in between. We’ve looked at all sorts of careers in the aerospace industry ranging from jobs on the water to jobs in space to jobs you may not even have known existed !

We also produce a series called My Path where we ask people who have really cool jobs how they got to where they are. We’ve interviewed astronauts , scientists , and pilots .

Students can join STEM in 30 hosts Marty Kelsey and me as we take them on adventures through the eye of a hurricane, to the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta and the world’s largest swimming pool where NASA trains astronauts. You can find STEM in 30 , My Path and much, much more on the National Air and Space Museum’s YouTube channel .

Now that you’ve heard about a few of the many STEM careers out there, you might be wondering why it’s so important to have a variety of people that matches the diversity of those careers. Representation is important because scientists need a wide range of perspectives and will inspire future generations of kids who look like them to follow in their footsteps. Additionally, people in STEM fields need to be well-versed in a variety of disciplines, from humanities to arts to ethics. Scientists don’t work in a bubble—their work directly impacts people and communities in real life. For instance, the Repatriation Office of the National Museum of Natural History, recognizing the importance of cultural artifacts to indigenous groups, uses 3D technology to digitize and preserve these artifacts. STEM should be about authentic, real-world inquiry, and we hope these resources provide a spark for p eople of all backgrounds and identities to pursue it.

Special thanks to Henry Wu, a 2021 Claudine K. Brown Internship in Education intern, for his contributions to this article.

Extended University
UTEP Connect
December 2021

You’ve probably heard about STEM. The integration of science, technology, engineering and mathematics has been a central focus both within and well outside of education.

In fact, it’s such a powerful concept that it has been hailed as critical to the future — for children, diversity, the workforce and the economy, among other areas. That’s why STEM education has received hundreds of millions of dollars in support from the U.S. government and remains one of the biggest priorities at all levels of the educational system. UTEP also offers a master's degree and a graduate certificate in STEM Education.

But what actually is STEM education, and why is it so important? Here’s what you need to know and how you can help.

MTeenagers asking for help from the teacher within mathematics class.

What Is STEM Education?

It would be inaccurate to assume that STEM education is merely instruction in the STEM subjects of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Rather, the idea is taken a step further.

STEM education refers to the integration of the four subjects into a cohesive, interdisciplinary and applied learning approach. This isn’t academic theory—STEM education includes the appropriate real-world application and teaching methods.

As a result, students in any subject can benefit from STEM education. That’s exactly why some educators and organizations refer to it as STEAM, which adds in arts or other creative subjects. They recognize just how powerful the philosophy behind STEM education can be for students.

Why Is STEM Education Important?

There are several layers to explore in discovering why STEM education is so important.

In 2018, the White House released the “Charting a Course for Success” report that illustrated how far the United States was behind other countries in STEM education.

It found that only 20% of high school grads were ready for the rigors of STEM majors. And how over the previous 15 years, the U.S. had produced only 10% of the world’s science and engineering grads.

Since the founding of the Nation, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) have been a source of inspirational discoveries and transformative technological advances, helping the United States develop the world's most competitive economy and preserving peace through strength. The pace of innovation is accelerating globally, and with it the competition for scientific and technical talent. Now more than ever the innovation capacity of the United States — and its prosperity and securit — depends on an effective and inclusive STEM education ecosystem. - Charting a Course for Success

That was one of the most news-worthy developments in recent years. It set the stage for many arguments behind STEM in the context of the global economy and supporting it through education.

Job Outlook and Salary

One of the most direct and powerful arguments for the importance of STEM education is how relevant STEM is in the workforce. In 2018, the Pew Research Center found that STEM employment had grown 79% since 1990 (computer jobs increased 338%).

What about now? All occupations are projected to increase 7.7% by 2030, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Non-STEM occupations will increase 7.5% while STEM occupations will increase 10.5% .

The findings are even more pronounced in terms of salary. The median annual wage for all occupations is $41, 950. Those in non-STEM occupations earn $40,020 and those in STEM occupations earn $89,780.

Even areas like entrepreneurship see the same types of results. A report from the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) found that tech-based startups pay more than double the national average wage and nearly three times the average overall startup wage. They only make up 3.8% of businesses but capture a much larger share of business research and development investment (70.1%), research and development jobs (58.7%) and wages (8.1%), among other areas.

Diversity and Skills

An important detail in the passage from “Charting a Course for Success” comes toward the end of the final sentence: “Now more than ever the innovation capacity of the United States—and its prosperity and security—depends on an effective and inclusive STEM education ecosystem.”

Being inclusive is incredibly important once you understand how STEM occupations are such high-demand, high-paying positions. Unfortunately, however, diversity is a significant issue here.

The Pew Research Center noted how women account for the majority of healthcare practitioners and technicians but are underrepresented across many other STEM fields, especially in computer jobs and engineering. Black and Hispanic workers are also underrepresented in the STEM workforce.
In the International Journal of STEM Education, authors noted how women are significantly underrepresented in STEM occupations. They make up less than a quarter of those working in STEM occupations and for women of color, representation is much lower — Hispanic, Asian and Black women receive less than 5% of STEM bachelor’s degrees in the U.S. Authors also pointed out how people of color overall are underrepresented in U.S.-based STEM leadership positions across industry, academia and the federal workforce.

These issues are troubling when you consider how it undermines students’ opportunities to pursue high-demand, high-paying roles. Yet, it’s more than that. STEM education is about a teaching philosophy that naturally integrates critical thinking and language skills in a way that enriches any subject. Perhaps you’ve experienced or can imagine an education that integrates problem solving and engineering practices into any subject, where technology is seamlessly integrated throughout. Any subject—art, language, social studies, health—can benefit.

So when students don’t receive an effective STEM education, they’re not only receiving less instruction in STEM subjects. They miss out on the universal application that high-level skills in STEM subjects can bring.

How You Can Make a Difference

Take the opportunity to encourage young minds in STEM education. Whether that means volunteering a little bit of your time at a local school or finding age-appropriate STEM literature and activities for your children, you can have an impact.

You can also consider pursuing a career or enhancing your career as a teacher or leader in STEM education, which represents a major problem right now in education. Researchers in Economic Development Quarterly noted how the current shortage of teachers in the U.S. is “ especially acute ” among STEM educators.

In just five courses, you can earn an online graduate certificate in STEM education and learn how you can increase STEM literacy through formal and informal learning opportunities across a variety of settings. Or there’s the 100% online M.A. in Education with a Concentration in STEM Education , which helps you to be a leader in STEM education. You’ll be prepared for advancement in roles across public and private schools, community-based organizations, research, nonprofits and nongovernmental organizations.

UTEP’s programs are focused on preparing today and tomorrow’s educators for working with modern students in multicultural settings who need to find motivation and engagement in their learning. And again, this is especially important. A study in Education Journal found that while students of all races enter into STEM majors at equal rates, minority students leave their major at nearly twice the rate of white students.

UTEP is one of only 17 Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) in the country to be designated as an R1 top tier research university. Interested in learning more about how you can engage and inspire students in STEM education? You can discuss that and more with a one-on-one consultation with an enrollment counselor.

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STEM Students: How Does Your Essay Stand Out?

Julia de Raadt

Head of research and lead admissions expert, table of contents, stem students.

Stay up-to-date on the latest research and college admissions trends with our blog team.

STEM Students: How Does Your Essay Stand Out?

Once upon a time, in an era dominated by young people vying to be future lawyers and financiers, a STEM student was rare. The computer scientists and engineers of tomorrow were prized rarities among colleges and universities. Nowadays, however, it can feel like everyone is a STEM student, and moreover, it often seems that the level of competitiveness among STEM students is ever-increasing. If that’s you, you need to ask yourself: how does your essay stand out?

This perception, founded partially in fact and partially in misplaced anxiety, can lead many STEM students to feel that their college applications will get lost in the mix of other highly qualified applications with similar profiles. In an effort to assuage some of these anxieties, I’ve compiled a list of 3 ways a STEM student can make his or her college application stand out, focusing on the essay portion of the application.

First: if you’re going to write about STEM in your essays, do it differently.

More than ever, colleges are approaching student applications “holistically.” There is a sense, in modern college admissions, that the “student” is comprised of an amalgamation of tangible and intangible factors, and discerning within the mix of quantitative data, extracurriculars, and personal statements the indication of a person behind the application is critical to the application review process. Colleges, simply, don’t want to see a machine. They want to see your multifaceted entirety, your idiosyncratic “you”-ness.

Your essays, therefore, can be absolutely crucial when it comes to giving your application an edge. Rather than using the essays as an opportunity to reiterate that you do STEM activities, use them as an opportunity to talk about the person behind the activities. If you’re curious as to how does your essay stand out, think about whether it sounds like you!

One thing to make clear: that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t talk about STEM. If STEM is truly what drives you onward in the world, talk about it. That being said, talk about it from a new and interesting angle.

Here are some suggestions:

If you have done wet-lab research on something in biology, talk about how that changed your view of the world. How do very small life forms challenge your views on what we define as a life that is “meaningful”? Do the things you’ve learned from this research make the world seem simpler or more complex? Why do you think you crave the understanding that research can give? Why do you have a need to know? How might this research make you more conscious of your own status as an organism (either mortality and fragility, or resilience and strength), and how might this impact the way you live?
If you’re an engineer, talk about the act of creation. What aspect of creation drives you on? For you, is it all about serial creation, that is, finding a need and meeting it? Is it specifically about giving back to where you’re from? Do you simply like disrupting old ways of doing things? What is your earliest memory of creation? What might it mean to you to be an “ethical” engineer? How important to you is doing the “right thing” when you are involved in your craft? For whom do you create?
If you are a computer scientist, talk about how the work you do makes the world better. How does the software you design contribute to the “good life,” either for you or for the people who use it? What does it mean to you to code something that you’re proud of? What does the process of debugging look like for you? That is, how do you deal with a piece of code that won’t seem to work? In what ways might coding be considered its own form of art? In this sense, might you consider yourself a sort of artist?

