I’m helping my friend look at colleges, and decide on a major. Her “problem”: too many interests! Here’s a brief summary of her interests:
Foreign languages, especially Asian, African and New World
Non-Christian religions (she’s atheist or UU)
Disability and LGBT rights
Immigration experiences
When she put all her desired majors in the engine, she ended up with upwards of 30 majors! That’s obviously completely impractical, so what broad categories hit her desired fields?
Well, the problem is not her disparate interests; the issue at hand is that at some point she’s just going to have to pick one/a few! Picking one to focus on doesn’t mean she has to ditch her other interests; she can always take classes in them as electives.
Some obvious choices from the list:
Any modern foreign language/cultural studies (like Africana studies, East Asian studies, Chinese, Latin American studies, etc.)
Religion (most religion majors will probably be heavier on Western religions and specifically Christianity and Judaism. But depending on the college, they may have more classes or a concentration in non-Western religion, so I’d flip through some course catalogs to see what’s on offer!
Women’s, gender, and/or sexuality studies (some programs are called women’s studies, some women’s and gender studies, some women’s, gender, and sexuality studies, some gender studies, you get the picture). Some schools have minors or certificates in LGBTQ studies specifically.
International studies/international relations (which may touch on some immigration issues, but aren’t going to primarily be about that).
Sociology (will incorporate elements of all of these, especially the immigration and potentially the disability and LGBT rights as well).
Thanks Juillet! My recommendation was: Ethnic Studies, Area Studies and Linguistics.
She hopes to do a Sociology MA eventually.
Has she considered studying International Relations or Sociology/Social Sciences? There are many programs that can help her out which also include a lot of what she is interested. I’d recommend the Social Sciences degree at Jacobs University. I think she should take a look not only because it’s a great program, but because this university follows a multidisciplinary approach which would help her follow her other interests at the same time as getting her degree.
Thanks Richard! Will definitely bring this to her attention! 