The beauty of college is that you get to customize your own class schedule. When it comes to your electives and certain credits, you can take whatever you want. This gives college students a great opportunity to customize their learning experience to what is best for them.
In some situations, it is best to stay within your college major and take classes and minors that complement your major. However, there are other opportunities where I would encourage you to step outside of your major’s “bubble.”
What I mean is to take classes that are tailored to you as a person, not specifically to your major. For example, I am a Professional Writing major, so I naturally take writing courses. It was highly encouraged that my major should take a literature minor, which makes perfect sense. The more you read, the better you write. However, I was not very interested in a literature minor. I knew I wanted to write and possibly self-publish, but my major didn’t have any classes around business. That’s when I chose to minor in Entrepreneurial Studies, which is in a completely different college from my major. Along with my minor, I decided to choose a few different electives as well. I took a film class, public speaking, and photography. At first glance, this may seem a little all over the place, but there is a reason why I did this and found it extremely valuable.
Within most of these classes, I was the only writing major in them. I was surrounded by business and film majors. At first, I felt very out of place, like I didn’t belong. Plus the courses were not specifically tailored to writing students. However, stepping out of my “bubble” taught me to turn my thinking around and to think like a writer. I started to think about how I could apply the class to writing. For example, in my entrepreneurial classes, I was applying the marketing and business management tips that I was learning and applying them to self-publishing. While I was the only person whose big project was a book, I got to learn specific aspects that would be important for running my own brand and business.
My film class was a Visual Storytelling course. Not only did I get to learn about how visual storytelling works for film, I got to think like a creative writer and apply those skills to write descriptively. For example, I got to learn how color and descriptive words besides dialogue can visually tell a story.
Taking classes outside of your bubble can expand your knowledge for your desired career in ways you did not even know. I never would have learned the business side of writing in my major classes. While my minor didn’t explicitly teach anything about how writing and business go hand in hand, I was able to think outside the box and connect the dots myself.
You can also take extra classes for your interests. For example, I have always wanted to learn how to use my camera better, so I signed up for a photography course. Now I know how to use it and can apply my knowledge to journalism as well. I have also wanted to improve my public speaking abilities, which can be very useful in any environment.
If you have the opportunity to change up your class schedule, I highly recommend doing so. It will feel weird at first to be a minority in a class, but it can be advantageous to learn so many skills from different areas. Even though it may not look like something can apply to your major or career goals, by thinking outside the box, there could be a way to make it apply. Having opportunities to learn from different areas can be very beneficial to your career and make you more well-rounded in your knowledge.
Whether you choose to stay within the “bubble” or not, take college classes that you want to take. Because in the end, it is your college experience that you can customize to your choosing. Have fun with it, and don’t be afraid to step outside your comfort zone!