All of these things will distinguish you.

Second: that being said, maybe don’t write about STEM.

The college you’re applying to already knows you do STEM. To some extent, they even know you’re passionate about it; if you are devoting hours a day and weeks of your summer to something, there’s a good shot you care. It might be redundant to drive that point home once again in your essays.

Furthermore, this is an opportunity to show another, more personal side of yourself. In your essays, you might choose to talk about something among the following:

What does your favorite food say about you?
What is the one question you love being asked and why?
Who or what do you worry about?
When did you become confident?
Who is your favorite YouTuber?
Are you addicted to social media?
When was the last time you cried? Laughed?
What does it mean to you to be human?

The point here is to be honest. Give the colleges a chance to see you, including your imperfections, because the reality is that you are enough as is. If you love the “Yodeling Walmart Boy” meme, talk about it! The minutiae of you is what makes you real. So use your essay as a space to show the funny and deeply human parts of yourself.

Thirdly: how you write matters almost as much as what you write.

One of the common stereotypes of STEM-focused students is that their emphasis on STEM exists in the extremes. Almost to the exclusion of developing other skills; particularly the skill of effective communication. If you’re asking yourself, “how does your essay stand out?” Writing can be the key. Learning to write smoothly is important, but even more important than that is learning to imbue your piece with a sense of voice (i.e., personhood).

Conveying personality in a challenge, but it is the critical difference between an engaging essay and one that falls flat. Contrary to what you may have been taught, a conversational tone that involves some elements of your genuine speech patterns should not be avoided, so long as adequate attention is paid to grammatical and syntactical conventions. That is, you can write how you speak, but make sure you understand the conventions of adapting speech to the page. If I had to pick the top 3 most important questions to ask yourself during the revision process, they would be the following:

How can I make this more specific?

Original: I learned so much from this experience.
Revised: After that morning in the Sonoma fields, I resolved to invest myself in the relationships around me.

How can I make this less clich éd?

Original: I learned to never judge a book by its cover.
Revised: It became clear to me that her most immediately apparent qualities didn’t capture the entirety of her whatsoever; she was infinitely more than I imagined.

How can I make this flow better?

This will mostly hinge on breaking up paragraphs into smaller chunks and making sure sentences flow naturally.

Now you can see, these tips will help you get started on your college essays. For you STEM students out there, continually challenge yourself to answer the question: how does your essay stand out from the crowd?

For more guidance on the application process and getting into your school of choice, meet with one of our enrollment team members to get matched to an expert counselor for free.

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How to Talk to Students About Why STEM Matters

We know that learning stem is useful, but how do we get that across to students.

Posted September 6, 2017

Anyone who has taught STEM at any level has encountered this situation: You’ve just finished your brilliant demonstration of how neurons communicate, or experimental design, or pluralistic ignorance, when a hand languidly rises up at the back of the classroom.

"Why do we need to know this?"

At first, you want to cry out, "Because the world is beautiful and science is the closest we can come to embracing that wonder!" And then your cynical side indignantly thinks, "Because it’s on the test." Unfortunately, neither of these responses is likely to persuade this student, nor all of the other students thinking the exact same thing, that they should consider your teaching important. So how do you approach this deceptively complex question? And does it even matter?

This may seem self-evident, but convincing STEM students that what they’re learning in class has value is very important if you want them to improve their performance and continue to study STEM. To this end, Dr. Judith Harackiewicz, professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin, has developed a technique known as a utility-value intervention that can increase students’ grades and interest in STEM. In one experiment, 262 high school students taking ninth grade science wrote monthly essays either summarizing recent course content or considering how that content was useful in their own lives. At the end of the year, students who initially did not expect to be successful in STEM and wrote about the value of science had significantly higher interest in STEM than control students and showed better class performance by over half a grade. Dr. Harackiewicz and her colleagues replicated this intervention in a college classroom: introductory psychology students who wrote two utility-value essays demonstrated increased interest in psychology and a stronger inclination to major in psychology, especially those students with lower mid-term grades.

So if you want students to care about your class, have them write a few essays about how this material is relevant to them. Sounds too easy, right? Well, follow-up studies have revealed some specific guidelines for how to frame a utility-value intervention depending on the type of student you want to motivate. As mentioned above, the key differentiator appears to be how successful a student believes they can be in STEM. Students who are performing poorly, have low expectations of their success, or who simply don’t see themselves in a STEM field, react differently to a utility-value intervention than students who are high-performing, self-confident, and have a strong STEM identity . So what does the research say about motivating these two types of students to participate in STEM?

Self-generated versus other-generated utilities . In the above studies, students were not told how STEM is relevant to their lives, but rather wrote about it themselves. Allowing students to self-generate ideas for how STEM is useful appears to be most effective for motivating those who lack confidence . For example, college students who wrote about the personal relevance of a newly learned mental math technique solved more multiplication problems using said technique than students who were simply told it was useful. In fact, telling students with low confidence that the technique is useful undermined their performance. Thus, providing STEM students with the opportunity to actively consider the utility of new material seems essential for increasing their interest and performance in STEM. Writing their thoughts down may be especially important in order to leverage the “saying-is-believing” effect, in which getting people to convince themselves of an idea is often far more powerful than attempting to persuade them. More advanced STEM students, however, may be more receptive to hearing from experts, like you, about why these lessons are valuable for them to learn.

Everyday versus career utility . Often when answering students’ questions about why they need to know something, we get wrapped up in career utility: How this lesson matters for the next class in the STEM sequence, graduate school, or some far-off profession. But notice that in these studies students wrote about how new material is personally relevant. Focusing on the practical, everyday value of STEM appears to be crucial for motivating struggling students. For example, college students with low STEM confidence who were told the relevance to their day-to-day lives of the mental math technique mentioned earlier, believed it was more useful and had more confidence in their ability to master it than students told that it was relevant for their future career. Thus, along with allowing students to self-generate STEM utilities, having them to focus on personal relevance seems to be more motivating. Advanced STEM students, however, will be increasingly interested in what their classes mean for their future career as they become more and more dedicated to a life in STEM.

Short-term versus long-term utility . This final consideration extends from the last point about everyday utility, but is worth discussing on its own. Students who lack confidence in STEM likely feel stressed and self-conscious when they try to understand new material and earn a passing grade. Negative emotions tend to focus people on the short-term as they seek to remedy the source of their distress. Thus, asking these students to think about long-term utility, even outside of a career, will likely be ineffective. Similarly, these overwhelmed students are unlikely to envision themselves in STEM years from now—maybe not even a semester from now—so any efforts to engender a long-term outlook will likely be in vain. But once you have successfully used self-generated, short-term, and personally relevant utility-value interventions to help increase their confidence, these students will become ready to talk about how learning STEM can benefit them both personally and career- wise in the years to come.

Especially exciting about utility-value interventions is the prospect that they could help address performance gaps in STEM among women and underrepresented groups . In a study of college students taking introductory biology, a utility-value intervention boosted performance across the board, but especially among first-generation, underrepresented minority students, who benefited by over half a grade. This type of intervention may help these students tap into their communal goals for participating in STEM , which should increase their likelihood of pursuing a STEM major and career. Other research by Dr. Harackiewicz’s group has suggested that utility-value interventions are important for motivating young women starting off in STEM, but further studies are necessary to determine whether and how best to leverage these techniques among this population.

So the next time you’re faced with the question Why do we need to know this? , think about who’s asking that question, as well as who’s listening to the answer. If you’re talking to students still gaining confidence in STEM, it may be time to encourage some reflection about the near-term, personal relevance of what you’re teaching. Lacking that opportunity, you can frame your lessons around how this knowledge can impact your students’ lives right now. Then, as these students become more confident in STEM, you can transition to sharing ways these lessons will help them in their future lives and careers.

Canning, E. A., & Harackiewicz, J. M. (2015). Teach it, don’t preach it: The differential effects of directly-communicated and self-generated utility-value information. Motivation Science, 1(1) , 47-71.

Harackiewicz, J. M., Canning, E. A., Tibbetts, Y., Priniski, S. J., & Hyde, J. S. (2015). Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 111(5) , 745-765.

Higgins, E. T., & Rholes, W. S. (1978). “Saying is believing”: Effects of message modification on memory and liking for the person described. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 14 , 363-378.

Hulleman, C. S., Godes, O., Hendricks, B. L., & Harackiewicz, J. M. (2010). Enhancing interest and performance with a utility value intervention. Journal of Educational Psychology, 102(4) , 880-895.

Hulleman, C. S., & Harackiewicz, J. M. (2009). Promoting interest and performance in high school science classes. Science, 326(4) , 1410-1412.

Ross E. O'Hara, Ph.D. , is a behavioral researcher and he applies his expertise in behavioral science to develop scalable interventions that improve college student retention.

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Finding the Why: Integrating Purpose in STEM as a Path to Student Engagement

View recording on Panopto (restricted to MIT community) .

On Thursday, September 28, 2023, we hosted Dr. Amanda Diekman to discuss how considering students’ “why” in pursuing STEM fields provides a valuable vantage point to foster both broader participation and deeper engagement in STEM.

What motivates students to pursue a career in STEM? What do STEM “environments” signal to students about the goals students can fulfill in the field? Furthermore, how is this related to the gender imbalance that persists in certain STEM professions? Over the past 15 years, Prof. Amanda Diekman has addressed these and related questions through research in her labs at IU and Miami University. Her work seeks to identify ways to foster broader participation and deeper engagement in STEM fields.

Communal Orientation Predicts Career Interest

Diekman began by highlighting a Nature essay (Leeming, 2018) calling on early career scholars in STEM to “persevere to find meaning in their work.” More recently, a 2022 survey of STEM professionals conducted by 3M 1 also supports this finding. When asked, “What is your inspiration for pursuing a STEM career?” most respondents cited passion for the field, being in a respected field, solving the world’s biggest challenges, and making a difference. However, there were apparent demographic differences in the results:

White men described personal or agentic goals such as “passion for the field” and “being in a respected field.”
White and Black women and Black and Hispanic men were more likely to choose “solving the world’s biggest challenges” and “making a difference,” which are altruistic or communal goals .

