Ample Time To Declare Majors

Reading Wednesday’s story about choosing majors, “Majors picked too hastily, BU students say,” I hope I can offer a little bit of opinion, and in doing so, offer the undergraduates a bit of advice from a recent BU grad.

Choosing a major, and then fulfilling the requirements, is probably the most important thing on any conscientious student’s mind. And rightfully so, but to an extent. I graduated in 2000 with a joint degree in computer science and mathematics. I now work for Sun Microsystems, doing a lot of work related specifically to things I learned in CS350 and 450, MA242 and MA293-294. Ideally, this is what happens when you graduate: you get a job applying knowledge you learned in college.

However, among my friends, siblings and parents, I’m the only person I know doing things directly related to stuff I learned as an undergraduate. My mother, who received a bachelor’s in biology, is now CIO of a healthcare provider in Boston. My friend, who received a degree in animation from Emerson College, works as a computer security specialist and network administrator. And a friend who received a political science degree at Boston College is now working in sales for a corporate information technology company.

Throughout college, I was told by thoughtful peers that college should not be “job training” and that one should pursue what one loves to do. What these insightful people didn’t realize is that what they proposed IS job training; people who want to be dancers should enter the dance program, painters should major in painting, writers in writing and journalists in journalism. The question never asked is, what happens if, five years from now, this path isn’t for you?

College should definitely be a time to expand one’s knowledge and think about things one is interested in. But students should recognize that tastes and interests don’t stop changing in college, and 10 years from now, your major may not be the field of study you’d like to investigate. To that end, choose majors that will allow you the greatest flexibility and opportunity to use the knowledge learned in other endeavors. For example, physics and mathematics have core concepts and principles that are viable across almost any technical field. I chose computer science and math because they had applications in operating systems, artificial intelligence, neuroscience and cryptography, things I was engrossed in during my school years.

To this end, I think BU provides ample time (two years) to investigate and choose a major, and you can always change it later. To say that two years is not enough time to discover if you have the interest and desire to pursue a course of study makes me wonder what those students are doing with their (supposed) learning years.