So what now? Advice from a College Senior

isayhello
Tue, 19 Jun 2012 13:41:17 +0000

“how did you select your major? any regrets in that selection? Do you feel like you made the right choice in the school that you ended up matriculating to? “

Major: I selected my major kind of accidentally- after two years of taking 1-3 courses in 5-6 different humanities departments. I ended up majoring in American Studies because it’s flexible- you can complete the major using just 6 classes from that actual department, and the rest can come from anywhere, as long as they fit into something called your major’s focus.
I felt regret about the fact that I didn’t just go all the way with it and build myself an independent major (instead of taking just four ‘focus courses’, I could build a major of 10-13 around a topic of my choice); but I ran out of time (you have to find a major ‘sponsor’, submit a major proposal with a course list that makes sense, do a lot of reading and research- it’s a difficult process, and it needs to be done by your 6th semester, but I wasn’t very sure of what I wanted until the end of my fifth semester.) The fact that I started out with weaker study skills and started using professor’s office hours late in my college career also hurt me.

My big regret is not really my major so much as what I chose to do with what I knew how to do. For example, if I could start over now, I might have tried working towards just one summer doing investment banking so that I could just have that money to use for something else (because they aren’t all econ majors.) I would have continued to nurture all of my talents and not just* the ones I was obviously better at than the people around me (it is easy to forget that you’re not average for being good, or stupid for being simply average.) I might’ve tried to get an internship my first summer out. I definitely would’ve made an effort to meet with deans and find mentors in the school administration, to compensate for coming from a first gen to university/first gen American/public school background and not knowing what I was doing, while feeling as if I should somehow automatically know what I was doing just because everyone else did.
Now I am a more balanced and confident person, with a network of support that works for me. This took time to find and build, but it’s important.

My school: Eh? My professors are amazing and accessible. My classmates are smart and behave so, most of the time. I’ve met good people. Do I feel like I could’ve had the same at some other top school? Yes. I liked this school particularly for social reasons, about half of which did not turn out to be true. And there were periods where I was struggling more and felt like I didn’t fit in. But I know that it probably wouldn’t be better elsewhere, and I have adjusted. I feel comfortable giving the Black Nod to black families touring the campus, anyway. :-)