A question students are often asked when they tell someone their major is “What are you going to do with that?” That is the wrong question. What should be asked is “What do you want to do? How can you demonstrate through your major, your experiences, and your skills that you can do it?”
Choosing a major is not choosing a career. Our experience in the Center for Advising, Internships & Lifelong Career Development has allowed us to observe that there is often little relationship between the major and the career. Our graduates go on to work in virtually every sector of the economy. We have seen biology majors go into law, Spanish majors go into business, and religion majors work in government. Our alumni are constantly telling us the value of their major and of their liberal arts degree in the workplace.
Our advice to most students is to select a major that they will enjoy learning about, a major where they can relate well to the professors, get the best grades possible, and have the capability of accomplishing other academic, leadership and experiential goals. Students should think about what interests them generally and try to get summer jobs, internships and other experiences which will help them develop a career focus.