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Tip SheetApril 29, 2013, 6:18 am16 Comments

Does the College Major Matter? Not Really

By JEFFREY J. SELINGO

Jay Premack Photography Jeffrey J. Selingo

Jeffrey J. Selingo is the editor at large of The Chronicle of Higher Education and the author of “College (Un)Bound: The Future of Higher Education and What It Means for Students,” to be published May 7 by New Harvest. This post is adapted from the book.

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This week, the last of the high school seniors who have yet to make up their minds about where they’re going to college in the fall, will finally put their deposit check in the mail and end the college search process that for some began years ago.
So much time, effort and money goes into picking the right college, but then too many students fail to engage in the process that follows: getting ready for their first year and figuring out what they want to get out of the entire college experience. It’s why some 400,000 students drop out of college each year and why one-third of students now transfer at least once before earning a degree.
One of the decisions you’ll need to make early on — if you haven’t already — is picking a major. Choosing what you want to do for the rest of your life is fraught with anxiety for many students, so you’re not alone if you have no idea what to choose.

Nine in 10 college students say it is important to find a major that is interesting “no matter how practical it is,” according to a survey conducted by the University of California, Los Angeles. Almost as many say that the skills they gain in college will be useful on the job no matter what they major in.
Majors are also seen as fungible — if you don’t like your field of study, trade it in for another one or add a different major to the one you already have. By the end of their first year, a quarter of all freshmen change their minds about their field of study.
So does the college major matter? I posed that question recently to my roommate at Ithaca College, who like me, majored in journalism. He had known since middle school what he wanted to do — become a television journalist. Now almost 20 years after we both graduated, David Muir is an anchor and correspondent for ABC World News.
He works with plenty of people who do not have journalism degrees. The commonality among them, he says, is that “we all majored in what we were interested in. The curiosity and the willingness to adapt are more important than what the degree is in.”
These are many of the same qualities that employers say, in survey after survey, they want in future workers. Hiring managers complain that they often find today’s college graduates lacking in interpersonal skills, problem solving, effective written and oral communication skills, the ability to work in teams, and critical and analytical thinking. Employers say that future workplaces need degree holders who can come up with novel solutions to problems and better sort through information to filter out the most critical pieces.
The economy is changing at warp speed. Rather than recommend majors of the future, here are four activities to help develop the skills necessary to succeed in the work force of tomorrow. If you focus on these activities, the majors won’t matter as much.

1. Seek Passionate Faculty Members

Finding passionate, engaged professors is critically important in the first year of college, when it is easy to remain anonymous in large lecture classes. Getting to know at least one faculty member well in that year improves the chances that you will get more from your college experience (including a degree).

2. Dive Deep Into a Research Project

Nearly a third of college seniors produce some sort of capstone project, and increasingly students are producing major research projects every year. Studies have found that undergraduate research stimulates critical thinking, gives students a better understanding of what they learned from a lecture, allows them to work in situations with uncertain results, and provides a sense of accomplishment.

3. Go On a Transformative Global Experience

There is growing recognition that overseas study in college helps in the global job market. Those who study abroad often see it as a life-changing experience. In one survey of alumni, it was the most significant aspect of their undergraduate years, ranking higher than college friendships and courses.

4. Be Creative. Take Risks. Learn How to Fail.

Many academics believe students have lost the ability to be creative — to learn through doing, to learn through failing, to learn through just having fun. Be sure to seek out learning environments where you can be creative, try things out, and, on occasion, fail.
It doesn’t matter what you focus on, as long as you “focus on it in a rigorous way,” says Richard Arum, the co-author of “Academically Adrift,” a 2011 book which found that nearly a third of students failed to improve their writing, complex reasoning, or critical-thinking skills after four years of college.
Like the credential itself, the high price of college has made the major a means to an end for students. For many, college increasingly is regarded as a long list to check off — classes to take, experiences to acquire, and a major to declare.
Gaining underlying skills and knowledge is often an afterthought and it shouldn’t be. Spend as much time planning the next four years as you did getting to this point.