How To Decide What to Study in College

Type “college major" or “decide college major” into any search engine, and you will find a number of articles saying the same thing. Don’t get me wrong, it’s all good advice, and perhaps will start you on the long and treacherous road toward the brass ring.

But, I have a different perspective that is rarely mentioned but widely accepted: What you study in college doesn’t really matter.  Not to say that it doesn’t matter at all. It does, especially in specialized fields like law and medicine. But even those professions require advanced degrees, and graduate schools do not necessarily demand matching undergraduate studies. Most college majors, however, do not matter nearly as much as we think.

In reality, most college graduates do not get into their major fields right away. In this quest, and in the natural ebb and flow of life and its ever-winding pathways, many graduates simply find their careers in other places.

To illustrate: I know a mathematics major who owns/runs a satellite installation business; a business major who teaches middle school; a broadcast major that does corporate accounting; a biology major who does multimedia and music while running the business aspects of two non-profit organizations; an education major doing financial consulting; and I am a journalism major with a resume in office administration that went into the ministry and then got offered a job as a private tutor.

Those that do work in their study fields frequently find much of their college studies theoretical and end up re-learning their major on the job. Ultimately what you study in college will not make or break you. You will. Diplomas do not guarantee success. Intelligence, diligence, networking and luck guarantee success. Why, then, go to college? College teaches how to think, how to study, and how to learn. It teaches how not just to work hard, but how to work smart. It shows employers you are intelligent, hard working, and you want to succeed.

So, how do you decide what to study in college? Find something you love. Find a major that makes you feel alive. Study with everything you have. Keep your GPA high and learn how to study. Learn how to learn. Spend college developing yourself and your mind. When you graduate, the money may or may not follow. But, if you’ve learned how to think and how to learn, you will always do well in whatever you do.