These patterns are consistent with the work on goal congruity and student beliefs Diekman and her team have studied for the last 15 years. For example, in a correlational study that compared a student’s career interest with their communal goal orientation, Diekman found that when students endorsed a communal goal orientation, they also expressed increased interest in female-stereotypic careers and lower interest in STEM ones. There was no relationship between goal orientation and male-stereotypic careers. Though correlational, these data show that differences in communal goal endorsement partially explain the variance in pursuing STEM careers (Diekman et al., 2010, 2011, 2020).

1 3M’s State of Science Index is a global, third-party research study that explores how people view a range of science-related topics.

Goal Congruity Theory

Diekman theorized that goal congruity theory may play a part in why students may (or may not) choose to go into STEM fields. There are two central premises of goal congruity theory:

Agentic goals are self-oriented and include acquiring power, skill development, and self-direction.
Communal Goals: These goals are other-oriented and include helping others in society, working closely with others, and being altruistic.
Contexts and roles are perceived to afford goals differentially. In other words, the decision of individuals to engage in certain roles depends on their expectations of those roles and the value they attach to them (Diekman et al., 2017, 2020).

STEM environments clearly communicate agentic opportunities: Women and men in STEM equally report their desire to be competent, to have power, and to be financially successful (Diekman et al., 2017, 2020). However, what about communal opportunities, which tend to be held by people from more minoritized groups? To answer this question, Diekman and her team surveyed a wide range of undergraduate students across different majors and asked them to rate several career pathways (Diekman et al., 2010, 2011, 2020)

In the survey, students rated career pathways according to how each fulfilled communal goals (intimacy, affiliation, and altruism) and agentic goals (power achievement, seeking new experiences, or excitement.) Overall, students perceived STEM fields as less likely to fulfill communal goals than agentic ones. In male-stereotyped fields with equal representation of men and women, like law and medicine, students rated them as equally fulfilling agentic and communal goals. Furthermore, female-stereotyped careers were perceived as especially likely to fulfill communal goals and less likely to fulfill agentic goals (Diekman et al., 2010)

The finding that STEM careers are perceived to be less likely to advance communal goals has been consistently replicated over multiple studies. This belief is consistent across student age, gender, ethnicity, and major (STEM or otherwise) and includes those training to be math or science teachers. Though these beliefs tend to lessen over time for STEM students who persist in their study, it is especially prevalent for first and second-year engineering and physical science majors (e.g., physics, astronomy, and chemistry. Student perceptions of fields in the Life Sciences (e.g., biology, psychology, and medicine) tend to be more balanced (Diekman et al., 2010, 2011, 2020).

What about the STEM environment specifically might be signaling communal or agentic goals to students? Diekman and her team analyzed online course assignments to compare engineering and physical sciences with life sciences across a university system over several years. They found that life sciences environments offered more collaborative activities, discussion boards, and peer reviews than those in engineering or physical science, which matched what the students had reported about their beliefs about goal affordances in these fields (Joshi et al., 2022).

The finding that STEM students perceive communal opportunities in life sciences and advanced engineering and physical sciences clearly shows that STEM fields can afford communal goals. The important question next is how to signal these communal opportunities earlier and to a broader range of students.

Changing Perceptions About STEM Careers

Diekman presented the findings of a study her group designed to determine whether or not a communal framing of a science career could increase positivity towards STEM in early college students. The students read a description of the daily tasks of a scientist and were randomly assigned to two groups. The control group read descriptions of the functions the individual would complete on a typical day. The experimental group read a similar description of tasks, except it included references to the people or groups they would interact with within the workplace. For example, “I usually have to check a database maintained by the Operations Group” vs. “I usually have to communicate closely with the Operations Group.” Then, students wrote about their interest in the careers referenced in those readings. The results showed that a communal framing of job descriptions increased interest in STEM careers, especially for female students. Based on this finding, Diekman argued that communal framing “… offers us a new lever to engage students and to engage different students” in pursuing STEM pathways (Diekman et al., 2011).

Diekman added that the positive effects of communal affordances on perceptions of STEM environments are not limited to binary gender disparities discussed in the above research. Over a decade of data collection has consistently shown that communicating the existence of pro-social opportunities increases interest in STEM careers for everyone, including those from historically underrepresented minorities (URMS) and first-generation/low-income (FGLI) students.

Adapted from “Considering “why” to engage in STEM activities elevates communal content of STEM affordances,” by Steinberg, M., and Diekman, A. B., 2018 Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 75, 107–114. (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2017). Copyright 2017 by Elsevier Inc.

Considering the Why

Why vs. how.

The final two studies Diekman discussed examined whether students could be directed to think about STEM fields as affording opportunities that align with their values and fulfill both communal and agentic goals. In both studies, participants thought about purpose – the purpose of the field and their purpose in the field. In Steinberg & Diekman (2018), participants responded to prompts about the purpose of conducting a scientific experiment. Students randomly assigned to the lower construal group explained “how” scientists conduct experiments. Students randomly assigned to the high construal group described “why” scientists conduct experiments. Then, each group rated the content of the tasks they generated based on how communal or agentic they were.

The results showed that students in the higher construal “why” saw science as offering both communal and agentic goals and reported more positive attitudes toward entering STEM fields. In contrast, students in the lower construal condition saw science as less communal than agentic. Diekman explained that this was one of the first indications that students could be directed to identify how STEM fields could afford communal goals. “We don’t have to tell them that science is different. They can reach those explanations if we direct them towards them [communal goals].”

Challenge vs. Purpose

Because the gap in perception of STEM fields as agentic v. communal is widest in the early years of college, particularly in engineering and physical sciences, and especially among URM and FGLI students (e.g., Allen et al., 2015; 2018), Diekman and her team investigated whether helping students view their challenges in context might improve their attitudes toward STEM fields. Diekman and her team investigated whether helping students view their challenges in context might improve their attitudes toward STEM fields in an experimental 2 study of 466 students, half from minoritized racial identities and gender-balanced within those categories. Students were randomly assigned a brief reflection activity – they were either asked to write about their challenges in STEM or their challenges as integrated with their purpose in STEM. (White & Diekman, 2023)

Recognizing challenges was critical given that STEM majors are demanding, especially for historically underrepresented students, so both prompts acknowledge that college can be difficult and stressful. The control prompt asked students to write about the challenges they faced in their training and how they affected their everyday lives. However, the purpose reflection framed these challenges in the context of being “worth it” when doing something that matters, and they were asked to write about what they wanted to do with their training and what about their career path was important to them. The results of this experiment showed “a whopper of a main effect of purpose reflection” – students who reflected on their purpose reported feeling like they fit in as their true selves in their major, while students who only reflected on challenges reported “fitting in” significantly less. For the first time, Diekman also measured the stress levels of participants. The direction of the effect was the same – students reflecting on purpose reported lower stress levels than students only reflecting on challenges.

Aside from this main effect, there were also interesting interactions. For example:

White and Asian men started with low levels of stress; after the purpose reflection, they reported that their capacity to cope surpassed their stress.
White and Asian women started with higher levels of stress than their male counterparts; after the purpose reflection, they reported an increased capacity to cope.
Men of color start with higher levels of stress than their white and Asian counterparts but less than that of white and Asian women; after the purpose reflection, they report an even greater capacity to cope with their stressors than any of the other groups.
Women of color, on the other hand, start with the highest levels of stress; even though they report an increased capacity to cope after the purpose reflection, they report that they are still feeling less able to cope.

2 White, A., Diekman, A.B., (2023). Student Reflections on Purpose in STEM. Under review. https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/68FGB

Figure 2. This is a bar graph that shows the interaction effects between agentic and communal goal affordances for proximal and distal goals based on the career: female-stereotypic, male-stereotypic, and STEM. The key result portrayed by the graph is that STEM careers, compared to other types, are relatively low in communal affordances for goals in the near future while STEM careers are perceived to provide communal affordances for goals farther in the future.

Conclusions

Diekman’s research has provided strong evidence across race and gender that reflecting on their purpose in STEM helps students perceive opportunities that fulfill communal as well as agentic goals. However, Diekman also stated that students are entering with vastly different and varying amounts of stress. Moreover, while this tool is helpful, it is important to remember that the playing field is still not level.

Based on the evidence accumulated over 15+ years, Diekman concluded that students can articulate purpose and see goal opportunities when we “nudge” them to think about it and persevere to find meaning in their work. If we want a vast, talented, and diverse workforce in STEM, educators, administrators, and others in positions of authority must signal these opportunities and create space in the classroom for students to pursue and fulfill these goals in STEM fields.

