For some of us, the very common “What year are you?” isn’t an easy question to answer, but it’s what we hear all the time around campus, particularly when meeting new people. For example, I’m in my fifth year at the University of Arizona, but I’ve only achieved sophomore credit. I usually joke to people that I’m either a senior or a sophomore depending on what they want me to be. It’s a joke I’ve made a lot to help explain my situation, but people always press for more details.
During my first two years, I suffered from anxiety and depression that went largely untreated, and I was still in the closet as transgender. I dropped out several times, always coming back the next semester to try again and hope things would be better — which often took a long time.
This different college experience has led me to not think of college in terms of traditional class standings. Instead, to me, I’m an undergraduate working at credits towards my degree. Socially, however, that’s not an acceptable answer to “What year are you?” If you were to say “I’m an undergrad,” people would act like you’re dodging the question. For whatever reason, people want to classify you. It’s somehow better for them if you’re a freshman or sophomore as opposed to “an undergrad.”
I’m not the only person in my abnormal situation. I know several others who have needed extra years to earn a bachelor’s degree. I’ve also heard their complicated answers to “What year are you?” — answers that make me think that we don’t need to ask that question at all.
It’s time to ditch that question. When you meet somebody else on campus, in a club or in class, you don’t need to know what year they are because all of the years are kind of the same; we’re all just getting closer to graduation no matter how long that takes us, regardless of if we’re in our first semester, our third, or our eighth. All of us are working towards the same goal of graduating and going on to careers.
I ask that the next time you think to ask somebody their class standing, ask why you want to know, especially if it’s one of the first things you’re asking about them. I believe the answer is always to the aforementioned classification. I argue that classification has outlived its purpose. If a freshman is new to campus and thinks they need your help with something, it’s entirely possible that they’ll ask for your help — I imagine many of us have been in the position where a new student has asked for some backup.
That being said, the question comes off as invasive and presumptuous. If somebody wants you to know their class standing, they’ll offer that information up. That question carries more baggage for some people than others, yet we still use it as casually as “What’s your major?” or “How are you today?” and it’s time to retire the question.
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Kate is a student at the University of Arizona. She loves improv comedy and comic books.
