Reading this blog post, by a young journalist who “regret[s] not majoring in economics,” got me thinking.
In a former life, I intended to become an English (i.e., anglophone literature) professor, and so I majored in English. After several years of Ph.D. work I came to think I’d probably have been more successful if I’d majored in classics instead.
Many college students, I suspect, assume that you major in X in order to have a career as an X. Biology majors become biologists (or maybe doctors), education majors become schoolteachers, etc.
But those of us long since graduated probably have a different view, and a different sense of how the disciplines work. So we can give odd advice:
[ul]
[li]If you want to be a journalist, major in economics.[/li][li]If you want to be a literature professor, major in classics.[/li][/ul]
What are some others?
Another way of putting it: which disciplines, whose merit you did not see while a student, are now proving valuable to your career?
Note: all terminology in this post is horribly US-biased. College = university. Major = principal field of study.
There are three copywriters at my office. I majored in history after spending two years as a math/physics major, and my interest in science gives me an advantage in writing and learning about technical subjects, while my interest in reading (fiction, non-fiction and technical) has given me a decent vocabulary and exposure to a variety of writing styles. My Japanese, however, is mediocre.
My boss majored in philosophy. He’s got a good knack for knowing what clients want and figuring out how to express his ideas. He’s also a very fluent Japanese speaker, but that was picked up completely on his own.
The third majored in Asian studies. He’s extremely fluent in Japanese, both spoken and written, but brings relatively little else to the table. Even after three years here, he’s often trying to catch up with my boss and me.
If you want to be a Web designer, major in journalism.
That’s what I did. Only I didn’t know I wanted to be a Web designer until I was just about to be done majoring in journalism.
Web sites, in general, need to be set up like a newspaper - get the best content “above the fold.” Stuff needs to be arranged properly. Grammar and spelling need to be fixed. Advertisers need to be tamed.
I use my journalism skills alot in Web design. And I even took a few Web design classes that worked towards my major.
I’m kind of stuck in this rut myself. I’m an English major, graduated a few weeks ago. Except there’s no job out there for me. I’ve applied to about 50 jobs since graduation.
yes, I know I should have applied to a lot of them earlier, but it’s looking like it wouldn’t have been promising then, either.
Actually, I think classics usually refers to the entire arena of Greek and Roman life–language, arts, culture, life. My school calls in Ancient Cultures or The Ancient World or somesuch. I’d have to check the course catalog to be sure. I do know that Latin and Greek aren’t offered as classes, though they do have a classics department. Go figure.
In my opinion as an English major who wants to be a literature professor someday (it will happen, dammit!), I’d say that classics/a major emphasizing Greek and Roman mythology would be hella useful to a somebody who wanted to study English literature. References to mythology abound in lit. Shakespeare, Tennyson, Joyce–all those dead white dudes and quite a few of the dead white chicks use mythological references freely. It would be especially useful if you wanted to get into some Joseph Campbell style hijinks (story cycles, the hero’s journey, etc.).
I think if you wanted to be an English professor, almost any undergrad degree would be useful, even the sciences. It all depends on what field of criticism you want to get involved in. My favorite professor started out as a biology major, decided she wanted to study world religions, and ended up being an English professor who does mostly comparative literature. If you wanted to study the American Renaissance and specialize in E.D.E.N. Southworth, then an American history undergrad with a minor in women’s studies might be useful. It’s probably most important to be intellectually curious and have an interest in a wide variety or fields. English: there’s more to it than independent clauses and dead white dudes with beards.
Well, this varies a bit depending on what parts of English literature you study, but classical education – you’re right, the knowledge of ancient Greek and Latin – carried an enormous cultural influence for a long period of English literary history, at least from the Renaissance to the mid-20th century. Rhetoric, drama, philosophy, politics: the Greeks and Romans largely got there first, and English literature is in part (but, of course, only in part) standing in their shadow, or on their shoulders.
IMHO.
Upon preview, I see Miss Purl McKnittington said it better.
If you want to be a computer programmer, get a master’s degree in librarianship. However, it is important that you do so during the early 1980s when library automation was becoming widespread, and also that following graduation you go to work for a small publishing company and start tweaking the citations database once you’re there. Oh yeah, and learn FORTRAN so you can work with the database software.
If you want to be a programmer. . .major in something other than CS.
Now, I don’t have my finger on the pulse of the industry or anything, but it seems that there’s much room for a guy who can just “program”.
Much like the journalist in that blog indicates that you might be better off learning something else because you can pick up the tools of the trade, that’s applicable to programming, too.
Major in physics, chemistry, math, statistics, biology, economics (or econometrics) and embrace programming along the way.
(And a couple nice anecdotes notwithstanding, don’t drop out of college. You won’t even be able to sniff a lot of jobs out there without a degree.)
My father the doctor says that if you want to be an M.D., major in Chemistry. Yes, Chemistry (not Biology). He gave this advice to a kid who wanted to go into med school outta college from my hometown and Joe, now a D.O., said it was the best advice he could have gotten.
Not first hand, but I’ve often heard it said if you want to be an FBI agent, major in accounting. Also prospective CIA agents should major in a foreign language.
Not just trading, but business consulting &/or administration. When I was at the college job fair, a lot of companies were looking for folks with a major in in a science / math / engineering and a minor in business admin (or finance, or econ, etc.). And a minor in a language doesn’t hurt.
Ditto that. I was also (briefly) considering Med School; I was told that my degree in Chem was a better route than Bio. (Although, I was also advised to have depth, thus I was working for minors in Bis Admin and German; see above.)
So, after all of that schooling, what am I doing? High School Science teacher taking a year off to get a masters in Physical Oceanography.
Do American CS programmes only focus on programming? Isn’t there any, you know, CS involved? I’ve read a number of things lately (not just your post) that seem to indicate that American CS programmes are more programming-centric than over here.
Possibly. Here’s the curriculum for a CS degree from the engineering school at my alma mater, which is generally recognized as one of the better ones. Do you have a link for something similar from the UK?
