<p>D is declaring her majors this week. Ran into the chair of the Government department, who had led the discussion section of her Recreating History seminar, and he signed her paperwork right there on the sidewalk, agreeing tob e her major advisor. She's also declaring for Math.</p>
<p>Overall happiness indicator: the other day she e-mailed that she wouldn't trade Smith for Harvard. She's having too much fun. Though in last night's phone conversation she said that the amount of work in the remaining 5-1/2 weeks "was ridiculous."</p>
<p>Our d. declared her major just before spring break ( music composition). She didn't see any reason to wait and one of her friends told her about the music majors' dinner. She and her advisor are joking that they can't get away from each other since she has him for two classes this semester (one, a senior seminar that required a bunch of petitioning.) Her major problem this week was finding a friend who does not have rehearsal for the Verdi Requiem next Thurs. to be her room draw proxy. (She found one.) She has also just been elected Secretary of the orchestra, and has her first meeting next week with involved faculty at the Five Colleges as the staffperson for the Five-College Opera Consortium, which is producing two operas next year.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, her Italian has taken an interesting turn. When we were in India doing tsunami relief during winter break, our daily blog was translated daily and appeared in the Italian newspapers (the major supporters of the organization we are working with our Italian.) Soon Rome TV and Swiss National TV appeared on our doorstep. Funny to go to India to use Italian. Now, over spring break, she has been translating letters for me. She also completed a magazine article about the experience last week, and is meeting with an old friend of ours in Northampton tomorrow to ask to be taught non-profit fundraising skills. This month, she is also making presentations at the local Friends Meeting, and likely to a local school.</p>
<p>This summer, she is planning to return to India to help build more houses for and with flood and tsunami victims, and also, we hope, learn Tamil. She has applied for grants through the campus Chaplain's Office and the Student Aid Society to go (via Cambodia, where we have friends who train mental health workers and run AIDS hospices). She will need the Tamil when she goes to Italy! ;)</p>
<p>We are so grateful to Smith for the extraordinary quality of education she is receiving. (I remember my first year in college and, of course, much depends on the individual child, but my own experience didn't even come close!)</p>
<p>On the Smith website, in the admissions section, there are "e-blogs" from current students. Not ours, though. Ours are at shantinik.blogspot.com - if you go there start from the December archives and work up, as the most recent ones are written by other folks. My d. will take it up again when she arrives in India on June 3rd.</p>
<p>Speaking of the decision to choose a major, for the parents in the group, were you tempted to "sway" your daughter toward or away from a major? When the decision was mine to make for myself many years ago, I chose English literature, and while I don't regret that choice, I sometimes wish I had a considered a more marketable degree. I think if my parents had discussed the wisdom of choosing a major with a vocational application, I might have put more thought into the decision I made, rather than choosing something that was simply easy and enjoyable for me.</p>
<p>It was a prof at Smith who suggested that my D major in her field. My D went in with an interest in history/social sciences/govt. For some reason she included a course in economics in her first semester schedule. One day she ran into the economics prof at the gym, and the prof said to her, 'NAME, you seem to have a real talent for economics. Would you ever consider majoring in it?" She said she'd consider it, took another econ course in the spring, and decided to make it her major. The prof from her first semester is now her advisor.</p>
<p>The funny thing is that when this D was in middle school, she enjoyed reading a magazine to which my husband subscribes, called "The Economist," which is actually a Bristish weekly news magazine. Once when the school had the kids take some sort of career inventory instrument, she checked off "economist" as a career of interest. I asked her why, and she said she liked the magazine by that name, so she figured as an economist, you'd read that magazine all day!</p>
<p>to mini and thedad, i always enjoy the updates on your d's. all our d's are in the orchestra too (see you at carnegie). mine just found out friday that her art portfolio passed the review, so she has been accepted for studio art major. she is going to be on the double major track with art and engineering...e-e-gad, i didn't think it possible to complete a non-science second major with all of the engineering major requirements... but d says she can meet the requirements of both majors within 4 years by taking 5 courses (instead of customary 4) in alternate semesters.</p>
<p>SGM, I had mixed feelings about D's proposed majors but managed to fairly well shut up about it. She knew from the beginning that she was going to double major in two of three between Government, Math, and Classics. </p>
<p>I thought the last would be Way Cool but she opted for the first two. I had not thought that she was a math major in her soul but she is in the process of having me eat my words, taking an upper-division course this semester and doing well.</p>
<p>And I do regard the Math as being more marketable than some other things and the Math/Government duo has some interesting possibilities.</p>
<p>Thanks, PapaJ...I look forward to meeting other orchestra parents at Carnegie, though I know Mini will be out here at that time. I like the idea of an engineering/art background myself.</p>