Choosing a major … Part 1

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.

Choosing a major … Part 2

In “Choosing a major … Part 1,” I discussed my belief that college students should hold off on declaring a major until they have sampled a variety of courses to determine what they are interested in (and good at). I also mentioned that parents (some of whom foot part or all of the tuition bill) can be wary of this method. These parents might encourage their children to major in business or pre-med or pre-law or computer science, which they view as practical subjects, rather than one of the humanities or social sciences.

I will use my father’s story as an example of the dangers of majoring in an academic discipline, not because of interest and ability, but because of economic prospects. Both my father and mother grew up during the Great Depression. My dad was one of three children raised for most of their childhood by a single mother who managed through hard work (and probably some help from her large family) to give them a decent life. In 1950, a few years after graduating from high school, my dad was a student at Baker University, a small liberal arts college in Kansas. I don’t know for certain what his major was, but some old letters suggest perhaps he was an English or humanities major (or at least had a strong interest in those subjects). Later in 1950, the Korean War intervened in my father’s life and he was compelled to join the U.S. Navy. By the war’s end, his life had changed dramatically. He was a veteran with a wife and young child. So when he went back to college (at Kansas University this time), he majored in Business Administration, a very practical field, and went on to a career as a financial auditor and contract negotiator with General Electric. It gave him a solid, middle-class income.

What’s wrong with this, you ask? My dad hated his job at GE. He despised it all his life, and I am convinced it was one of the significant factors in his subsequent alcoholism, which ruined his life and significantly damaged the rest of ours in the family. I often wonder if his life would have followed a better course had he studied and then worked in a field that truly interested him. Now, as painful as it was to grow up in this environment, let me assure you I learned two priceless lessons: 1.) I didn’t want to be an alcoholic; and 2.) I didn’t want to spend eight hours a day for 40 years working at a job that I hated, regardless of how much it paid.

Let me be clear -- there is nothing wrong with majoring in business, or any other field, so long as you have a genuine interest in it. But the next time your parents pressure you about what to major in because “we’re paying for these four years,” try this reply. “If I make the wrong decision in choosing a major, and end up miserable, I’ll be paying for the rest of my life.” And feel free to use my dad as an example.

© 2014 Bob Dial.  All rights reserved.