Lake Forest College requires students to take many classes from different departments, but once a student decides what major he or she would like to pursue, he or she has to fulfill anywhere from eight to 14 class requirements to complete the major.
After reflecting, thinking, and strategizing, I declared my major second semester of my first year. I am a sociology and anthropology and French double major. Altogether, I have eight class requirements for my SOAN major and eight for French.
Coming into college, I believed that I wanted to become a psychology major because my long-term goal is to become a counselor. Through my major, I have found that I am able to take a different path because the liberal arts education allows me to explore different ways of thinking.
Although I am incredibly happy with my decision, I wanted to know if other students felt that they had picked the right major.
Estefania Ornelas ’16, a psychology major, said: “For the career that I want to go into, yes. I am going to open up a day care and I feel that it was my best option that this school offered.”
Cesar Cardenas ’17, an economics and international relations major, said: “I feel like I chose the right major because it is something that I am passionate about, therefore I can easily pick a career field which I am sure I will like.”
Norma Vargas ’18, a criminal justice and Latin American studies major, said: “I did choose the right major, even though I had to create it on my own, because I feel that the majors that I currently have are going to teach me a lot for what I want to do. I want to be an immigration lawyer, so the criminal justice major will ultimately help me learn about the legal system and how people work within that area. And then the Latin American studies major will ultimately help me understand the people I will be working with, because I want [the Latino community]to be my primary focus.”
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Brandon Lawler ’17, a business major and entrepreneurship minor, said: “Kinda…sorta. Because I don’t really know what I want to do with my life, but I want to go into the business world, so hopefully the business major helps out.”
Lysette Gonzalez ’16, a politics major and theater minor, said: “I don’t think [I did]. Because I don’t know what else I could have picked besides politics for what I want to do because I figured, ‘what area of study needs leaders,’ but I don’t know what I want to do with it so I don’t know if it was right or not.”
Through these different responses, I gathered that it is not so much the required classes that make the major, but the experiences that a student gains with the major.
Getting a bachelor’s degree is now considered common, therefore students have to do more to stand out. So to those who have not chosen their major, take your time.Think strategically about what skill sets you want to gain during college and have a plan postLake Forest College. Happy studying!
