Question for the college grads...

Visirale · #1 10-14-2008, 08:04 AM

Did you ever get to a point in your college career where you realized what you were doing just wasn't working out and you were trying to put a square peg in a round hole?

I've been all over the place since I started. I came in as a music major, then spent my second semester taking courses from all around. This semester (fall sophomore year) I thought I was going to commit to economics/international business. I find it very interesting, but I'm just not doing well, and that's tough for me since I'm not used to that at all. It's not that I'm not capable, it's that I just don't really enjoy the actual work behind it. I love talking about why the market is going up and down but I hate crunching numbers in accounting. I love talking about the economy, but I hate spending hours analyzing graphs in my economics classes.

Between that, and having a pretty much worst case scenario class (8 am with a professor who is new who gives tests that I'm not good at taking) I'm doing pretty bad right now. In order to salvage my GPA this semester I'm probably going to have to withdraw from a class and take another pass/fail.

Can I salvage this semester and chalk it up as a bad experiment? I needed to try to see if the business path would work. I'm much better at writing-based humanities courses. I think I'm going to switch to a sociology major then maybe go to law school. I have plenty of credits so far (I brought a lot in from HS) so I'll have no problem graduating on time. I'll just have this semester with a withdrawal and a pass/fail, so that might look bad, but at this point I need to do what I need to do...

Opinions? I'm just looking for someone to tell me that all is not lost and this is somewhat normal... I just feel pretty crappy right now.

SpectorBass308 · #2 10-14-2008, 08:08 AM

Yeah, in your first years of college its not unusual to change your major alot. I'm majoring in History but I'm sure that will change. If your having trouble with homework and tests try taking only one or two hard classes at a time and then taking other classes that aren't so hard; like music or oceanography. There are a lot of classes out there that are needed for your AA that are pretty dang simple and easy. So try to pair up easy classes with hard classes that way you can take 4 or 5 classes but they wont all be super hard and stressful.

DudeistMonk · #3 10-14-2008, 08:39 AM

I switched majors 3 times.

First I was comp sci (I loved computers I took comp sci classes in HS breezed through my 101's) but I hit a will with advanced math and advanced comp sci (teachers who where dry and could barely speak english, insane number cruching)

Then I went to nursing (big money and a huge market for that), I was an EMT so I could do the actual work, it was the math and science that killed me again (mind you I love theoretical science, astronomy, geography...but I have no patience for high math). So I was excited about the work but not about the degree, and quit that.

By fluke I got a job working on the college website, I realized HTML, CSS and Flash allowed me to program without all the math, and I switch to comm arts (closest thing to a web degree) and started taking design classes, which really unlocked my creative side, which in turn got me back into music, the classes where all a breeze, and I got a ton of them waved. So it turns out I was right about wanting to work in computers it just took me awhile to find out that I was more into interface design and front end programming, then database queries and memory addresses.

I just graduated (after getting a full ride from the college website) and now I'm making $52,000 a year developing websites for lawyers.

Unrepresented · #4 10-14-2008, 08:45 AM

Stuck to my major. Realized I hated writing essays but other than that never had any change of heart.

I had applied to a few schools under a few different majors, everything from religious studies to anthropology, rhetoric, and a few others. Ended up choosing the one (UCSD) I'd applied to as a communications major, and found the fit was good.

kesslari · #5 10-14-2008, 08:49 AM

All is not lost. I took a year off in college. The "you'll never go back" is hooey - if you're motivated, you will (not saying you need to take a year off). My way of saying I went through a bunch of confusion before I settled it all out and graduated.

Armueller2001 · #6 10-14-2008, 09:02 AM

It'd probably be a heck of a lot easier finding a decent paying job with a business degree than a humanities degree.

Visirale · #7 10-14-2008, 09:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Armueller2001

It'd probably be a heck of a lot easier finding a decent paying job with a business degree than a humanities degree.

36% of Harvard's MBA students were humanities majors, only 20ish percent got undergrad business degrees.

Also, humanities make for an easier transition into law school if I decide to go that path.

But for finding a job right out of undergrad, I'd agree with you.

