One person is absent from school on holiday, and graduation photo is alone. Why is this major in Peking University like this?

As the saying goes, 360 lines make a champion.

Everyone was born in this world, with different families, different aspirations, different opportunities and different methods, so everyone has a completely different life. The German philosopher Leibniz said, "There are no two identical leaves in the world". Haruki Murakami, a famous Japanese writer, said, "Not every fish lives in the same sea".

The world is like a huge old tree. We are green leaves growing on this ancient tree, and each leaf has its own unique meridians. The world is like a piece of Wang Yang. We are creatures living in the ocean. Whether it's big fish, prawns or even aquatic plants, we can all have a completely different life.

If life is equal from birth, then learning is an accelerator, which can distance yourself from other runners in the long-distance running of life. The college entrance examination is an examination for the qualification of this accelerator.

There are 100 million students in China who study hard all the year round. They want to enter their dream university, choose their major of interest, and then shine in their own fields. But in fact, only a few students can really enter the top universities every year, and even fewer can successfully get their favorite majors.

In choosing a major, China students' thoughts are actually relatively inertia and fixed. In the eyes of family members, the meaning of reading is nothing more than survival, better job, higher salary and more stable guarantee. Therefore, in the journey of life, most parents are very cautious when choosing their major.

Some people hope that their children can be admitted to civil servants; Some people hope that he can engage in scientific research ... In the fierce struggle between dream and reality, economics, medicine and law have become hot majors.

Of course, some people choose less popular majors, but a large part of students with less popular majors have to make such choices because of their low admission scores.

Have you ever seen an unpopular major in the prestigious "Six Generations of Single Biography"? Yes, in a prestigious school like Peking University, there is such a major that only one person is recruited nationwide every year. Difficulties in graduation and employment have become its biggest labels. This major is paleontology.

The most mysterious major

There are only three universities offering paleontology in China: Shenyang Normal University, Nanjing University and Peking University. Among them, Nanjing University only starts enrolling students once every two years.

So, what complicated and lengthy contents does this mysterious major need to learn to make colleges and universities so empty?

In fact, the research direction and research area of paleontology are very broad. Although it seems to be a subject of studying history from the name, it belongs to the category of science and engineering in a real sense. That is, the derivative product of "biology", a popular major in science and engineering. There are three main directions in paleontology research: biodiversity research in geological history, systematic evolution of various organisms, paleoenvironmental climate and geology.

It sounds professional and complicated, and it's true. Generally choose paleontology research, so the future work direction is almost opposite to the popular major.

Popular majors, such as finance, will choose to be executives, finance or investment companies in the future; Doctors come out of medicine, and judges or lawyers come out of law.

These majors have a strong employment purpose. However, the purpose of paleontology research is relatively small. It is difficult for students majoring in paleontology to find professional jobs after graduation, so they generally choose to develop in scientific research.

Like most other majors, paleontology requires students to study at school for four years. The paleontology major of Peking University is very strict in recruiting and assessing students.

Every year in the college entrance examination, only one person is recruited for the paleontology major in the country. What's more, the score of paleontology major is 140, of which 32 is required for public courses and 16 for other elective courses. The subjects to be studied are very complicated, including advanced mathematics, social science and history. The span can be said to be very large, which undoubtedly causes great difficulties for students' study. Many students choose to give up this subject because it is too difficult to study professional courses successfully.

A rare student

As mentioned above, Peking University has always pursued the policy of "strict entry and strict exit" for the enrollment of paleontology majors, which means that there is usually only one graduate of paleontology major in Peking University every year.

This creates a very interesting situation. Students from other majors occasionally skip classes and will not be discovered by their own professional teachers. Once the students majoring in paleontology skip classes, it means that all paleontology teachers are on vacation.

Of course, this is just a harmless joke. After all, those who can be admitted to Peking University are high-level talents with excellent self-control and will not skip classes casually.

Then, after graduation, will these students majoring in paleontology be "unable to move" in society because their majors are too unpopular?

In 2008, Peking University began to specialize in paleontology, and several famous graduates were excellent. For example, Zhang Boran, a paleontologist from Peking University, who graduated from 20 10, got excellent grades in school, and got a high score of six credits in his thesis. Later, he was successfully admitted to Berkeley, a world famous university.

Xue Yifan, who graduated from 20 14, is more interesting. After graduating from Peking University, majoring in paleontology, he chose to study computer biology at Carnegie Mellon University, which is considered to have completed his career change.

One of the most famous students is Ernst & Young Rui, who participated in the variety show "Let's Talk" a few years ago. In this program, he introduced in detail some characteristics of this six-generation single transmission major. For example, at that time, he said that the biggest feature of this major was "loneliness and fun".

In fact, whether it is an unpopular major or a popular major, as long as you have a heart that loves learning, gold can shine everywhere. Do what you want and pursue what you want while you are young. Even if you fail, life is not without a chance to start again. Dreams are not far from the sky and the moon. As long as we reach out, we can touch them. All we have to do is to be young forever and always have tears in our eyes.