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I assume you’ve come to MyMajors.com at least partially to try to figure out what you want to do with the rest of your life. And it is, to some small extent, my job to try to help you in that decision.
Well, I never really made the decision myself. I’ve ended up with a Computer Science Major, but I’m also planning on doing a concurrent degree in English Literature (and have been approved for it, thank goodness). From there, law is an option, or simply working as a freelance software engineer, or working for a tech company. The possibilities are generally out there in the open, unless I wanted to become a medical doctor or something like that…
However, there is some hope for me helping you yet!
First off, I apologize.
You may want to stop looking for that dream major. It doesn’t exist. You’re probably going to have to ‘settle’ in some ways, no matter what you do. I don’t love everything about Computer Science. There’s a lot of drudgery in there, and I have to work around my disagreements with some of my professor’s philosophies on computers. There’s a lot I don’t like about doing English in university.
But it’s a long shot better than taking chemistry or physics courses for me. I find psychology really interesting, but I don’t want to do it as a career. Neuroscience is great, but it’s a lot of work that I’d find drudgery and uncreative. I could go into education from an English degree. Engineering is also, to me, a lot of memorization of details that aren’t generally needed and are quickly forgotten (though I have a lot of respect for engineers, certainly). etc. etc.
People don’t generally stumble upon a dream major. It’s a matter of trial and error and figuring out what you don’t want to do. If you’re in an American school, you’re generally lucky in this aspect. We have to choose our major by U1 here at McGill and switching can be a major pain in the ass (no pun intended).
But don’t look upon this as an ugly process! Essentially, your brain is just ruling out everything else anyway. You’re just acknowledging the way you were already deciding (and you’ve probably already been deciding like this). Those people who have a ‘dream major’ may get a harsh awakening when they find it’s not all fun and giggles. That’s a beautiful thing. If parts of your life didn’t suck, there’d be nothing to which you could compare good times.
Also, I would strongly, strongly suggest getting a job in university. Don’t need the money? Don’t care. I don’t really ‘need’ the money either. But it doesn’t hurt, and it’s looks much better on a resume. I’m a first year at McGill, a level ‘0,’ actually, and I have a job. Doing research. With the prof who has pulled in the biggest single research grant in McGill history. (sorry if it seems like I’m bragging… I’m just trying to prove a point with my own story, here! but I am really happy about this too!) I’m also probably going to be working with some web design gigs in the summer.
I’m expendable, I know. Pretty much every student is. There are tons of computer science students (and immunology graduate students) who could line up for these jobs, but I got it because I get along well with the professor and the rest of the team, and I’ve already proven I’m willing to burn midnight oil and work my ass off if I think I’m doing something worthwhile (I argue my GPA shows I didn’t think most of my classes are worthwhile… not sure how well that argument will work for me in the future…).
Prove you’re willing to work hard and that you have focus. If you’re in computer science, do it by working on some OpenSource projects. I chose MuseScore, a music annotation program, and Zero-K, a real time strategy game. These make great practice.
I don’t know how you’d readily prove your skill and dedication in most fields… be creative! When it gets down to it, your professors know full well that your performance in your classes probably won’t match up well with your performance in ‘the real world,’ so you’re going to have to prove yourself to be a worthwhile asset with some other sort of work. Your grades are important, of course, but educational inflation is kind of making them obsolete. At McGill, we like to fail at least 20% of everyone in most science classes, and they still don’t seem to look at your grades that much. In America, grade inflation is rampant and professors admit to not really trusting grades anymore.
If you’re reading this, you’re probably a step ahead, taking some initiative. Feel good about it.
Another post with some actual tips coming soon!
Please forgive any grammatical errors or anything! This was truly a quick job between studying and work! The promised post should be a more devoted post with pictures and laughter.