Allen, J. M., Muragishi, G. A., Smith, J. L., Thoman, D. B., & Brown, E. R. (2015). To grab and to hold: Cultivating communal goals to overcome cultural and structural barriers in first-generation college students’ science interest. Translational Issues in Psychological Science , 1 (4), 331–341. https://doi.org/10.1037/tps0000046

Allen, J., Smith, J. L., Thoman, D. B., & Walters, R. W. (2018). Fluctuating team science: Perceiving science as collaborative improves science motivation. Motivation Science , 4 (4), 347–361. https://doi.org/10.1037/mot0000099

Diekman, A. B., Brown, E. R., Johnston, A. M., & Clark, E. K. (2010). Seeking congruity between goals and roles: A New look at why women opt out of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics careers. Psychological Science , 21 (8), 1051-1057. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797610377342

Diekman, A. B., Clark, E., Johnston, A. M., Brown, E. R., & Steinberg, M. (2011). Malleability in communal goals and beliefs influences attraction to stem careers: Evidence for a goal congruity perspective. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 101 (5), 902–918. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0025199

Diekman, A. B., Joshi, M., & Benson‐Greenwald, T. M. (2020). Goal congruity theory: Navigating the social structure to fulfill goals. In Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (pp. 189–244). https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.aesp.2020.04.003

Joshi, M., Benson‐Greenwald, T. M., & Diekman, A. B. (2022). Unpacking motivational culture: Diverging emphasis on communality and agency across STEM domains. Motivation Science , 8 (4), 316–329. https://doi.org/10.1037/mot0000276

Steinberg, M., & Diekman, A. B. (2018). Considering “why” to engage in STEM activities elevates communal content of STEM affordances. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology , 75 , 107–114. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2017.10.010

White, A. D., & Diekman, A. B. (2023, May 20). Student Reflections on Purpose in STEM. Under review https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/68FGB

student engagement student motivation

7 Reasons to Study a STEM Degree in 2024

Author: Dee Lawlor

Dee is an expert on all things living and breathing and has spent many years studying and working abroad. She has a BSc in Zoology from the University of Aberdeen (UK) and an MSc in Imaging & Microscopy from University College Dublin (Ireland), as well as a Diploma in Counselling Studies from Dublin Business School. She is the author of “Introduction to Light Microscopy” (Springer).

Talking about your STEM Research in your Statement of Purpose

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Know your audience: The admission committee will be comprised of faculty members in the department you are applying to work in as a graduate student. Needless to say, they are experts in their fields. Applicants unfamiliar with the process often assume that the admissions process is like undergraduate admissions where applications are read by a large number of diverse professionals seeking to evaluate applicants holistically. Instead, faculty are choosing the students they want to train to be productive and independent members of the scientific community. Write with this goal and audience in mind. Don’t be afraid to use professional or technical language.
Focus on your most relevant contributions: Your research statement does not have to and should not cover everything you have done in the lab (that’s a job for your CV). Instead, it should showcase your most important, significant work. This is often a senior thesis or an independent project in which you contributed to the project design, were responsible for its execution and troubleshooting, and behaved like an independent researcher rather than a helper. Ideally, it is a project relevant to the research you are proposing to conduct as a graduate student. You may cover several or just one research experience.
Situate your work in the lab and the field: It is important that you contextualize your individual research in light of the goals of the lab you are working in and the priorities of the field to which the lab contributes. In other words, make sure you include a sentence or two that addresses the overarching goal of your lab, what questions it seeks to answer, and the methods it uses. This shows your engagement in the field. It demonstrates that you understand the field in a sophisticated manner: you know what is important and why it matters.
Cover the what and why of your project: Begin with a statement of your research question(s). Then describe why your question matters (what data it seeks to find and why is it important that we collect/interpret this data). Next, outline how you designed your experiment and why you made the choices you did. What problems did you run into when executing your experiment and how did you solve them? What were the results and why are they significant? What are the next steps?

These tips should help you get started and structure the discussion of your research in your statement of purpose. When you have a draft ready, schedule a statement review with an advisor via Handshake.

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How to Write the “Why this Major” College Essay + Examples

What’s covered:.

What is the “Why This Major” Essay?
Examples of “Why This Major?” Essay Prompts
Tips for Writing the “Why This Major?” Essay
“Why This Major?” Essay Examples

What to Do If You’re Undecided

The “Why This Major?” essay is a common prompt that nearly every college applicant will have to answer at least once. In this post, we’ll go over the purpose of this essay, examples of real prompts, sample responses, and expert tips for writing your own essay. If one of the colleges on your list asks you to respond to this prompt, you’ll be well-prepared after reading this post.

What is the “Why This Major” Essay?

In the college admissions process, you’ll need to submit two main types of essays: the personal statement and supplemental essays. The personal statement is your main application essay that goes to every school you apply to. The goal of this essay is to share more about who you are and your development.

On the other hand, supplemental essays only go to specific schools, and each school requests their own essays. The goal of these essays is to showcase your fit with the school. Common prompts include “ Why This College? ”, “ Describe an Extracurricular ,” and “Why This Major?”

The “Why This Major?” prompt in particular asks you, unsurprisingly, to explain your interest in your intended major. Colleges want to understand where you’re coming from academically, what your intellectual passions are, and what you plan to do professionally (at least roughly). If you aren’t 100% sure about what you want to study, that’s totally fine, but you do want to show that you’re an overall curious, engaged student.

It’s also meant to gauge your academic fit with the college, so you should be sure to cover school-specific resources related to your intended major that will help you achieve your goals. In other words, this prompt should actually be considered “Why This Major at This School?”

Examples of “Why This Major?” Essay Prompts

Before we dive in, let’s first take a look at some real-life examples of these prompts.

For example, Yale requests that students write a 200-word supplemental essay based on the following prompt:

Similarly, Purdue asks applicants to write 250 words in response to the below statement:

Carnegie Mellon , another top college, requires students to discuss the evolution of their proposed field of study, in 300 words or less:

Finally, the University of Michigan asks students to craft a slightly longer essay, up to 500 words, about the qualities that attracted them to the college or school they’re applying to and how the curriculum will support their interests.

Tips for Writing the “Why This Major?” Essay

Answering the “Why This Major?” prompt may seem like a difficult task. However, there are tips to help simplify the process and ensure your response addresses the question fully and effectively. Here are three steps for writing a standout essay about your major of choice:

1. Share how your academic interest developed.

The first step in crafting an effective “Why This Major?” essay is explaining your emotional resonance with the subject, and your background in it. While you might be tempted to write about your passion for the subject in flowery language, it’s better to share specific experiences that show how your interest developed. You should cover both the coursework that you’ve done in the field and any relevant extracurricular experiences. If you have space, you can also add in the specific subtopics that interest you within the major (i.e. analyzing gender relations or racism within the broader topic of sociology).

You might also consider sharing a short anecdote related to your interest in the major. This strategy is especially effective at the beginning of the essay, as telling a story will both draw in the reader and provide context for your academic interest. For example, if you’re interested in studying English at Yale, you could start your essay by describing a childhood ritual in which you and your dad went to the library every Saturday.

However, while anecdotes are crucial components of a college essay, students should choose what details to include with care. The most impactful essays tell a story, so you should refrain from listing all of your extracurricular activities that relate to your chosen major. This is not a resume! Instead, find ways of connecting your initial anecdote with your desire to pursue your major. For example, perhaps your early experiences at the library led you to get a job at a local bookstore and organize author readings for the community.

2. Detail your reasoning and goals.

It’s not enough to express your passion for a particular subject. You also want to describe your goals and explain how majoring in your chosen field will help you achieve them. Perhaps your early experiences with authors inspired you to start a novel. You can further explain how majoring in English will enable you to study the great works of literature, thereby providing you with the background and foundation needed to find success as a writer.

3. Explain your school choice.

Finally, a “Why This Major?” essay should reveal how the college in question will help you achieve your goals. Your reasons should extend beyond “the college is highly ranked for this major,” as no matter how excellent the school’s reputation is, there are assuredly other colleges out there that are also strong in this department. Instead, dive into the curriculum, teaching methodology, specific classes, professors who are doing work in your area of interest, or other resources that can be found only at that school.

For example, if you’re passionate about becoming a writer one day, take time to explain how Yale’s English program will set you on the road to success. Perhaps you’re interested in studying British greats through the famed Yale in London study abroad program. Or, maybe you plan on pursuing the Creative Writing Concentration as a senior to further refine your abilities to craft engaging narratives with compelling characters.

You could also mention a desire to take a particular course, study with a certain professor, or work on the school newspaper. Just be careful not to “name-drop” professors⁠—only mention a specific faculty member if their work is highly relevant to your interests. Otherwise, your interest will look disingenuous.

“Why This Major?” Essay Examples

To give you a better idea of what these essays should look like, below are a few example responses to the “Why This Major?” prompt.

One Christmas morning, when I was nine, I opened a snap circuit set from my grandmother. Although I had always loved math and science, I didn’t realize my passion for engineering until I spent the rest of winter break creating different circuits to power various lights, alarms, and sensors. Even after I outgrew the toy, I kept the set in my bedroom at home and knew I wanted to study engineering. Later, in a high school biology class, I learned that engineering didn’t only apply to circuits, but also to medical devices that could improve people’s quality of life. Biomedical engineering allows me to pursue my academic passions and help people at the same time.

Just as biology and engineering interact in biomedical engineering, I am fascinated by interdisciplinary research in my chosen career path. Duke offers unmatched resources, such as DUhatch and The Foundry, that will enrich my engineering education and help me practice creative problem-solving skills. The emphasis on entrepreneurship within these resources will also help me to make a helpful product. Duke’s Bass Connections program also interests me; I firmly believe that the most creative and necessary problem-solving comes by bringing people together from different backgrounds. Through this program, I can use my engineering education to solve complicated societal problems such as creating sustainable surgical tools for low-income countries. Along the way, I can learn alongside experts in the field. Duke’s openness and collaborative culture span across its academic disciplines, making Duke the best place for me to grow both as an engineer and as a social advocate.

This student does a great job of sharing how their interest in biomedical engineering developed. They begin the essay with an anecdote, which is more engaging and personal than simply stating “I want to study X major because…” and then smoothly take us into the present, and show how their understanding of the field has become more sophisticated over time. It’s also clear this student has done their research on how Duke specifically can help them achieve their goal of being an engineer and social advocate, as they’re able to name several relevant resources at Duke, such as DUhatch, The Foundry, and the Bass Connections program.

