How Did You Choose Your Undergrad Degree?

[fides' Jack]

Hm... Yeah, I always thought I'd be a writer, but then I discovered that it doesn't matter.

So I'm not sure if my vote counts, since I'm an under-undergrad (on my way toward my associates'). I took ten years off to make money and have free time after high school, and then my career decided my focus for me. Now I'm a web developer, studying toward my AS (next BS) in Computer Science, which is definitely a direction I did not see myself going before. And really, the only reason I'm going to school at all is to help support my new family. Without that reason, what is school for? To learn how to succeed in this world, which is something I never cared to do.

Sigh... now for my homework...

[Ephrem Augustine]

I didn't chose my undergrad degree, our bishops did, and im happy to comply
BA in Philosophy

[sixpence]

i decided i like to watch bugs do things, so I picked entomology

[mommas_boy]

[quote name='icelandic_iceskater' timestamp='1284854076' post='2174391']
Fall break 2010--this is when I more or less need to decide my major. Once I return from that temporary relief from insanity, I will be registering for spring classes. Since I have most of my required courses out of the way, I will either have to start taking classes within my major or take whatever sounds good and give up the possibility of a double-major. The problem is, I really have no idea what I actually want to do with my life. I'd love to major in quite a few different things if I could, but actually entering the working world sounds less than exciting. Hmm deedle dum

My question to yall is:

1) How did you decide what you're undergad degree was?

2) How did this fit into your career?
[/quote]


1) My undergrad was in "Chemistry Education". I knew that I wanted to teach, and also knew that I wanted to teach a science. I picked chemistry because I was (a) good at it, and (b) because it is the "central science" with connections to both physics and biology. I figured that a background in chemistry would make the other two "hard sciences" very accessible for me to teach, also.

2) Well, I'm still trying to figure out where my career is. I currently teach at a Catholic school, but the pay won't be able to support me and my fiancee once we are married. So, I'm probably going to be looking for a job once this school year is over, unfortunately. I really do love where I'm at, though.

[txdinghysailor]

Well, I knew I loved drawing boats and I wanted to work with boats and cool stuff like that so I chose Naval Architecture/Marine Engineering

[little_miss_late]

[quote name='MaterMisericordiae' timestamp='1285018355' post='2174928']
This is what I am seriously considering. I want to major in music but I am so close to transferring to the university and I doubt I will graduate from beginner level on the flute to advanced in that time (less than a year). Someone suggested I major in English and minor in Music, which I thought of and it seems like a really good idea. I want to be a writer and a musician. I love playing my flute and I practice all the time. But I was also looking at the poetry I've written over the years and I have really been encouraged to continue to develop my skill and talent and be a professional poet. I also think it would be really interesting to learn how to write fiction. Agatha Christie and Louisa May Alcott are two of my favorite writers. Both are very different, but I enjoy reading them both because of their creativity in their books.
[/quote]

I was lucky enough to be in a very good and very small program. We got to work with a lot of visiting writers and had the opportunity to ask them questions and get a sense of what it was like to work as a writer. If you can take classes where your skills as a writer, not just a poet, are really being developed, then again, those skills will transfer to many different jobs. You just have to convince the prospective employer that you will not be writing poetry at your desk, and in fact you can also improve the copy on their website.

I write for a living but I don't write creative stuff for a living. I write boring stuff for a steady paycheck. Don't get me wrong, I like my job a lot, but it's a far cry from professional poet.

I think you should learn as much as you can about everything you can in college. Yes, make yourself marketable-- don't go into debt and expect to pay off all your student loans writing poems-- but also let it be a time of learning and growth.

[Fragments]

There seem to be a majority of arts students here, I have wondered about that before, as science and religion are 'supposed' to find it hard to mix. Glad to see a few Catholic scientists here.

[virginiancatholic]

I love being with people and helping them...so nursing was quite a natural thing to choose. The book learning was a pill, and the end goal (serving others) was the only reason I stuck it out.

[dominicansoul]

I wanted to major in photography and graphic art, but I stood in the wrong line and got signed up for journalism instead.

I partied all through college and didn't take anything seriously enuff...so, journalism it was! (I never changed it...)

[LaPetiteSoeur]

I took Latin for a year in HS and HATED it. Thankfully, I switched to French, which I loved.

But I couldn't decide. Should I study Western Civilizations? Or French?

I chose both! Because I want to be a teacher, it works out well. Don't major in something that you can't do anything with. English is always a goodie, because there's teaching, general business--have to know how to write and speak and be literate!

If you're good in a particular subject (or were in HS), see if there's anything for that.

Dieu vous benisse et bonne chance!

[BG45]

I took a lot of computer courses in high school, so people told me the Computer Security majors at a local college made a lot of money upon graduation. So I went that track, with a Computer Forensics minor. Well two years in, that wasn't working out so hot, so I switched to Criminal Justice and kept my minor, feeling it was close enough. I won a number of awards, I had presented nearly a dozen times at regional and national conferences and had memberships with two professional organizations. How did that change factor into my career plans? Well I couldn't find a job after applying to dozens of places around the country, so I went back to get my Masters in Criminal Justice. Same thing when I graduated with it, except now I was overqualified instead of underqualified like before. Which brings us to working on the Ph.D. in Criminology now...hoping to teach or consult now.

Before all I wanted was to simply be a cog in the machine for the state or federal government and have good benefits. Now I feel like it would be worthwhile to give back some and help guide the next generation of undergrads. I've been working a lot this semester in advising, which has been probably the most challenging job I've ever had in academia, but probably the most rewarding job I've ever had period. I was ready for questions about how many hours could be taken, or how to switch majors and declare minors. Then you get really interesting stuff: How do my parents get travel visas from Bulgaria to come to my graduation? (Can you give me an hour to call a few offices on campus and perhaps the State Department or Bulgaria's diplomatic mission to the United States?) Does my 104-R form count as a contractual agreement? (Yes it does, it counts as a contract between you and the Secretary of the Army.) Why didn't X class transfer in as what I thought it would? (Depends on the class subject and contractual inter-university agreements.) I'm interested in working on my Masters but I can only do so online and I know we don't offer a fully online program here, what should I do? (Not even touching this, it's another good two or three paragraphs.) And my personal favorite is when folks and their parents come in with questions, because compared to even Sophomores, the high school seniors still care and are excited to be there! Really, nothing brightens the day like the feeling you really are helping someone to decide, even if in the course of the talk they decide they want another field.

Also MS picked a point I'd not have considered on the pre-reqs in undergrad. I know at my university I was originally at, you had to have an additional three research and stats based courses to even apply for grad school...really glad I took them "just in case".

[MithLuin]

I wanted a degree that would give me options to go into a variety of careers when I graduated, and one that would not [i]require[/i] an advanced degree - I wanted to be able to work with a bachelors.

I was going back and forth between Chemical Engineering and Biology, so those two considerations pushed me towards the former.

I ended up getting a bachelors of Chemical Engineering with minors in Biology and History, and from there became a high school science teacher. So, I now teach biology I'm glad I got the engineering degree rather than the science degree, but [i]especially[/i] glad I didn't get an education degree as an undergrad. It's worth a lot more to me as a Masters.