sakky

Huh indeed? Again the answer is simple - because you will graduate. Let's face it. You don't just go to college just for the sake of going to college. You go to college because you want to graduate and get a degree.

You say that as it that's so easy. Is it? If you go to MIT, try out a technical major, and do poorly, can you really go to another decent school? What decent school is going to take you as a transfer? Your academic record is trashed with bad grades. They won't admit you as a transfer.

Now, true, you can probably transfer to a low-ranked no-name school. But honestly, how many MIT students would really do that, if they could instead just stay and get a relatively easy degree at Sloan?

Wah indeed? I think almost everybody can relate. Graduating with some degree, even in a major you don't really care about, is better than not even graduating at all.

Look at it this way. Be honest. Look at all of the colleges across the country. How many poli-sci majors actually become professional political scientists? How many history majors actually become professional historians? How many sociology majors actually become professional sociologists?

Furthermore, people change their careers all the time. I believe CNN once estimated that the average American changes careers (not just jobs or employers, but entire careers) more than 3 times in a typical lifetime. Hence, it is highly likely that, sometime in your life, you are going to end up in a job that is unrelated to what you studied in college.

Look, nobody is saying that you should major in something you hate. But I think most people are fairly 'promiscuous' in their intellectual tastes. For example, I majored in ChemE. But I had interests in a great many subjects. For example, I also had interests in business, in history, in economics, in political science, and so forth. And of course I could have majored in something similar to ChemE like Chemistry, Materials Science or Physics. I probably would have enjoyed any of these majors.

I seriously doubt that you really are going to find a lot of people, even at MIT, who like one - and only one - subject and hate everything else. Students at MIT are pretty well rounded and have a multitude of interests.

And that's precisely the point I'm making. Sure, if want to pursue a technical major at MIT and can do well in it, then by all means do so. But my question is - what if you don't do well? I am fairly certain that most such people would rather major in Sloan than transfer to some low-ranked school. After all, most MIT people don't hate Sloan.