I woke up. The curtains filtered the sun’s rays, hitting my face directly. I got up, looked from the bathroom to the kitchen, but my dad wasn’t there. I plopped on the couch, then the door opened. My dad walked in, clutching a brown paper bag with ninety-nine cent breakfast tacos. After eating, we drove to a customer’s house. He sat me in a chair, lifted the floorboard, and crawled under the house to fix the pipes. As he emerged, he talked, but my mind drifted to the weight of the eleven-millimeter hex wrench in my hand. My interest in mechanical engineering originates from my dad, who was a plumber. When I was fifteen, my dad passed away from cancer that constricted his throat. Holding his calloused hand on his deathbed, I wanted to prevent the suffering of others from cancer. Two years later, when I was given a topic of choice for my chemistry research paper, I stumbled upon an article about gold nanoparticles used for HIV treatment. I decided to steer the topic of gold nanoparticles used for cancer treatment instead, entering the field of nanotechnology. After reading numerous articles and watching college lectures on YouTube, I was utterly captivated by topics like using minuscule devices to induce hyperthermia as a safe method of cancer treatment. Nanotechnology is multi-disciplinary, reinforcing my interest in pursuing mechanical engineering as a gateway to participate in nanoscience and nanotechnology research at the University of Texas at Austin. I have learned that nanotechnology is not limited to stories like mine, but to other issues such as sustainable energy and water development that I hope to work towards. It is important for me to continue helping others without forfeiting my interest in nanotechnology, working in collaboration with both engineering and the medical field.

The narrative style of this essay engages readers and keeps us eager to know what’s going to happen next. In terms of content, the student does a great job of sharing personal and specific details about themselves, the roots of their academic interests, and their motivation to pursue them in college. While this essay is very strong overall, it is missing the “Why nanotechnology at UT Austin?” element of this kind of prompt, and would be even more successful if the student mentioned a particular professor at UT Austin doing research in their area of interest, or a lab dedicated to work in the field of nanotechnology.

I held my breath and hit RUN. Yes! A plump white cat jumped out and began to catch the falling pizzas. Although my Fat Cat project seems simple now, it was the beginning of an enthusiastic passion for computer science. Four years and thousands of hours of programming later, that passion has grown into an intense desire to explore how computer science can serve society. Every day, surrounded by technology that can recognize my face and recommend scarily-specific ads, I’m reminded of Uncle Ben’s advice to a young Spiderman: “With great power comes great responsibility”. Likewise, the need to ensure digital equality has skyrocketed with AI’s far-reaching presence in society; and I believe that digital fairness starts with equality in education.

The unique use of threads at the College of Computing perfectly matches my interests in AI and its potential use in education; the path of combined threads on Intelligence and People gives me the rare opportunity to delve deep into both areas. I’m particularly intrigued by the rich sets of both knowledge-based and data-driven intelligence courses, as I believe AI should not only show correlation of events, but also provide insight into why they occur.

In my four years as an enthusiastic online English tutor, I’ve worked hard to help students overcome both financial and technological obstacles in hopes of bringing quality education to people from diverse backgrounds. For this reason, I’m extremely excited by the many courses in the People thread that focus on education and human-centered technology. I’d love to explore how to integrate AI technology into the teaching process to make education more available, affordable, and effective for people everywhere. And with the innumerable opportunities that Georgia Tech has to offer, I know that I will be able to go further here than anywhere else.

This essay has a great hook—it captures the reader’s attention and draws them into the story right away. Through this anecdote, the student shows their personality and interests, and then deftly transitions into talking about why Georgia Tech’s computer science program is the right match for them. The student explains how the College of Computing at Georgia Tech fits into their future by referencing “threads,” which are unique to the College of Computing’s curriculum and allow students to apply their CS coursework to particular areas.

Just because you haven’t decided on a concentration doesn’t mean you’re out of luck when it comes to writing the “Why This Major?” essay. Ultimately, schools care less about knowing that you have your whole academic career planned out, and more about seeing that you are a genuinely curious, engaged student who does have intellectual passions, even if you’re still figuring out which one you want to pursue as a major.

If you’re still undecided, you can opt to write about 1-3 potential majors (depending on the word count), while detailing how the school can help you choose one, as well as meet your broader academic goals. For best results, include personal anecdotes about a few academic subjects or courses that have inspired you, and share some potential career paths stemming from them. For more tips, see our post on how to write the “Why this major?” essay if you’re undecided .

Where to Get Your “Why This Major?” Essay Edited

Do you want feedback on your “Why This Major?” essay? After rereading your essays countless times, it can be difficult to evaluate your writing objectively. That’s why we created our free Peer Essay Review tool , where you can get a free review of your essay from another student. You can also improve your own writing skills by reviewing other students’ essays.

If you want a college admissions expert to review your essay, advisors on CollegeVine have helped students refine their writing and submit successful applications to top schools. Find the right advisor for you to improve your chances of getting into your dream school!

Careers in STEM: Why Should I Study Data Science?

Careers in data science are in high demand and offer high salaries and advancement opportunities. Learn five reasons to consider a career in the field.

Valerie Kirk

Data is often referred to as the new gold because it has become an essential raw material.

From smartphones to traffic cameras to weather satellites, modern technology devices are collecting massive amounts of data that support everything from cancer research to city planning.

The importance of data in today’s world spans all industries including healthcare, education, travel, and government. Business decisions are made based on data and improving customer experiences relies on data. It is also critical for our national defense. Simply put, today’s world runs on data.

But unlike gold, data does not have value in its raw state. To tap into the power of data to make smart, data-driven decisions, it has to be collected, cleaned, organized, and analyzed.

This is why data is also called the new oil, which also needs to be extracted and refined in order to have value.

That’s where the field of data science comes in.

What is Data Science?

Data science is the study of data to extract meaningful insights for business and government.

People who pursue a degree in data science study math and computer science. Their career path includes jobs where they handle, organize, and interpret massive volumes of information with the goal of discerning patterns. They also construct complex algorithms to build predictive models. Data science tasks include data processing, data analytics, and data visualization.

Data scientists are on the leading edge of innovation and emerging technology, including machine learning and artificial intelligence, which relies on a significant amount of digital data to generate insights.

Careers in data science are growing fast. Data science jobs are in high demand and can be found in nearly every industry. A few of the most common data science jobs include:

Chief Data Officer
Artificial Intelligence Engineer
Data Scientist
Data Engineer
Machine Learning Engineer
Software Engineer
Data Modeler
Data Analyst
Big Data Engineer

Why is Data Science Important?

Just as data is the new gold and the new oil, data is also the new currency. For businesses, the insights derived from data science are essential for data-driven decision-making. They guide everything from the product lifecycle to fulfillment to office or warehouse locations. Data scientists provide information that’s critical to a company’s growth.

The benefits of data science extend beyond business. Government agencies from the federal level down to state and local entities also rely on data insights for emergency planning and response, public safety, city planning, intelligence gathering, national defense, and many other services.

Another reason why data science is important? It taps into the potential of artificial intelligence, which can improve productivity and efficiencies, provide stronger cybersecurity, and personalize customer experiences. To be effective, artificial intelligence relies on a lot of data, which is often pulled from massive data repositories and organized and analyzed by data scientists.

Learn About Our Data Science Graduate Degree Program

5 Reasons to Study Data Science

The field of data science is a great career choice that offers high salaries, opportunities across several industries, and long-term job security. Here are five reasons to consider a career in data science.

1. Data Scientists Are in High Demand

According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics , data scientist jobs are projected to grow 36% by 2031, which is much faster than the average for all occupations. Data science careers also offer significant potential for advancement, with the relatively new role of chief data officer becoming a key C-suite position across all types of businesses.

Because the high-demand field requires a special skill set, professionals with data science degrees or certificates are more likely to land a desired position in a top company and enjoy more job security.

2. Careers in Data Science Have High Earning Potential

That high demand also leads to higher salaries relative to other careers. According to Glassdoor, the estimated total pay for a data scientist in the United States is $126,200 per year .

New data scientists can expect starting salaries of around $100,000 per year, with experienced data scientists earning more than $200,000 per year. The average annual salary for chief data officers is $636,000 , with top data executives clearing more than $1 million a year.

The salary potential is only expected to grow as data drives artificial intelligence innovations.

3. Data Science Skills are Going to Grow in Value

Think about this — smartphones, drones, satellites, sensors, security cameras, and other devices collect data 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Data is also being generated by organizations from every project, product launch, customer sale, employee action, and other business activities.

Then think about data that comes from every financial transaction, healthcare interaction, scholarly research project, and other initiatives outside of the business world. Data is continuously being generated from multiple sources for multiple uses — and that isn’t going to stop.

Turning all of that data into actionable insights is a unique, high-demand skill that will only grow in value as more data is generated. As technology advances, data scientists will be at the forefront of new breakthroughs and innovations. It’s an exciting and evolving career.

4. Data Science Provides a Wide Range of Job Opportunities

Every business, government agency, and educational institution generates data. They all need support in gaining insights from that data. Having a degree or certificate in data science gives people the flexibility to work in the industry that interests and inspires them.

5. Data Scientists Can Make the World a Better Place

While data scientists can offer insights to help businesses grow, they can also offer insights to help humanity. Data science careers include unique opportunities to make an impact on the world. Consider these initiatives where data science is playing a significant role:

Climate change. To support climate control measures that could lower carbon dioxide emissions, the California Air Resources Board, Plant Labs, and the Environmental Defense Fund are working together on a Climate Data Partnership to track climate change from space.
Medical research. The National Institutes of Health is working to improve biomedical research through its NIH Science and Technology Research Infrastructure for Discovery, Experimentation, and Sustainability Initiative , which enables access to rich datasets and breaking down data silos to support medical researchers.
Rural planning. The U.S. Department of Agriculture launched a Rural Data Gateway to support farmers and ranchers in accessing the resources they need to support everything from sustainable farming practices to how to lower energy costs.

Other data-driven service-oriented initiatives include making cities safer for pedestrians and bikers, supporting affordable housing for underserved communities, and improving access to social services. Hear about other initiatives that are tapping into the power of AI for good in this fireside chat with Harvard Extension School’s director of IT programs, Bruce Huang.

Study Data Science at Harvard Extension School

If you are ready to start, advance, or pivot to a career in this exciting and growing field, Harvard Extension School offers a Data Science Master’s Degree Program .

