My youngest sister recently left for college. She’ll be headed a couple hundred miles away to learn new things with new people in a new place. None of this is particularly rare. It seems more and more people are going to college these days, despite the economic downturn, in part because so many jobs now “require” some amount of college to even apply. The big hope is that spending the money on additional education beyond college will pay off in the long run monetarily (beyond simply the benefit of gaining more knowledge). I’m a big believer that college is worth expense. At the same time I’m a big believer that knowledge is more valuable than money. Knowledge can’t replace money, but it is more valuable in my opinion. At any rate, that is where my sister is headed. She’s headed to knowledge in exchange for dollars. The price keeps going up, sadly.
She’s left without any voiced opinion on a preference for what to specialize in (read: has no major). I actually think this is the best approach. Too often people decide that they are “going to be a doctor” without knowing anything about that particular profession other than “they make a lot of money” (which I think is up for debate depending on a number of circumstances). Again, I think education is more valuable than money, so another piece of advice is to not choose to study something you don’t like for the promise of a “job that rakes in the money.” Take care, also, to enjoy and appreciate the opportunities your non-major classes provide. The combinations between disparate things is often more valuable than only learning this one, very specific thing. Perhaps you love art but take a couple of business classes because you’re interested to see if you could like business. Maybe you switch to business (because, unexpectedly, you love it). Perhaps you learn some helpful strategies to monetize your art. Perhaps you learn strategies to avoid in monetizing art. Perhaps you learn something else. But this is important: learn. Good luck, sis!