Friday, March 29, 2024

Choose your major based on desire, not on the ranking of a program

March 31, 2015

Students of MSU have a luxury that is often taken for granted.

The university offers over 150 majors, allowing for a wide range of options for a career path. Not only is there a plethora of classes offered, but MSU is consistently ranked highly in many of those programs.

MSU has 25 graduate and undergraduate programs ranked in the top 20 by the U.S. News and World Report.

Despite those rankings, students need to maintain a level of discretion when considering their field.

As someone majoring in one of MSU’s most popular programs, supply chain management, there’s an obvious discrepancy between students who actually have an interest for logistics, and students who are more concerned with the status of the No. 1 ranking the program currently holds.

Too often, a student decides their major by a process that is factored by how high the program is ranked. In most cases, students don’t have a solid grasp on what they want to do, or they’re afraid they won’t be hired with a degree that they consider to be weaker. They decide to play things safe.

There’s not necessarily anything wrong in doing this. It makes sense.

Having said that, deciding a major is not a process that should be made too conservatively. The whole reason for pursuing a degree is to establish a platform that will allow students to excel and ultimately achieve career goals.

Students need to maintain a level of honesty with themselves, and make decisions based off what they really want to do, not what they think will get them employed.

Students certainly need to be realistic in planning for their career. Obviously it’s going to be more difficult to get a job in certain fields where competition is higher, or where there is lower rates of job placement.

With that in mind, that doesn’t warrant disregarding any aspirations due to a fear of failing.

It’s a great thing to be hired out of college with a well-paying job, but that initial excitement is going to fade and be replaced with hours of hard work. If you find yourself in the wrong field, then those hours are going to feel like days.

Don’t regret the choices made now for the sake of being conservative.

In reality, the real way to “play it safe” regarding the choice of a major is to pick the field you know you’re going to love far after college is over.

Discussion

Share and discuss “Choose your major based on desire, not on the ranking of a program” on social media.