I need help about my terrible choice of major - Page 2

Time's a changing, finance isn't quite as easy to get into with an English degree these days. If the economy picks up again, major won't be as important, but in the past couple of years, recruiters look at major way way more.

To op, do some soul searching, what are your life goals? Be honest with yourself, and figure out what you want.

how many years until you graduate? now, I'll paste in my post from the other thread on the topic...

Take an extra year and double major. Take full summer load to help make up lost time.

not a lot to work with there. Basically the magazines are withering at the moment as ad dollars head in the general direction of online, leading to continually diminishing editorial staff. Academia is a long ass way away for an undergrad, and even then you will have to support yourself through that long ass journey (Hons, MA, PhD = what...10 years more study). Since this is a purely pragmatic discussion, why don't you do some Googling into what areas are the most candidate hungry (you will get some predictable ones like IT and nursing) but maybe you will see something that interests you there. Then come back and post and maybe we can somehow chart your way across for you. The other option, the great BA default...you could always....see here.

Yeah, you're right.

To the OP: Don't do something you enjoy. Force yourself to go to college and major in something you don't like (especially if other people say you should).

Oh, and keep worrying.

I'm not sure anyone said that dude.

His thread clearly indicates that he wants a degree that offers a more clear path into professional life.

Certainly in the current economic climate, if I were him, I'd rather be applying for jobs in (say) marketing with a degree in marketing and a cover letter talking about how I had "devoted much of my study to buyer and consumer behavior which fits nicely with your company's mission about the evolving science of understanding customer preferences" etc.

This is an easier sell that "I have a degree in English and I have read extensively on the human condition which may fit with your company, and the rest I can learn as I learned how to learn while I studied the humanities".

Now, you can make a fair case that his learned how to learn is worth much more in the long run (it also assumes that business grads never learned how to learn, which is a false assumption to begin with) but we also are not talking about 'the long run' - we are talking very short run here. This kid will shortly be graduating, sending CVs in to jobs with a thousand other grads who studied something more directly applicable to the nature of the roles being advertised, while he is effectively armed with a piece of paper on it that tells employers that he's done a bunch of book reports

OP, just pass your classes this semester...and everything will be fine. Hear me? Just pass your damn classes. Don't get distracted by worry about money. Some day, you will be bitched and nagged at by your wife about not making enough money, same as every other man. OK?

just as long as youre paid enough to keep running water in the trailer, she's doing better than she was growing up...

Doesn't have to be one or the other. I doubled in History and Econ. History was my education, econ got me a job. Simple as that.

Do you go to a top ranked school? Do you have a high gpa? How much debt will you have upon graduation?

I was commenting on cross22's post. If what I said is terrible advice, then...

if you work hard, make connections and get a 4.0 you can get into a good graduate program

Hey man as someone who's kind of in your same predicament --

You don't need an English major to write fiction. It's a whole different skillset from the stuff you learn in school, even in writers workshops.

Magazines would be easier to get into, but print is dying and writing for the web is still a shaky proposition. If shitty writing bugs you, magazines and internet writing will probably drive you crazy.

Look at your long term goals. You only have one chance to do this stuff. Figure out if you need a large salary to be happy, or if you can only enjoy yourself in a writing career, or if you want to travel around and see the world, and then take steps toward making those things happen. But for the most part, don't worry too much.