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ticklemepink · 05-05-2008, 10:06 PM

I had always been interested in cultures and people behavior. I took a lot of APs in high school and after AP Psych and econ, I knew that I would never want to take another class in those areas again (econ was too analytical, psych was all common sense with techincal vocab). But I was still interested in history- I knew I wanted to try majoring history when I got hooked on AP Euro while studying for the AP exam in 10th grade.

But when I got to college, I heard other history majors wanna-bes talk about going to law school, I was like "yeechhh!!! I don't want to be a history major for THAT!" So I took Russian lit, Russian language, astronomy, and F-SEM in East Asian department (on Kyoto, Japan). Second semester, I allowed myself to take one history class with my advisor, took International Relations, drawing, an intro course in Judaism, and second semester Russian. I knew I wanted to major in history for sure when I was 100% focused and ate up every word that my advisor said in her lectures. The first lectures were not a fluke! I still wasn't sure though because the history department was fairly weak and I really liked my Russian classes. At the same time, I wanted to transfer.

So I ultimately decided that my love for history was too strong that I had to transfer to another school with stronger history department (actually one of the best for undergrad in the nation). I declared my major when my new advisor said "So you want to major in history right? We can fill out that declaration now if you want..." Um okay! LOL I do miss Russian- had I stayed at my old school, I would've majored in Russian.

Now I'm going to grad school for a MA and then eventually a PhD in History... I'm a loser at times but I can't deny it. Even my most boring history classes (a-hem like this one this semester), I just get so involved in my papers and think up new ideas and analyses. I've learned how to read and write critical and clear arguments and create strong framework in my papers. I can now skim 20-40 page articles and 200-300 page books and find the overall structure.

nontraditional is right- if you enjoy doing your homework and you find yourself always doing stuff for that class first (or last, save the best for last), then it's probably for you. Don't worry about being "practical"- it's your college degree that counts, really. Take your intro courses, anything that looks interesting, and try them. By the end of the year, you'll have a better idea of what you might want to do. Big mistake? Start off as pre-med with 2 lab courses, calc, and some elective. I did shop around in my first year since I only took 1 history course out of 9 courses that year in various departments and a lot of APs in high school (and the fact that I nearly failed chemistry...) eliminated quite a few optoins and narrowed down to where my passion is.

05-05-2008, 10:06 PM	#5
ticklemepink Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Rochester/Colgate/UMich Gender: Female Threads: 25 Posts: 1,294	I had always been interested in cultures and people behavior. I took a lot of APs in high school and after AP Psych and econ, I knew that I would never want to take another class in those areas again (econ was too analytical, psych was all common sense with techincal vocab). But I was still interested in history- I knew I wanted to try majoring history when I got hooked on AP Euro while studying for the AP exam in 10th grade. But when I got to college, I heard other history majors wanna-bes talk about going to law school, I was like "yeechhh!!! I don't want to be a history major for THAT!" So I took Russian lit, Russian language, astronomy, and F-SEM in East Asian department (on Kyoto, Japan). Second semester, I allowed myself to take one history class with my advisor, took International Relations, drawing, an intro course in Judaism, and second semester Russian. I knew I wanted to major in history for sure when I was 100% focused and ate up every word that my advisor said in her lectures. The first lectures were not a fluke! I still wasn't sure though because the history department was fairly weak and I really liked my Russian classes. At the same time, I wanted to transfer. So I ultimately decided that my love for history was too strong that I had to transfer to another school with stronger history department (actually one of the best for undergrad in the nation). I declared my major when my new advisor said "So you want to major in history right? We can fill out that declaration now if you want..." Um okay! LOL I do miss Russian- had I stayed at my old school, I would've majored in Russian. Now I'm going to grad school for a MA and then eventually a PhD in History... I'm a loser at times but I can't deny it. Even my most boring history classes (a-hem like this one this semester), I just get so involved in my papers and think up new ideas and analyses. I've learned how to read and write critical and clear arguments and create strong framework in my papers. I can now skim 20-40 page articles and 200-300 page books and find the overall structure. nontraditional is right- if you enjoy doing your homework and you find yourself always doing stuff for that class first (or last, save the best for last), then it's probably for you. Don't worry about being "practical"- it's your college degree that counts, really. Take your intro courses, anything that looks interesting, and try them. By the end of the year, you'll have a better idea of what you might want to do. Big mistake? Start off as pre-med with 2 lab courses, calc, and some elective. I did shop around in my first year since I only took 1 history course out of 9 courses that year in various departments and a lot of APs in high school (and the fact that I nearly failed chemistry...) eliminated quite a few optoins and narrowed down to where my passion is.