One of the important decisions college students face is choosing a major field of study, known as a major. Most schools require students to settle on a major by the end of their sophomore year. Some students come to college with a definite major in mind; others sample courses and decide what they want to study based on their interests and aptitudes.
Even though I arrived as a college freshman in 1982 with my major pre-determined (English), I am a believer in the other method. I think it benefits students to take a broad cross-section of courses across disciplines and thereby discover what they should major in. But be forewarned, sometimes parents who are paying the tuition bill frown on this method -- what looks to them like wasted time (although it is not -- more about that subject to follow in a later post).
While I’ve got your attention, let me put in a plug for the much-maligned English major. One tiresome myth that circulates is that English majors can’t find jobs. My own experience as an English major has been the opposite; I have never been out of work. And that includes years spent in the private sector as a newspaper reporter and editor before I became a tenured public school teacher in my early forties. By contrast, I have acquaintances in other fields, major-account sales executives and senior computer-systems engineers among them, who have endured long stretches of unemployment and subsequent hardship.
Remember -- no matter the business -- the ability to communicate with power and precision never goes out of style. Communication is still the domain of the human mind. The computer has not yet been invented that can spontaneously create the works of Shakespeare. If such a machine existed, we would have many more captivating plays to see.
© 2014 Bob Dial. All rights reserved.
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