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College Success
(Admitted to NYU) |
"David was accepted at NYU. There is absolutely no doubt in our minds that your editing of his personal statement made the difference. Before your help, his application was rejected by two inferior schools. The same application -- AFTER YOUR EDITING -- got him into an excellent institution. You've made such a difference in our lives. Thank you."
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Picking a Major
By Darra Clark , Arizona State
Content Provided by our Friends at ihigh.com.
Feb 20, 2001
- I must admit, I’m chronically opinionated. And one of the marvelous little
perks of my job is, I get to force people to listen to my opinions. So forgive a
moment of selfishness while I ask a question: WHAT IN THE NAME OF GOD IS WRONG
WITH PICKING A MAJOR BASED ON LIKING IT? ::resumes calm::
For all of you high school juniors and seniors,
this whole major issue is probably coming up more and more, as applications,
parents, aunts and teachers breath down your neck to know what you’re going to
do with your life (because you’ve obviously decided). And, of course, they
have a list of majors, which are “acceptable.” You will find your great-aunt
Marge loudly insist, as she did to Erin, of Connecticut, that “only people who
study math are worthwhile,” whereas your chemistry teacher will tell you, as
she did Ginger, of Iowa, that “the only real way to make money any more is to
study computers.” Meanwhile, your inner artist wants nothing more than to
study graphic arts. So what gives?
The accepted explanation of parents being
controlling is that they want the best for you out of love. So when you go home,
and say, like Jonathan, “I’m going to be an English major and then be a
writer,” the natural parent reaction is indeed to freak out. “You’d
think,” Jonathan, of Mauldin, South Carolina, later confided, “that I’d
said I’m going to throw away every opportunity I’ll ever have to be happy
and successful and join Pinocchio and Brer Rabbit in helping Santa Claus. Geez!”
You, the teenager, the one right on the verge of everything new and wonderful,
are by nature impetuous and idealistic. Your parents, who had two years of
wiping your bottom and 18 of paying your bills, are not quite so certain that
you will find ways to survive as a musician, or that you’ll get grants for
your psychological research. So they have an excuse for telling you what to put
on your applications as your major. But what about the rest of the world?
Erin staunchly insists that her chemistry
teacher, her favorite teacher, was the person who inspired her to study
chemistry in the first place. “You could tell with (my teacher) that she
really loved chemistry, that she was passionate about it. In her class, I caught
some of that flame; I wanted to be part of it too. And there she goes and tells
me not to do it! Just for money, and things like that.” Erin’s is certainly
not alone in wondering why EVERYONE feels compelled to comment. Sara, a junior
in Long Island, New York, has heard “probably every snide comment about
artists there ever was,” whereas I myself have heard people from my mom to the
cashier in the textbook store comment on majoring in English. The question most
everyone voices is “Why do these people CARE what I major in?” After much
consultation, the following ideas have been proposed:
- They care, as in parents and favorite
teachers.
- They feel compelled to give advice, being
older and wiser.
- They know MUCH more than you and want to prove
it.
- They really think they’re helping you.
So most people are trying to be nice and share their
experience when they dis the world of psychology. Does that mean you should go
to vet school instead? Not hardly. Stand up for your major! Or, change it
sophomore year, that works too.
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