Your Guilt-Free College Major

Sun, 14 Oct 2012 19:37:00 -0400

I know UMBC students who have chosen their majors based on what they believe they are supposed to do. In many cases they just know that they have to be practical, or fulfill the expectations of their elders, or both. And sometimes this just knowing causes them a lot of angst, because they also know, at some deep level, that what they really want from their lives is something else.

Not everyone faces this inner conflict; I've also met a great many students who are perfectly happy with their majors. But I identify with the ones who are struggling, because I know their situation very well. I chose my college major (Economics) for what I now view as too narrow a reason: I found the exams relatively straightforward and intuitive, and I wanted to protect my GPA, because I already just knew that I was supposed to go to law school. Exploring different areas of knowledge was not a high priority for me. But it would become a priority much later, once I discovered that what I had just known was, for me, completely wrong. By then I had finished law school and faced years of loan payments, soul-searching and career reboots.

In hindsight, if I could have dispelled what I just knew and chosen a major without the crushing burden of responsibility and guilt, and without being limited to the actual menu of majors at my college, I would have chosen to major in Democracy. My guilt-free major would have featured courses in history, philosophy, education, economics, psychology and political science, and opportunities to reflect on the experiences I was having in student government. That would have fascinated me and, as I know now, might have set me on an easier path to happiness and fulfillment.

So what's your guilt-free major (or, if you're a college graduate, what would it have been)? Share here, and I'll reflect on your responses in a future post and make some suggestions. Consider using this format:

My actual major is/was __________________.

My guilt-free major would be _______________,

featuring classes about __________________,

because _____________________________.

It's perfectly OK to respond by saying "I don't know." When I was in college (and didn't yet have the benefit of hindsight), that definitely would have been my response. If it's yours, try explaining why it's a challenge for you to figure it out.

--David Hoffman