Most colleges require students to select a major for their first year in college. Your major decides the core classes you’ll be taking. It’s the pathway in life you’ve decided to follow and is likely something you’re interested in or passionate about.
Many high school graduates excitedly discuss how eager they are to “finally learn about what they want to” when it’s time to head to college. And yet, they’re stopped short during that first registration day when they’re made to pick up general education courses. These courses are designed to fill in some blanks and check some boxes.
In fact, many of the general ed courses parallel courses students have already taken in high school. They may not be identical, but there’s plenty of shared knowledge. Every year, students across the US ask themselves, “Why am I even taking this course? What’s the point?” And they aren’t wrong.
It’s important to understand the value of focusing more on your major than the general education classes, so here are three reasons why.
- Discover early on if you need to change your major.
According to the US Department of Education, nearly one-third of college students end up changing their declared major during their four years of college. Changing your major can be a great thing- it means you’ve found something you’re more passionate about. Or perhaps you’ve found a better career choice that interests you or will pay more. Maybe it means you figured out your path and where you want to head in life.
Whatever the reason may be for changing your major, the earlier it’s done in the four years of college, the better. Typically, students will take their general education courses in the first two years, paired with some classes that belong to your major. By the last two years of college, courses focus more heavily on your individual major.
If you change majors in your second year of college, you’ll likely only have a class or two to take to make up for your new major. However, if you change majors in your third or fourth year, that could equate to five or six courses that need to be taken to meet the requirements of the new major. Unfortunately, this is a common issue that leads to some college students taking five or six years to graduate instead of the traditional four.
If you can hire a professional to take some of those general education classes online for you, you can spend more time in your first two years focusing on your actual major. Do you enjoy those classes? Are they worth your time? Can you devote the next few years to studying that major? You don’t need to dwell on Algebra when your major and future career has no correlation to the course.
- Focus on developing and expanding your skill sets in your major to make yourself more marketable to employers.
There are quite a few opinions out there regarding the uselessness of general education courses. Many believe college students should be allowed the freedom to focus more exclusively on their major. Students are choosing to attend college to better their chances in the future, but then they’re being forced to take classes that are irrelevant or unnecessary. Not to mention, they’re paying thousands of dollars to take those irrelevant or unnecessary courses.
Unfortunately, the system is unlikely to change any time soon. Students will continue to be required to take basic curriculum classes to develop a more “balanced” academic experience. Instead of losing a weekend trying to suffer and struggle through writing your term paper for some obscure English course, find someone to write it for you.
When you don’t need to lose the weekend working through a paper that carries no significance for your future plans, you can instead focus your efforts on finding a weekend job related to your major. Maybe you can find an internship and gain real work experience while impressing a potential future employer. This is the actual valuable way to focus on growing within your major.
Today, more employers value experience either more or just as much as they value the education itself. Realistically, when you go to get a job, a potential employer will want to see that you have the right skills and work experience, that you understand the industry. They don’t really care that you scored a 98% on your Algebra 1 class during your sophomore year. Really, they don’t.
- Take the chance to get ahead with your major courses.
Think about it: if you’re planning to be an engineering major or computer science major, your English course on British Literature doesn’t really carry much weight. If you don’t have to stress about finishing the papers or taking the course for a general education math class, you can potentially sign up for additional courses within your major. This allows you to get ahead on the required classes to graduate in your area of study, which will free up more time in your very busy last two years.
Your Major is Your Future
Not to give you added pressure, but your major is where your future is at. It’s important. It’s okay to change it, it’s okay to decide you don’t love it, and it’s okay to feel a bit uncertain about what careers you want within that major. But, the important thing is to take the time to focus on it rather than your general education courses.
You’re spending quite a bit of time in college (four years of life, at least (in most cases)!) and it’s certainly not cheap. You should be able to focus more on your future career choice and develop more skills within that industry rather than focusing on the classes you don’t even really need.
Reach out to finishmymathclass.com to get a quote on hiring someone to take the course for your online!
