Over the last several years, particular emphasis has been placed on careers in the STEM fields, with the humanities taking a backseat. Now, the tides are changing as the government places less value on scientific fields of study. One student found this to be true when applying to Ph.D. programs.
Keke, a TikTok user known as @blondebiochemistshared some disturbing news in a video. “Reading my graduate program decisions stating that they are fully pausing PhD applications because my entire field is being defunded, meaning I no longer can continue my career or education at all,” she said.
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Naturally, commenters had some strong opinions and reactions to this information. One user assumed they knew what Keke’s field of study was, leaving a comment that said, “Nobody needs a PhD in gender studies.” Keke was quick to correct them with the truth.
“Diva, you are probably, like, the twentieth man to comment this on my last video,” she said. “If you had enough brain cells to read the caption, you would know that I’m a biochemistry major going to biochemistry PhDs.” She continued, “This isn’t talking about gender studies or liberal arts or anything — not that that’s a bad thing anyway. This is talking about medicine, cancer research, biomarker discovery — life-changing research.”
Keke had some wise words for this “diva” who didn’t take the time to understand what she was really saying. “Imagine assuming that I’m in a field for gender studies or women’s studies because I’m a woman,” she said sarcastically. “I’m actually a baddie in STEM. So, thanks, stay mad.”
Keke followed up her first two videos with another one thanking people who shared their personal experiences in the world of biochemistry and science. She also had some encouragement for those in similar situations to her.
“I also wanna address the people who are going into their freshman year as biochemistry majors or high schoolers who are interested in biochemistry, and they were commenting, and their parents were commenting, ‘Should I give up and not pursue this field?’” she said. “And my answer to that is absolutely not. Do not let this stop you from doing biochemistry or chemistry or any science.”
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“Yes, it is a very difficult time, specifically in research,” she admitted. In spite of this, Keke suggested students stand their ground and study what they are interested in. She thought not doing so is “probably the worst thing you can do in this case because it’s kinda giving into the government’s idea of ‘we don’t need scientists,’ which, we most definitely need scientists.”
Keke also shared that she knew the field she was going into was “very saturated,” but she never imagined something like this happening. “I knew it was a very difficult field to get into, but I did not expect them to fully stop accepting any students and rescinding acceptances because of the funding issues,” she explained.
“This was the one field that they said, ‘Go be a STEM major! You’ll make money as a STEM major! It’s the only stable field,” she said helplessly. “And then the government’s fully taking it away.”
NBC News reported on a National Institutes of Health policy introduced by the Trump administration that would “slash federal spending on the indirect costs that keep universities and research institutes operating.” A judge has temporarily halted the policy. However, it is far from the only attack on scientific funding.
In the meantime, students like Keke are left hanging in the balance, waiting to see what the future holds for their hard-sought-after careers.
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Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.
