College majors?

huskeraddict

huskeraddict

All-Conference
So, as it sits right now, I've just started my senior year of high school and of course am looking forward to college. It's pretty much set in my heart and mind that UNL will be the college I'll be attending come fall of 2010. Now, for the better part of the past year and a half, I had figured that I would major in education to become a history teacher probably at the high school level. Through the summer I've had a bit of change of heart and now am looking for some advice as to what are some good majors to get into now. Looking through some brochures, Business Administration jumped out at me. Any current or former college students want to give me some advice on that major or any others?

 
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As a former Secondary Education major with a concentration in History at UNL, I suggest you not declare until the end of Sophomore year. Do NOT take elementary education in your first 2 semesters. You'll quit and join the army.

 
When I started out at UNL, I declared "Electrical Engineering" because my older brother was making big$ as one and my aptitude test seemed to point me in that direction.

Then I switched to Chemistry because that was the easiest class I had 1st semester.

If I had it to do over again?

Sumthing fun like Psycholigy or Veteranery Scyence...

Maybe Spelling

 
huskeraddict said:
So, as it sits right now, I've just started my senior year of high school and of course am looking forward to college. It's pretty much set in my heart and mind that UNL will be the college I'll be attending come fall of 2010. Now, for the better part of the past year and a half, I had figured that I would major in education to become a history teacher probably at the high school level. Through the summer I've had a bit of change of heart and now am looking for some advice as to what are some good majors to get into now. Looking through some brochures, Business Administration jumped out at me. Any current or former college students want to give me some advice on that major or any others?
Click to expand...

Ever consider graphic design, advertising or marketing? If not you should.

 
Business Administration, in and of itself, is pretty useless. It was one of my majors. If you do go into business, you have to specialize, just as with most professions. So if you go that route, just be prepared to get an MBA afterwards in some specialty - finance, mergers and acquisitions, etc.

First, though, ask yourself why you think you'll like Business Administration - or any major you are considering? What is it that sounds attractive? Then, poll the Board as to whether those characteristics will be present in the real world.

And, you never know what will happen in 10, 20 or 30 years. When I was going to college, computers (personal computers, anyway) were in their infancy. I took a couple of courses in programming - Fortran and Cobol - and came to the conclusion I wouldn't like it.

Jump ahead a few years, and all of a sudden schools are teaching BASIC and a few years after that, Microsoft released Visual Basic. I got re-interested and became somewhat self-taught on computers - both hardware and software. Given what I most enjoy doing, I'd go with a computer major of some kind - but who would have guessed?

What is it you like to do? If someone says to me that there interest is in gaming, I would tell them to major in computers and game design, with a healthy dose of graphics design. If someone tells me that they don't really know what to do, I'd recommend that they go a year undeclared and see if they can figure it out. If, after that year they still don't know, I would recommend a "hard" science - math, engineering, computers, physics. The rigorous, analytical thinking translates well to other areas.

When I want to law school, there were a number of people who had Poly-Sci major, or American Studies, or Philosophy, or something similar (hell, one guy was a Logics major, for Christ's sake!). Almost all of them dropped out - those majors didn't require the critical thinking skills that Law required. Meanwhile, those with backgrounds in the "hard" sciences did well.

First and foremost, though, try and figure out what you like to do and see what kind of major incorporates those interests. Then ask the Board whether what you like to do will really be used in a career that is based on the major you think incorporates those things.

 
First and foremost, make sure your degree is broad. A lot of people like to hone in on a small area of subject matter. Don't be afraid to consider a double major or a major and two minors. A teaching degree can be used in many fields. I have a teaching degree with a major in biology, a minor in chemistry and an added wildlife emphasis. I don't work in any of these fields but love my job. I did work in all of those fields until deciding to get my doctorate but really didn't know what I wanted to do until after I had graduated with my bachelors. A broad area of education allows you to change what you want to do. If you find something which really "trips your trigger" then go for it.

 
Dundermifflinite said:
Ever consider graphic design, advertising or marketing? If not you should.
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and if so....you shouldn't!

:-P

I'm in the whole marketing/advertising field...albeit on the hired creative side (video post production)...but it's a huge cut-throat industry where who you know gets you where you want to be.

And although everyone says we're exiting the recession...the first jobs to be cut in a recession were the marketing people.

I'm with AR...pick something to specialize in. Just a "business" degree probably won't do you much.

Teaching, on the other hand, is in high demand.

Give us an idea of what do you like to do? Something that maybe interests you but you aren't sure how to apply it in higher education towards a degree.

If I had to go back and do a different major...either Electrical Engineering because it always interested me or something in computer IT, such as network solutions

 
I would first say make sure you like UNL... I realize the attending sports might seem awesome, but you gotta realize you will be there a lot more than just going to games and stuff.

I thought I would go to UNL, but once I really visited and then went to other campuses, UNK and UNO, I realized how much more I like the smaller campus and not necessarily the smaller classes but just always having actual teachers unlike a lot of the time at UNL you get stuck with a Grad Student that will teach the class.

Everyones different though, but I would suggest visiting at least like 3 colleges.

As for the major you won't take any class dealing with your major until your a sophomore maybe so if you don't know then take the generals and see if anything interests you.

 
huskeraddict said:
So, as it sits right now, I've just started my senior year of high school and of course am looking forward to college. It's pretty much set in my heart and mind that UNL will be the college I'll be attending come fall of 2010. Now, for the better part of the past year and a half, I had figured that I would major in education to become a history teacher probably at the high school level. Through the summer I've had a bit of change of heart and now am looking for some advice as to what are some good majors to get into now. Looking through some brochures, Business Administration jumped out at me. Any current or former college students want to give me some advice on that major or any others?
Click to expand...
Glad you asked. I'm a graduate of the UNL College of Business Administration, Class of Dec. 1981. I especially loved my economics electives, but.....if I had it to do all over again knowing what I know now about the world, I would get some kind of science degree, like meteorology, ag-econ or horticulture. You can always learn the business side of life on your own through practical application of life. With a science degree you will be much more employable and you'll have a technical edge on others in this highly technical world.

Study hard and best wishes to you!

 
I agree with AR. I went the Business Administration route, but I knew just that alone wasn't going to get me anything. So, I specialized in both Accounting and Management.

I currently do not use the Management specialization, but in a few years, who knows? At the time, I just went with the classes that interested me and it ended up working very well.

If you are still stumped, I would recommend taking general education classes that you will need for ANY major. For instance, at UNO (where I went to college) you have to take at least one class from each of the colleges (Business Administration; Arts & Sciences; College of Communication, Fine Arts and Media). I would suggest taking basic classes from various fields of study to see what you like.

It's hard to decide what "you want to do for the rest of your life", but taking the above advice will get you into something you're interested in and not "waste money" by taking classes you don't need.

 
If you go the Business Admin definitely specialize in accounting or HR or something. The course of study is pretty broad but emphasizing in one or two areas will definitely help you chances for job seeking. I went back a couple years ago for Business Admin and feel that it is hurting just a little bit not being specialized in certain areas of study when looking for jobs. Not trying to be a downer at all, loved every course I took but wished I would have taken a minor in something...

 
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