The program focuses on mastering the technical, analytical, and practical skills needed to solve real-world, data-driven problems. The program covers predictive modeling, data mining, machine learning, artificial intelligence, data visualization, and big data. You will also learn how to apply data science and analytical methods to address data-rich problems and develop the skills for quantitative thought leadership, including the ethical and legal dimensions of data analytics.

The program includes 11 courses that can be taken online and one on-campus course, in which you develop a plan for a capstone project with peers and faculty. In the final capstone course, you will apply your new skills to a real-world challenge. Capstone project teams collaborate with industry, government, or academic institutions to explore the possibilities of using data science and analytics for good. Recent capstone projects include:

Improving the climate change model used by NASA.
Developing a tool that combines aerial imagery and advanced georeferencing techniques to assess damage in disaster-stricken areas.
Using computer vision and video classification to develop a crime detection system for analyzing surveillance videos and identifying suspicious activities, contributing to enhanced public safety and crime prevention efforts.
Predicting patient MRI scans in a hospital system to optimize resource allocation and ensure efficient patient care delivery.
Streamlining the medical coding process to reduce errors and improve efficiencies.

You can also earn a Data Science Graduate Certificate through the Harvard Extension School . In this certificate program, you will:

Master key facets of data investigation, including data wrangling, cleaning, sampling, management, exploratory analysis, regression and classification, prediction, and data communication
Implement foundational concepts of data computation, such as data structure, algorithms, parallel computing, simulation, and analysis.
Leverage your knowledge of key subject areas, such as game theory, statistical quality control, exponential smoothing, seasonally adjusted trend analysis, or data visualization.

Four courses are required for the program and vary based on the data science career path you are interested in pursuing.

If you are thinking about advancing your career or making a career change into the growing data science field, learn more about the Data Science Master’s Degree program or the Data Science Graduate Certificate program including class requirements, tuition, and how to apply.

About the Author

Valerie Kirk is a freelance writer and corporate storyteller specializing in customer and community outreach and topics and trends in education, technology, and healthcare. Based in Maryland near the Chesapeake Bay, she spends her free time exploring nature by bike, paddleboard, or on long hikes with her family.

Computer Science vs. Systems Engineering Programs — Which is Right for You?

This blog post explores the difference between the fields of computer science and systems engineering — and which might be right for you.

Harvard Division of Continuing Education

The Division of Continuing Education (DCE) at Harvard University is dedicated to bringing rigorous academics and innovative teaching capabilities to those seeking to improve their lives through education. We make Harvard education accessible to lifelong learners from high school to retirement.

Young Girls In STEM – an essay by Sofia Andersson

This week, Sofia Andersson, a fourteen-year-old student from Ecole Internationale Bilangue, Paris, France, has joined the ISC as part of an internship programme to learn about international science. We invited Sofia to write an essay on the theme of the International Day for Women and Girls in Science. Here are her thoughts.

It’s a new era for women. Nowadays, us girls grow up hearing we can do anything, be anything. And yet, there is still not enough women in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) to create equality. Only 29% of STEM jobs are occupied by women. Why? Girls have just as much potential, and just as much interest in STEM as boys do. It’s simple. Unconscious gender bias. People don’t even realize that they’re doing it. Helen Chiang, who is studio head for the Minecraft franchise, said that, when she was in school, “it wasn’t popular for girls to be smart or interested in challenging subjects within STEM.” There are social and cultural barriers that often keep girls form entering STEM subjects and careers. Popularity is one of them. Another is the pressure to prove themselves in a room filled with men, whilst being seen as an outsider.

I feel that girls and boys, when they’re young, are all interested in STEM. Kids want to build and create. But, as time goes on, it becomes less and less equal. Girls aren’t encouraged in the same way as boys, and, when being advised on careers, girls are often told they shouldn’t study STEM. Lack of support from parents and teachers is discouraging. A lack of female role models in the field they’re interested in doesn’t help, either.

John Sheehan, a partner architect on the Microsoft Windows project, has a young daughter who is interested in math. He comments that, though she enjoys math, she stopped trying as she got older. He says that there was an “underlying feeling society was telling her that boys where better at math”. Chiang says that she “went through a period of wondering whether (she) should pretend to not understand subjects or dumb myself down so that (she) would be liked.” Girls face immense social pressure, not only to be perceived as ‘feminine’ but also to prove that they are worthy, and that means they have to work twice as hard in their classroom or workplace then their male counterparts. Girls “feel great pressure to prove their professional worth repeatedly”, or even that employers automatically assume they’re not going to cut it.

I believe that women and girls are just as capable as men, and that empowering young girls is incredibly important if we want to create a sustainable future for our planet. Sofia Andersson

One of the main points of gender equality that people always bring up is the wage gap. This extends into STEM as well, and female engineers earn 16% less on average than male engineers dong the same job. This discourages young girls from pursuing a career, and reinforces the idea that women aren’t as good as men in STEM domains.

But what are the consequences of fewer girls in STEM? To list a few : in lab experiments, male rats are almost exclusively used, meaning the results can never really apply to women; medical researches study men, and don’t realize that women’s bodies could react differently; the first generation of airbags were built to protect adult men, meaning that women and children would die from impact. In short, most of these could have been avoided if there where women amongst the researchers and subjects.

So how do we get rid of these barriers? How do we change the system? Like the problem, it’s a simple answer but executing is difficult. We must address the bias. We must try to transform the system to recognize the bias. We must give young girls interested in STEM a safe and supportive environment to explore that curiosity, be it at school or at home. We must show them role models, so that they know what they want to do is possible, and that it can be achieved.

This is especially relevant today, with the re-entry to Earth of NASA astronaut, Christina Koch , who said that she wanted to inspire the next generation of women space explorers after growing up with few female heroes. Koch and her colleague, Anne McClaine, were not able to complete a space walk together on schedule due to NASA not having space suits for two women , reminding us that space is still a boys’ game.

Not so, according to Nichelle Nichols, an actress and NASA diversity and recruitment collaborator, who says “Science is not a boy’s game. Science is not a girl’s game. It’s everyone’s game”.

I believe that women and girls are just as capable as men, and that empowering young girls is incredibly important if we want to create a sustainable future for our planet.

The International Day of Women and Girls in Science : Addressing and Transforming the Gender Gap will take place at UNESCO, Paris on 11 February 2020.

https://council.science/current/news/young-girls-in-stem-an-essay-by-sofia-andersson/">

Disclaimer: The translations are automatically generated by Google Translate and may contain errors. The ISC is not liable for any damage or issues that may arise from these translations. You can provide your feedback by emailing us at [email protected] Note: Please note that the ‘Science Summit at the UN General Assembly’ in September 2023 is not an event of the International Science Council. The International Science Council has no association with this event nor with the organizer of the event.

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Lessons from Amazon’s Early Growth Strategy

If you’re interested in strategies for scaling start-ups, this episode is for you.

Apple Podcasts

So much has been written about Amazon’s outsized growth. But Harvard Business School professor Sunil Gupta says it’s the company’s unusual approach to strategy that has captured his scholarly attention. Gupta has spent years studying Amazon’s strategy and its founder and former CEO Jeff Bezos.

In this episode, Gupta shares how Amazon upended traditional corporate strategy by diversifying into multiple products serving many end users, instead of having a narrow focus.

He argues that some of Amazon’s simplest business strategies — like their obsession with customers and insistence on long-term thinking — are approaches that companies, big and small, can emulate.

Key episode topics include: strategy, innovation, leadership, scaling, Jeff Bezos, long-term thinking, customer focus.

HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.

Listen to the full HBR IdeaCast episode: How Jeff Bezos Built One of the World’s Most Valuable Companies (2020)
Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast
Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org .

HANNAH BATES: Welcome to HBR On Strategy , case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, hand-selected to help you unlock new ways of doing business.

Gupta has spent years studying Amazon’s strategy and its founder and former CEO, Jeff Bezos.

In this episode, Gupta shares how Amazon upended traditional corporate strategy by diversifying into multiple products serving many end users instead of focusing more narrowly.

And he argues that some of their simplest business strategies – like their obsession with the customer and insistence on long-term thinking – are approaches that companies, big and small, should emulate.

If you’re interested in innovation strategy, this episode is for you. It originally aired on HBR IdeaCast in November 2020. Here it is.

ALISON BEARD: Welcome to the HBR IdeaCast from Harvard Business Review. I’m Alison Beard.

If you had to name the most successful business leader alive today, who would you say? I can’t hear you from my basement podcasting room, but I would bet that for many of you, the answer is Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon. This is a man who over the past 25 years turned his online bookstore startup into a diversified company currently valued at $1.6 trillion.

Amazon is a digital retailing juggernaut, it’s also a web services provider, media producer, and manufacturer of personal technology devices like Kindle and Echo. Oh, and Bezos also owns the Washington Post and Blue Origin, a space exploration company. Forbes tells us he is the richest person in the world.

How did he accomplish so much? How did he change the business landscape? What mistakes has he made along the way? A new collection of Bezos’s own writing, which full disclosure, my colleagues at Harvard Business Review Press have published, offer some insights. Here’s a clip from one speech that’s included. The book is called Invent and Wander.

And our guest today, who has spent years studying both Amazon and Bezos, is here to talk with me about some of the key themes in it, including the broad drivers of both the company and the CEO’s success. Sunil Gupta is a professor of business administration at Harvard Business School and cochair of its executive program, and cochair of its executive program on driving digital strategy, which is also the title of his book. Sunil, thanks so much for being on the show.

SUNIL GUPTA: Thank you for having me, Alison.

ALISON BEARD: So Invent and Wander. I get that Bezos is inventive. You know, he created a new way for us to buy things – everything. How is he also a wonderer?

SUNIL GUPTA: So he’s full of experiments. His company and his whole style is known for experimentation, and he says that in so many words that if you want big winners, then you have to be willing to have many failures. And the argument is, one big winner will take care of a thousand failed experiments. So I think that’s the wandering part. But also his experiments are not aimless. There is a certain thought and process behind what experiments to do and why they will connect to the old, old picture of what Amazon is today.