Linas · #8 10-14-2008, 09:38 AM

Im an undergrad right now, senior year, switched my major a couple times now im stuck in bio science pre-dental. Im hating it. The material is so tough, and some stuff i find interesting but anything math related really turns me off because i pretty much suck at it. Im staying with it as long as i dont fail out. I have two more years left, and im really struggling with keeping my grades up. I have decided to F the good grades, get C's, get my degree, and get a job, or go to any grad school that will accept me.

DudeistMonk · #9 10-14-2008, 10:00 AM

Quote:

36% of Harvard's MBA students were humanities majors, only 20ish percent got undergrad business degrees.

Also, humanities make for an easier transition into law school if I decide to go that path.

But for finding a job right out of undergrad, I'd agree with you.

Humanities is a lot harder to work in unless you have a masters and even then professors don't exactly get paid all that much.

Math, sciences, business....all that stuff is insta job.

fitbass3p · #10 10-14-2008, 10:04 AM

I switched majors 5 times in undergrad before I finally found what it is that I wanted to do, and was finally able to find something that I enjoyed, and could get paid for. It's a setback, for sure, but cmon...your happiness for the rest of your life is well worth hitting a couple bumps in the short run. If you put your effort into it, eventually you'll find what it was you were looking for the whole time, and that's basically priceless.

WorkinOnIt · #11 10-14-2008, 11:30 AM

All is not lost and this is normal.

After 2 years of partying and not focusing on studies, I got booted (scholastic dissmissal) from my first university. Instead of going back to a different school and potentially wasting more of my parents money, I decided to just work for a year and live at home. After 1 year of manual labor working at a sailboat shop that was enough to convince me to get a degree and hit the books with a f***ing vengeance. No way I was going back to that. Taking a crappy job for a year can be a huge motivator.

One of the things that helped me out was taking an aptitude test before going back to school. I scored high in some area that led me to try programming. This was back in the mainframe COBOL days. I took to that like a fish to water and the rest was history. Although right now I would not recommend programming to anyone in the U.S.

Sometimes the aptitude tests are not so helpful, but in my case it made all the difference. Good luck in finding your path. It takes a couple of false starts sometimes. Just find something where your talents/passion intersect. Like others, my math skills and talent were just not there so I had to find something technical I enjoyed without all the bs of higher mathematics.

DudeistMonk · #12 10-14-2008, 11:32 AM

Quote:

One of the things that helped me out was taking an aptitude test before going back to school. I scored high in some area that led me to try programming. This was back in the mainframe COBOL days. I took to that like a fish to water and the rest was history. Although right now I would not recommend programming to anyone in the U.S.

Last I checked back end web programming was in huge demand, database stuff, PHP, RUBY all supposed to be paying top dollar right now. Am I wrong?

MCBTunes · #13 10-14-2008, 11:43 AM

Yeah whats with not recommending Computer Science to people in the US?

WorkinOnIt · #14 10-14-2008, 02:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MCBTunes

Yeah whats with not recommending Computer Science to people in the US?

Shoot, take what I say with a grain of salt I suppose. My IT job was offshored and I had the distinct displeasure of training my replacement. So, my perspective may be a bit glum and still licking my wounds over that.

I would still recommend CS to anyone in college, especially majoring in systems analysis-level functions. However, I would just also advise on the state of affairs I have personally seen that the further from the customer you are (lower-level coding, back-office support, etc.) the higher the prospect your job can be done somewhere else. Just stating the facts and what was told to all of us by management. Just sayin'.

I would just advise anyone going into CS to realize the bigger corporate shops are farming out the more technical programming jobs to cost-advantaged countries. Am I wrong? I don't think this is news to anybody. Again, I am probably biased from my own experiences with this. CS is still great and I'll try to stay in it as long as I can...

My own personal experience has been within the IT shops of a few big oil companies. In these shops, the lower-level technical programming has already been moved overseas, or is on the way. Your experience may differ of course.

Perhaps smaller and mid-level companies are not offshoring at the rate the larger corp shops are. Best of luck to you no matter what you end up doing.