How to relate to your undergrad

I saw this popular image- Is the glass half-full- on a friend’s Facebook post and immediately thought of my students who have yet to declare a major.  Whether you counsel or advise college students, parent them, or just are one, this nagging concern will not go away.

There are those among us who believe they know what they will be when they grow up and have no such angst.  But for the rest of us, might I suggest some factors to consider.  First of all so many in the current generation will not have the one and only career or two before they are through, but dare I say three or more?  Going by that premise perhaps the best choice is to find a study that you 1) can excel in 2) have a passion for, and 3) will expose you a broad set of knowledge that could benefit you in several different areas.

While figuring out what you are good at could be fairly simple – having “passion” for school is not.  It is quite a tricky hill to climb and often involves a fear that time will be lost, irrecovable time, major hopping with little  or nothing to show for it in the end (beyond massive debt).  So this should be where some amount of investment of effort could pay real dividends.  There are books, very helpful ones, that can steer a person to what they would be most attracted to.  Surveys can be found in the career counselling office or online.  The military has been using them successfully for  decades.  These are not failsafe, and the person who says ‘I do not know at all what I want to do’ can find frustration instead of the answer that was hoped for.

Which leads to the third aspect of the decsion.  Subjects that expose you to broad areas often avail you of the chance to learn about unfamiliar fields which you could transition into with some minor adjustments.

Employers agree that the degree you select should develop your communication skills.  It should also bring out your creative juices.  Hopefully it will help you learn to adapt to changing circumstances, to think critically, and to solve the problems in front of you.  And if you want to know why professors keep giving group assignments, the answer is that to be successful in business you will not only participate in cooperative teamwork, but you will collaborate with others who need you as much as you need them.

While this is the short list, it is enough for you to begin your search.  Here is a list of some of the degrees that are believed to bring out the greatest amount of skills useful for the widest range of professions. So look them over and find one that lines up with your scores in the first two areas mentioned above.  Don’t worry if this list doesn’t work for you.  Just pick one of the other degrees that interests you and see to it that you can get more than a diploma from the experience.

1. Engineering

2. Business

3. Educating

4. Nursing

5. Finance

6. Web Design

7. Computer Science

8. Biotechnology

9. Accounting & Applied Math

10. Environmental Science