ALISON BEARD: And your expertise is in digital strategy. How does he break the traditional rules of strategy?

SUNIL GUPTA: So for the longest time the way, at least I was taught in my MBA program and the way we teach to our MBA students and executives, is strategy is about focus. But if you look at Amazon, Amazon certainly doesn’t look like it’s focusing on anything, so obviously Jeff Bezos missed that class, otherwise it’s a very, very different thing.

And then you’d say, why is it that so called lack of focus strategy seems to be working for Amazon? And I think the fundamental underlying principle that he’s guiding his whole discussion of strategy is, he’s changed the rules of strategy. So the old rules of strategy were, the way you gained competitive advantage is by being better or cheaper. So if I am selling you a car, my car is better of cheaper. But the inherent assumption in that strategy statement is, I’m selling one product to one customer. And what Amazon is basically arguing is, the digital economy is all about connection. We have got to connect products and connect customers. Let me explain why that is so powerful.

So connecting products, here the idea is, I can sell you, this is a classic razor and blade strategy. I can sell you a razor cheap in order to make money on the blade. So I can sell you Kindle cheap in order to make money on the ebooks. Now, at some level you might say, hey, razor and blade have been around forever. What’s so unique today? I think unique today is razor could be in one industry and blades could be in completely different industrys.

So for example, if you look at Amazon’s portfolio of businesses, you sort of say, not only Amazon is an e-commerce player, but also is making movies and TV shows, its own studio. Well, why does it make sense for an e-commerce player, an online retailer to compete with Hollywood. Well, Walmart doesn’t make movies. Macy’s doesn’t make movies? So why does it make sense for Amazon to make movies?

And I think once you dig into it, the answer becomes clear that the purpose of the movies is to keep and gain the Prime customers. Two day free shipping is fine, but if you ask me to pay $99 or $119 for two day free shipping, I might start doing the math in my head, and say, OK, how many packages do I expect to get next year? And is the Prime membership worth it or not?

But once you throw in, in addition to the two-day free shipping, you throw in some TV shows and movies that are uniquely found only on Amazon, I can’t do this math. And why is Prime customers important to Amazon? Because Prime customers are more loyal. They buy three or four times more than the non-Prime customers, and they’re also less price sensitive.

And in fact, Jeff Bezos has said publicly that every time we win a Golden Globe Award for one of our shows, we sell more shoes. So this is, and he said it in your book, Invent and Wander, also, that we might be the only company in the world which has figured out how winning Golden Globe Awards can actually translate into selling more products on the online commerce.

So this is a great example of the razor being in a very different industry and blade being in another industry. Take another example. Amazon has a lending business where they give loans to small and medium enterprises. If Amazon decides to compete with banks tomorrow, Amazon can decide to offer loans to the small merchants at such a low price that banks would never be able to compete. And why would Amazon be able to do that? Because Amazon can say, hey, I’m not going to make money on loans, as much money on loans, but I’ll make more money when these businesses, small businesses grow and do more transactions on my marketplace platform. And I get more commissions. So again, loan can become my razor in order to help the merchants grow and make money on the transaction and the commission that I get from that. The moment I make somebody else’s, in this case the banks, core business my razor, they will make a very hard time competing. So I think that’s the key change, the fundamental rules of strategy and competition in that direction.

The second part of connection is connecting customers, and this is the classic network effect. So marketplace is a great example of network effects. The more buyers I have, the more sellers I have. The more sellers I have, the sellers I have, the more buyers I get, because the buyers can find all the items. And that becomes flywheel effect, and it becomes a situation where it’s very hard for a new player to complete with Amazon.

ALISON BEARD: In this diversification that Amazon has done, how have they managed to be good at all of those things? Because they’re not focused. You know, they’re not concentrated on an area of specific expertise. So how have they succeeded when other companies might have failed because they lacked that expertise, or they were spreading themselves too thin?

SUNIL GUPTA: So I think it depends on how you define focus. Most of us, when we define focus, we sort of define focus by traditional industry boundaries, that I’m an online retailer, therefore going into some other business is lack of focus. The way Amazon thinks about is focus on capabilities.

So if you look at it from that point of view, I would argue that Amazon had three fundamental core capabilities. Number one, it’s highly customer focused, not only in its culture, but also in its capability in terms of how it can actually handle data and leverage data to get customer insight. The second core capability of Amazon is logistics. So it’s now a world class logistics player. It uses really frontier technology, whether it’s key word, robotics, computer vision, in its warehouse to make it much more efficient.

And the third part of Amazon’s skill or the capability is its technology. And a good example of that is Amazon Web Services, or AWS. And I think if you look at these three core capabilities, customer focus and the data insight that it gets from that, the logistics capability, and the technology, everything that Amazon is doing is some way or the other connected to it. In that sense, Amazon, and there’s no lack of focus, in my judgment on Amazon.

Now, if he starts doing, starts making cream cheese tomorrow or starts making airplane engines, then I would say, yes, it’s got a lack of focus. But one of the other things that Jeff Bezos has said again and again is this notion of work backwards and scale forward. And what that means is, because you’re customer obsessed, you sort of find ways to satisfy customers, and if that means developing new skills that we don’t have because we are working backwards from what the customer needs are, then we’ll build those skills.

So a good example of that is, when Amazon started building Kindle, Amazon was never in the hardware business. It didn’t know how to build hardware. But Bezos realized that as the industry moved, people are beginning to read more and more online, rather, or at least on their devices, rather than the physical paper copy of a book. So as a result, he says, how do we make it easier for consumers to read it on an electronic version? And they’re spending three years learning about this capability of hardware manufacturing. And by the way, Kindle came out long before iPad came out. And of course, that capability now has helped them launch Echo and many other devices.

ALISON BEARD: Right. So it’s the focus on the customer, plus a willingness to go outside your comfort zone, the wander part.

SUNIL GUPTA: Exactly.

ALISON BEARD: Yeah. How would you describe Bezos’s leadership style?

SUNIL GUPTA: So I think there are at least three parts to it. One is, he said right from day one that he wants to be a long-term focus. The second thing is being customer obsessed. And many times he has said that he can imagine, in the meetings he wants people to imagine an empty chair. That is basically for the customer. And he says, we are not competitor focused. We are not product focused. We are not technology focused. We are customer focused. And the third is, willingness to experiment. And fail, and build that culture in the company that it’s OK to fail.

ALISON BEARD: What about personally, though? Is he a hard charger? Is he an active listener? What’s it like to be in a room with him?

SUNIL GUPTA: Oh, he’s certainly a hard charger. I mean, he’s also the kind of guy, when he hires people, he says, you can work long, hard, or smart. But at Amazon, you can choose two out of three. And I think this is similar to many other leaders. If you look at Steve Jobs, he was also a very hard charging guy. And I think some people find it exhilarating to work with these kind of leaders. Some find it very tough.

ALISON BEARD: Do you think that he communicates differently from other successful CEOs?

SUNIL GUPTA: So the communication style that he has built in the company is the very famous now, there’s no PowerPoints. So it’s a very thoughtful discussion. You write six-page memos, which everybody, when their meeting starts, everybody sits down and actually reads the memo.

In fact, this was a very interesting experience that I had. One of my students, who was in the executive program, works at Amazon in Germany. And he is, he was at that point in time thinking of moving to another company and becoming a CEO of that company. So he said, can I talk to you about this change of career path that I’m thinking about? I said, sure. So we set up a time, and five minutes before our call, he sends me an email with a six-page memo. And I said, well, shouldn’t he have sent this to me before, so I could at least look at it? He says, no, that’s the Amazon style. We’ll sit in silence and read it together. And so I read it together, because then you’re completely focused on it. And then we can have a conversation. But this discipline of writing a six-page memo, it’s a very, very unique experience, because you actually have to think through all your arguments.

ALISON BEARD: You also mentioned the long term focus, and that really stood out for me, too, this idea that he is not at all thinking of next year. He’s thinking five years out, and sometimes even further. But as a public company, how has Amazon been able to stick to that? And is it replicable at other companies?

SUNIL GUPTA: I think it is replicable. It requires conviction, and it requires a way to articulate the vision to Wall Street that they can rally behind. And it’s completely replicable. There are other examples of companies who have followed a similar strategy. I mean, Netflix is a good example. Netflix hadn’t made money for a long period of time. But they sold the vision of what the future will look like, and Wall Street bought that vision.

Mastercard is exactly the same thing. Ajay Banga is giving three year guidance to Wall Street saying, this is my three-year plan, because things can change quarter to quarter. I’m still responsible to tell you what we are doing this quarter, but my strategy will not be guided by what happens today. It will be guided by the three-year plan that we have.

ALISON BEARD: There are so many companies now that go public without turning any profit, whereas Amazon now is printing money, and thus able to reinvest and have this grand vision. So at what point was Bezos able to say, right, we’re going to do it my way?

SUNIL GUPTA: I think he said it right from day one, except that people probably didn’t believe it. And in fact, one of the great examples of that was, when he was convinced about AWS, the Amazon Web Services, that was back in the early 2000s, when a majority of the Wall Street was not sure what Jeff Bezos was trying to do, because they say, hey, you are an online retailer. You have no business being in web services. That’s the business of IBM. And that’s a B2B business. You’re in a B2C business. Why are you going in there?

And Bezos said, well, we have plenty of practice of being misunderstood. And we will continue with our passion and vision, because we see the path. And now he’s proven it again and again why his vision is correct, and I think that could give us more faith and conviction to the Wall Street investors.

SUNIL GUPTA: Oh, absolutely. And he’s one of the persons who has his opinion, and you always surround yourself with people better than you.

ALISON BEARD: How has he managed to attract that talent when it is so fiercely competitive between Google, Facebook, all of these U.S. technology leaders?

