Marbie Barbies vs. Kengineers    

One of the first questions exchanged when college students are meeting each other for the first time is, “What’s your major?”. 

Here at Texas A&M University Galveston (TAMUG), you will not receive an answer more frequently than Marine Biology (MARB) or Engineering (with all of the subcategories, of course). 

Although these two groups comprise the majority of the campus, they rarely interact with each other. 

So we asked some students from these majors what they really think about the other. We worked together to gather responses from people belonging to each major and posted a Google form in addition to in-person interviews. Here are some of the responses and opinions we collected.

The questions were asked and answered as follows: “What do you think of the other major?” “Do you have anything to say to the opposing major?” and “Who do you think is better?”

Caden Guillot, engineering Class of 2027, said, “They’re more fun than engineers and nicer,” referring to the Marine Biology majors. Guillot said, ”The Marbie Barbies (Marine Biology Majors) are better!”.

 While we had a pretty wide range of replies, this one stuck out to us because Guillot said the opposing major was better. As Marbie Barbies ourselves, we love to see it!

An anonymous response from an engineering student said, “yall weird,” and the only words they had to say to the Marine Biology majors were “fake STEM.”. Cooper and I love the honesty; thank you, anonymous responder. 

Another anonymous response from a marine biology major reads, “Good major! Half I respect and half I don’t. WOMEN IN STEM FS!”. This anonymous student also wished engineers “Good luck with etam!”.

M.C., marine biology Class of 2028’, said they “think it’s cool that people want to pursue that career, but a lot of the ones that I’ve come across tend to think and/or act like they’re better than people in other majors.” M.C. also stated, “Just be chill. It’s genuinely not a competition with other majors; we’re just all trying to get through life.” We believe this is excellent advice that everyone should keep in mind! 

After looking at some responses from around campus, it’s apparent that the two are not quite as diametrically opposed as we hypothesized. Sure, there are some negative words being thrown and some sly remarks; however, a good number of the respondents looked past their primal instincts and appreciated their fellow Aggie for their choice and hard work. 

That being said, the results of the final poll about which of the two is the better major was won by the MARBs with a 61.5% to 38.5% margin. 

Interestingly, after reviewing and discussing the data, we noticed a betrayal. We interviewed the same number of people from each major, so it seems some of the engineers are biased towards the MARB students rather than being loyal to their own major. On behalf of the MARB majors, Cooper and I would like to thank you! Of course, thank you to all who participated, regardless of allegiance. 

The ultimate lesson of this short survey is that each of us are not as different as we might think and share quite a bit in common. There is also the potential that this proves that MARB majors are objectively superior, but that may require some follow-up studies.