How To Pick Your Major/Minor
As students, we are pulled in a seemingly infinite amount of directions. Your dad might tell you to take computer science classes, your mom might want you to learn more visual art, you may want to be a psychologist, but you love learning about religion. We have so many options and so many influences when it comes to classes, but you can’t learn it all at once without some consequences.
In short, your tuition can get a steep increase if you go over a certain amount of hours before achieving your first degree. You may want to learn more, you may have no idea what you want to do, even if it’s second semester of your freshman year or your junior year. So, how can you solve this problem?
Gen Ed Courses: General Education is one way to get a true idea of a field and most colleges will force you to take it, so utilize it. A lot of students will just pick the easiest sounding classes, but that is limiting. Take what interests you, Intro To Film, Philosophy of Pop Culture, Sociology of Intimate Relationships, don’t waste your own time by not taking classes that interest you.
And you may say, aside from showing me different fields, why would I want to take Gen Ed classes? If I already know my major and my minor, then what is the point? Well, studies show that Gen Ed classes allow students to develop soft skills. Soft skills are incredibly important in any profession and Gen Ed wants to teach you these skills.
Declare Undecided: Why should you declare an undecided major? Because you are probably undecided. If you are not sure of your major, then do not major in it. When you are undecided, you can use your Gen Ed credits to take classes that interest you. If you declare a major you are unsure of, you may end up taking classes as a part of your university’s four-year plan, these credits may not transfer well from one major to another. So, let yourself be undecided and get to study what you are interested in.
Talk To Your Adviser: Why else would you have an adviser? These are the people that you have to see to schedule classes and they are also the people who understand the workings of your school’s academic system the best. My adviser has helped me through a great deal; she knew about law school, classes that were good to prepare for the LSAT, the easiest minors to get within my major, etc.
Just be honest with yourself and be honest with your academic adviser. They can and will help you, so send an email and let them know. They can help point you to a major that has your interests in mind, because that is one of their jobs.
Find A Minor: What if you have an idea of what career you are interested in, but there is something else you want to learn more about? Minor in it. This is your time and your hard work, and for a lot of us, it’s our debt. You don’t have to get the minor that goes directly with your major; if you are a business major, you don’t have to minor in economy. You can minor in photography or you can minor in statistics, whatever you want. Minors are important.
In an interview with Fastweb, Nancy Monti, a human resource professional with the Milwaukee Office of Extendicare Health Services, said, “Having a strong minor sends me a message: The student I am talking to went out of their way to give extra attention to something they really have an interest in.”
So, not only can a minor let you expand your learning, it can also show employers that you have passions and interests, even if they don’t pertain to the field you are going into.
Ask A Friend: If you are interested in a major, find someone who has that major and talk to them. They will tell you the truth about the ins and outs of a major: What professors to avoid, what it’s done for them, what they have learned, why they like it and what about it they do not like.
A music major may know something about how they have put theory to things that they had an intuitive understanding of, but they dislike that they have zero credit hour classes and carry more hours than most students. With that sort of knowledge, you can see if that major is what you want. That’s the good thing about being in school, you can meet people with similar interests and discuss them.
Google: If you have absolutely nowhere to start, then try Google. Find one thing you like and then build from there. If you like working with people, Google search careers that involve working with people, then Google search those options and find which ones may appeal to you. If you can’t even think of one thing that interests you, then find a quiz. It will ask you questions and then it will give you some majors that you should look into; from there, get as much information as you can. Research the major and ask friends about it.
Most importantly, do what is right for you. You are working hard for this — let the payoff be knowing about something that interests you and that you have a passion about.