SUNIL GUPTA: So a couple of things I would say. First of all, it’s always good fun to join a winning team. And all of us want to join a winning team, so this certainly is on a trajectory which is phenomenal. It’s like a rocket ship that is taking off and has been taking off for the last 25 years. So I think that’s certainly attractive to many people, and certainly many hard charging people who want to be on a winning team.

And a second thing is, Amazon’s culture of experimentation and innovation. That is energizing to a lot of people. It’s not a bureaucracy where you get bogged down by the processes. So the two type of decisions that we talked about, he gives you enough leeway to try different things, and is willing to invest hundreds of millions of dollars into things that may or may not succeed in the future. And I think that’s very liberating to people who are willing to take on the ownership and build something.

ALISON BEARD: But don’t all of the tech companies offer that?

SUNIL GUPTA: They do, but if you think about many other tech companies, they’re much more narrow in focus. So Facebook is primarily in social media. Google is primarily in search advertising. Yes, you have GoogleX, but that’s still a small part of what Google does. Whereas if you ask yourself what business is Amazon in, there are much broader expansive areas that Amazon has gone into. So I think the limits, I mean, Amazon does not have that many limits or boundaries as compared to many other businesses in Silicon Valley.

ALISON BEARD: So let’s talk a little bit about Bezos’s acquisition strategy. I think the most prominent is probably Whole Foods, but there are many others. How does he think about the companies that he wants to bring in as opposed to grow organically?

SUNIL GUPTA: So some acquisitions are areas where he thinks that he can actually benefit and accelerate the vision that he already has. So for example, the acquisition of Kiva was to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the systems that he already put in place in his warehouse. And logistics and warehouse is a key component or key part of Amazon’s business, and he saw that Kiva already was ahead of the curve in technology that he probably wanted to have that in his own company. So that was obvious acquisition, because that fits in the existing business.

Whole Foods is kind of a slightly different story, in my judgment, because I some ways, you can argue, why is Amazon, an online player, buying an offline retail store, Whole Foods? And in fact, they bought it at 27% premium. So that doesn’t make sense for an online retailer commerce to go to offline channels. And I think, in fact, part of the reason in my judgment is, it’s not just Whole Foods, but it’s about the food business, per se. And why is Amazon so interested in food? In fact, Amazon has been trying this food business, online food delivery for a long period of time without much success. And Whole Foods was one, another way to try and get access to that particular business. And why is that so important to Amazon, even though you could argue, food is a low margin business?

And I would say, part of the reason is, food is something, grocery is something that you buy every week, perhaps twice a week. And if I, as Amazon, can convince you to buy grocery online from Amazon, then I’m creating a habit for you to come onto Amazon every week, perhaps twice a week. And once you are on Amazon, you will end up buying other products on Amazon. Whereas if you are buying electronics, you may not come to Amazon every day.

So this is a habit creation activity, and again, it may not be a very high margin activity to sell you food. But I’ve created a habit, just like Prime. I’ve created a loyal customer where you think of nothing else but Amazon for your daily needs, and therefore you end up buying other things.

ALISON BEARD: And Amazon isn’t without controversy. You know, and we should talk about that, too. First, there are questions about its treatment of warehouse employees, particularly during COVID. And Bezos, as you said, has always been relentlessly focused on the customer. But is Amazon employee centric, too?

SUNIL GUPTA: So I think there is definitely some areas of concern, and you rightly said there is a significant concern about the, during the COVID, workers were complaining about safety, the right kind of equipment. But even before COVID, there were a lot of concerns about whether the workers are being pushed too hard. They barely have any breaks. And they’re constantly on the go, because speed and efficiency become that much more important to make sure customers always get what they are promised. And in fact, more than promised.

Clearly Amazon either hasn’t done a good job, or hasn’t at least done the public relations part of it that they have done a good job. Now, if you ask Jeff Bezos, he will claim that, no, actually, they have done things. For example, they offer something called carrier choice, where they give 95% tuition to the employees to learn new skills, whether they’re relevant to Amazon or not. Pretty much like what Starbucks does for its baristas, for college education and other things. But I think more than just giving money or tuition, it requires a bit of empathy and sense that you care for your employees, and perhaps that needs, that’s something that Amazon needs to work on.

ALISON BEARD: And another challenge is the criticism that it has decimated mom and pop shops. Even when someone sells through Amazon, the company will then see that it’s a popular category and create it itself and start selling it itself. There’s environmental concerns about the fact that packages are being driven from warehouses to front doors all over America. And boxes and packaging. So how has Bezos, how has the company dealt with all of that criticism?

SUNIL GUPTA: They haven’t. And I think those are absolutely valid concerns on both counts, that the small sellers who grow to become reasonably big are always under the radar, and there are certainly anecdotal evidence there, small sellers have complained that Amazon had decided to sell exactly the same item that they were so successful in selling, and becoming too big is actually not good on Amazon, because Amazon can get into your business and wipe you away. So that’s certainly a big concern, and I think that’s something that needs to be sorted out, and Amazon needs to clarify what its position on that area is, because it benefits from these small sellers on his platform.

And your second question about environmental issues is also absolutely on the money, because not only emission issues, but there’s so many boxes that pile in, certainly in my basement, from Amazon. You sort of say, and it’s actually ironical that Millennials who are in love with Amazon are extremely environmentally friendly. But at the same time, they would not hesitate to order something from Amazon and pile up all these boxes. So I think Amazon needs to figure out a way to think about both those issues.

ALISON BEARD: And at what point will it have to? I mean, it seems to be rolling happily along.

SUNIL GUPTA: Well, I think those issues are becoming bigger and bigger, and it’s certainly in the eye of the regulators, also, for some of these practices. And not only because it’s too big, and there might be monopoly concerns, but these issues will become larger, and any time you become a large company, you become the center of attraction for broader issues than just providing shareholder value.

ALISON BEARD: Yeah. So those are weaknesses possibly for the company. What are some of Bezos’s personal weaknesses that you’ve seen in studying him and the company?

SUNIL GUPTA: So I think one thing that stands out to me, and at least in the public forums, I have not seen any empathy. And it’s, I mean, we talk about that the leaders have, should have three qualities. They should be competent. They should have a good character. And they should have compassion. So he’s certainly very competent. I mean, he’s brilliant in many aspects, right, from the computer vision and AI and machine learning, to the nuances of data analytics, to the Hollywood production, etc. He also seems to have good character, at least I have not heard any personal scandals, apart from his other issues in his personal life, perhaps.

Those characteristics of competence and character make people respect you. What makes people love you is when you show compassion, and at least I haven’t seen compassion or empathy that comes out of him. I mean, he certainly comes across as a very hard charging, driven person, which probably is good for business. But the question of empathy is perhaps something lacking right now.

ALISON BEARD: Yeah. The other issue is his just enormous wealth. He did invent this colossally valuable company, but should anyone really be that rich?

SUNIL GUPTA: Well, I guess that’s, you can say that’s the good or the bad thing about capitalism. But I think, and again, my personal view is there’s nothing wrong in becoming rich, if you have been successful and done it with hard work and ingenuity. But how you use your wealth is something that perhaps will define Jeff Bezos going forward. I think Bill Gates is a great example how he actually has used his wealth and his influence and his expertise and his brilliance into some certain thing that actually is great for humanity.

Now, whether Jeff Bezos does that down the road, I don’t know, whether his space exploration provides that sort of outlet which is both his passion as well as good for humanity, I don’t know. But at some point in time, I think it’s the responsibility of these leaders to sort of say, my goal is not simply to make money and make my shareholders rich, but also help humanity and help society.

ALISON BEARD: If you’re talking to someone who’s running a startup, or even a manager of a team at a traditional company, what is the key lesson that you would say, this is what you can learn from Jeff Bezos? This is what you can put to work in your own profession?

SUNIL GUPTA: So I would say two things that at least I would take away if I were doing a startup. One is customer obsession. Now, every company says that, but honestly, not every company does it, because if you go to the management meetings, if you go to the quarterly meetings, you suddenly go focus on financials and competition and product. But there’s rarely any conversation on customers. And I think, as I mentioned earlier, that Jeff Bezos always tells his employee to think of the imaginary chair in which a customer is sitting, because that’s the person that we need to focus on. Howard Shultz does the same thing at Starbucks, and that’s why Starbucks is so customer focused.

So I think that’s the first part. And the argument that Bezos gives is, customers are never satisfied. And that pushes us to innovate and move forward, so we need to innovate even before the rest of the world even sees that, because customers are the first ones to see what is missing in the offering that you have.

And the second I would say that I would take away from Jeff Bezos is the conviction and passion with what you do. And many times that goes against the conventional wisdom. And the Amazon Web Services is a great example of that. The whole world, including the Wall Street Journal and the Wall Street analysts were saying, this is none of Amazon’s business to do web services. But he was convinced that this is the right thing to do, and he went and did that.

And part of that conviction may come from experiments. Part of that conviction comes from connecting the dots that he could see that many other people didn’t see. I mean, that’s why he went, left his job, and went to Seattle to do the online bookstore, because he could see the macro trends as to what the Internet is likely to do. So, I think that’s the vision that he had. And once you have the conviction, then you follow your passion.

ALISON BEARD: Sunil, thanks so much for coming on the show.

SUNIL GUPTA: Thank you for having me. Alison.

HANNAH BATES: That was Harvard Business School professor Sunil Gupta, in conversation with Alison Beard on the HBR IdeaCast .

We’ll be back next Wednesday with another hand-picked conversation about business strategy from Harvard Business Review. If you found this episode helpful, share it with your friends and colleagues, and follow our show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. While you’re there, be sure to leave us a review.

And when you’re ready for more podcasts, articles, case studies, books, and videos with the world’s top business and management experts, find it all at HBR.org.

This episode was produced by Mary Dooe, Anne Saini, and me, Hannah Bates. Ian Fox is our editor. And special thanks to Maureen Hoch, Nicole Smith, Erica Truxler, Ramsey Khabbaz, Anne Bartholomew, and you – our listener. See you next week.

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