How to Choose the Wrong Major

by Dei Frazier

It's time to pick your college major. How do you know which major is the “right” one? Which major will give you the best shot at the career you want after college? Unfortunately, the answers can't be found in any curriculum guide or counselor's office. The answers can only be found within yourself.

Your degree is the culmination of one four-year phase of your life, not the dictator of what you will become after college. And though there are majors that are more common paths to certain professions, like biology to get into medical school, an art history major with the same pre-requisitesfor medical school can become a doctor too. It comes down to two things: finding your passion and gaining a skill set that will be transferable to many kinds of careers down the road.

If you are one of those people who has always known what you wanted to do with your life, you are likely not the person this article is written for. For the rest of us, choosing a major can be very challenging. What if you screw up and choose the wrong one? Truthfully, the only wrong major is one for which you have no interest or passion at all.

As a college career counselor, I have seen artists choose business majors in order to be “practical” and satisfy their parents, who were afraid they would not make a living as an artist. Consequently, these are the same students I see the later, failing their business courses or feeling as if they did not fit in. Invariably, they feel compelled to change majors.

There are, of course, exceptions to every rule, but students who choose majors for reasons other than deeply felt passions or interests, usually struggle the most in their studies. This happens because they have separated what motivates them from their educational experience. When you get the job you seek, it will likely be the result of the skill set and potential you bring to the table, rather than the major you chose in college.

Take a look around at some of the most successful people in the nation, and you will notice something interesting. Many of them are in careers that, at first glance, have nothing to do with their major in college. For example, Thurgood Marshall went to dentistry school and ended up on the U.S. Supreme Court. George W. Bush was a history major and became President of the United States. PGA Champion Tiger Woods was an economics major in college. Does this mean they wasted their money on a degree they could not use? Not at all. College is about discovering who you are, what you are passionate about and exposing you to a wide variety of experiences that enrich and enhance your life. With proper planning and just a little luck, it will be a stepping stone for future success and perhaps or the beginning of something phenomenal.

The truth is, careers are rarely linear. You may have heard that most people will have several careers in the course of their lifetimes. So focusing your college major on a single career doesn't make a lot of sense. It is probably smarter to look at which major gives you the skill set you want to develop and satisfies your interests.

Before choosing a major, take time to inventory your interests and passions, and know the difference between a job and a career-path. Then consider which major will serve you best by giving you the greatest flexibility, the largest number of job options, and the most useful skill set for a number of possible career-paths. And don't forget to have some fun with your major. Life is too short to spend four years of it studying something you hate.

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