The best advice I ever received was from one of my professors my freshman year. He advised me to figure out what I wanted to do and have everything settled before making school a priority. To quote him, “I also have to tell you to be reasonable and take care of matters in order of priority. Sometimes this means you need to put school on the back burner, and come back to school when everything has settled. Sometimes this means taking a semester or two off. School will always be here.”
School will always be here. Nice ring to it. That is for anybody who feels like they’re just going through the motions of college. If you don’t have it figured it out yet, it’s okay. If you need to take a break, that’s also okay because, well, school will always be here as my professor said.
Now, this could seem quite discouraging to many, but the problem with many undeclared students, as it was with me, lies in the fact that we come in with no idea what we want to do. Mindlessly taking filler classes, gauging our interest from major to major, before we start to realize we have no idea what we actually want out of college. While looking at college as an opportunity to enjoy the fruits of one’s youth can be extremely liberating, this type of thinking also has its consequences.
By all means, make some good memories that you can talk about when you’re older, but also don’t lose sight of the reason why you’re in college. If you don’t have it figured out, you might want to reconsider where you stand with everything in terms of your higher education.Â
After my initial talk with my professor, summer graced me with its presence and I spent this time figuring out what I wanted to do. I’ve been making the necessary adjustments to how my indecisiveness has left me a little behind, but I know it’ll all work it out in the end if I work hard. I plan to study Computer Science with a minor in Criminal Justice.Â
Why I Chose My Major:
1) Future employment is promising
Given with hard work, the job market for Computer Science majors look promising. Computers have become extremely important in this day and age, no matter what field you go into, from government-related jobs to the medical field. In every company today, there has to be at least one computer specialist in that company that understands how to set up/manage the systems. Having some (or a lot of knowledge) on how current technology works will not only be beneficial to me as an individual, but also to what I can offer society.
2) Underestimation. In 2010, the National Science Foundation reported only 18% of bachelor degrees in Computer Science were awarded to females. While this percentage is seemingly low, it is surely increasing and I personally encourage any girl who has some sort of interest in this field to go after it, even if it may seem intimidating. One of the best pieces of advice I ever received from one of my high school teachers was to lose the perception that you need to compare yourself to your peers, it is more important to compare yourself to what you believe is your full potential. While I still uphold this piece of wisdom immensely, I do welcome other’s belittlement and discouraging criticisms when they hear what I’m pursuing. It further motivates and drives me to succeed, to not only in part prove them wrong, but also to prove to myself I was right to never give up.
3) Realizing my weaknesses. It’s really easy to boast your strengths and over exaggerate your natural abilities, but what is more important for me personally is to constantly be aware of my weaknesses. When you’re in tune with this side of yourself, you’re setting yourself up for improvement whether you consciously believe it or not because you’re constantly seeking it. I can name a list of subjects that interest me, but I was never sure which one held my interest the most. Upon my interests, I looked at my future competition and what they offered versus what I offered. There are many paths to your success/dreams and I try to never judge others in how they want to go about that, it just happens mine aligns with a more realistic/strategic approach. I wanted to give myself an edge against my future competition-make myself stand out a bit better, have a skill that many of my future competition won’t have, and since society doesn’t seem to be back-tracking anytime soon, having a strong background in computers will serve me well when paired along with the Criminal Justice minor, with leg room to still pursue anything else that I might take interest in later on.
4) Computer Science challenges me
When I was a Criminal Justice major, I found myself procrastinating and being lazier than usual. I’m not exactly sure what the cause for that was because I truly loved going to class and consistently kept up with my work. However I didn’t feel challenged in the same way as I do in Computer Science. The stress isn’t always great, but being a CS major keeps me on my toes. Â
While most would pull out technicalities that they learned from their Computer Science major, even if I’m just starting, I can already tell you from a different perspective that since this major challenges me, it has allowed me to hone other skills such as being more focused, looking at problems carefully, using creativity and logic to solve problems, etc. These skills are universal and are important to jobs in any market.
For students still trying to declare their major, I think it is important to remember to pursue something that you have interest in. To be honest, my top priorities/passions in life are my family and friends, not computer science. However, that doesn’t mean I don’t care about the subject because I do enjoy learning about it and its many aspects.
A couple of weeks ago, a friend asked me if I loved what I was pursuing, and when I could only answer that I enjoyed it, as I enjoy many things, I felt slightly judged.
To any current readers, please remember everything and everybody has their own pivotal contributions to society. Don’t put one major on a pedestal (particularly your own, you guys know who you are!) and patronize another.
To anybody struggling with sacrifices that they may or may not have to make in order to achieve their goals (or like me, temporarily put on the backburner while you try to juggle another goal), remember you can have more than one dream or goal and you can have your own way of getting there regardless of what others think. Â