Leveraging a College Degree
From the time you can speak, people are trying to teach you things. You go through your formative years hearing, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" And because you're so young you only know what people have said to you as your average job vocabulary, "I want to be a nurse! I want to be a teacher! I want to be a doctor!" You get into middle school and you start hearing this college word more and more. You really start thinking about what you want to do, and if you're lucky your middle and high schools are preparing you and teaching you all of the potential industries to go into. You think you have an idea so you pick a college and the biggest decision after that is narrowing your major. Your major is everything. It's what defines you, right? It's what outlines your path in life, correct?
I'm not so sure.
I'm someone who went in thinking, "I just need to make it to college, I'll figure the rest out later," because no one else in my family had made it that far. I remember that first week as a new psych major, when I learned that my long time friend and new freshman year roommate was a "Music Industry Major" and I was blown away that that was actually an option. I was so unprepared.
When I realized that I didn't want to spend 10 years in painful research mode, I switched to an English & Textual Studies major because hey, I like to read. When I couldn't hack all the literary theory behind it all, I switched to being a Speech Communication major. It was all about communication, pr, leadership, public speaking - and it was a jack of all trades kind of major that I already had a bunch of credits in. It's pretty safe to say that for 4 years I was just taking classes that were interesting, made me well rounded, and were hopefully easy.
Getting the Most out of Your Degree
Your degree doesn't define you. Whether you have a 3.8 or a 3.0 won't matter 1 year out of college. If you're the average person, (not a career academic), don't waste away your college years agonizing over getting that perfect A. If you get an A- or a B+, or even a D in some classes, most people won't know or care.
What matters is the experiences and activities you have and do during that 4 year time span. That degree just proves that you're educated. It's a pass into the working world to be a professional, make money, have more opportunities. When you have internships, student activity leadership roles, jobs, or volunteering extras on your resume I am 100% of the time going to pick that person over someone with a 4.0 to work for me. You bring more to the table, you (ideally) know how to talk to people and interact in sales/marketing/networking situations.
The degree & the major attached to it is only a small part of the full package.
A major is a guideline. Steers you into some specialties or gives businesses a framework of where you're coming from. I was a person who had 3 majors in college that had absolutely nothing to do with her first job. Funny part about this story? I had no idea what a Music Industry major was that first week in college, but I went on to work for the #1 Talent Agency in the world, and worked hard to work for one of the biggest music agents in the entire business. How did I get my foot in the door? Well, it was all because my internships/student activities were music related.
So just remember, picking a college major IS important, but you're not stuck in that area for the rest of your life. Enjoy your 4 years, join groups, get internships, learn more about yourself that way. When you graduate let your major be the last thing that interests people.
I'm not so sure.
I'm someone who went in thinking, "I just need to make it to college, I'll figure the rest out later," because no one else in my family had made it that far. I remember that first week as a new psych major, when I learned that my long time friend and new freshman year roommate was a "Music Industry Major" and I was blown away that that was actually an option. I was so unprepared.
When I realized that I didn't want to spend 10 years in painful research mode, I switched to an English & Textual Studies major because hey, I like to read. When I couldn't hack all the literary theory behind it all, I switched to being a Speech Communication major. It was all about communication, pr, leadership, public speaking - and it was a jack of all trades kind of major that I already had a bunch of credits in. It's pretty safe to say that for 4 years I was just taking classes that were interesting, made me well rounded, and were hopefully easy.
Getting the Most out of Your Degree
Your degree doesn't define you. Whether you have a 3.8 or a 3.0 won't matter 1 year out of college. If you're the average person, (not a career academic), don't waste away your college years agonizing over getting that perfect A. If you get an A- or a B+, or even a D in some classes, most people won't know or care.
What matters is the experiences and activities you have and do during that 4 year time span. That degree just proves that you're educated. It's a pass into the working world to be a professional, make money, have more opportunities. When you have internships, student activity leadership roles, jobs, or volunteering extras on your resume I am 100% of the time going to pick that person over someone with a 4.0 to work for me. You bring more to the table, you (ideally) know how to talk to people and interact in sales/marketing/networking situations.
The degree & the major attached to it is only a small part of the full package.
A major is a guideline. Steers you into some specialties or gives businesses a framework of where you're coming from. I was a person who had 3 majors in college that had absolutely nothing to do with her first job. Funny part about this story? I had no idea what a Music Industry major was that first week in college, but I went on to work for the #1 Talent Agency in the world, and worked hard to work for one of the biggest music agents in the entire business. How did I get my foot in the door? Well, it was all because my internships/student activities were music related.
So just remember, picking a college major IS important, but you're not stuck in that area for the rest of your life. Enjoy your 4 years, join groups, get internships, learn more about yourself that way. When you graduate let your major be the last thing that interests people.