BA of general studies?

justmytwocents
Tue, 23 Mar 2010 02:19:10 +0000

calmom:

I shifted from poli sci to an individually-designed major at my undergrad university, back in the 70’s. My reasons were entirely different, mostly to do with the internal politics of the department and lack of flexibility… so I just felt more at home in the umbrella department for the interdisciplinary majors. I never gave it much thought after that – I was much happier with the freedom I had in my individual major, so in the end I think it was a great choice. I also ended up having a great relationship with the prof who was my advisor for the independent major.



Hear, hear.

What one majors in while earning their bachelor’s degree doesn’t have a lot of influence on their later professional careers in many fields, in my experience. Of course this may be different for engineers, k-12 teachers, accountants, or computer programmers (and the like), but among my circle of friends, I know a neurosurgeon who majored in religion (though abeit a pre-med religion major) - something that always tickles her patients, a lawyer who was a psychology and philosophy double major, a financial analyst who majored in English, a lawyer who majored in math, a newspaper reporter whose degree is in history, and two advertising/PR people - one who studied political science and one who studied economics. None of them are working in the exact field they majored in.

If BGS feels right for you, you should feel free to go for it.