Does your major really matter?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Cornell University
1

<p>I am a transfer student and was advised to major in sociology to maximize my chances of getting into the school. As I did not know what I wanted to pursue long term, I put this down on my application and obviously got into Cornell and am here now on the soc track. However I have realized that I don't find sociology as interesting as I thought and that I want to pursue a career in finance/another business industry and am worried that sociology won't look good to potential employers.</p>

<p>Would I be able to get jobs in finance or business with a sociology degree? And how hard would it be to switch to maybe an econ major? My only issue is that I am already a junior and have not taken Calc 1 in college so I'd be pretty far behind in that and other requirements. However I have taken intro to macro and micro at my last school (where I was an econ major). </p>

<p>Any help would be greatly appreciated. The overall question remains, keeping in mind I could probably get a better GPA in sociology but would being an econ major with maybe lower grades still look a lot better to employers in business fields (for internships as well as jobs)? Or (as some believe) does your undergrad major only matter for very technical jobs (engineers, computer science, etc).</p>

<p>Thanks</p>

2

<p>You apply to a specific college, not a major (unless you’re applying for a certain program). You can always change majors or do an internal transfer.</p>

3

<p>Your major certainly can matter, for an initial job. It also might not. There are no absolutes. What matters most, major aside, is you: your qualifications and capabilities for the job, compared to other applicants. For the most competitive jobs, everything helps: having the right grades, having a major and set of courses that clearly evidences your relevant capabilties, having the right extracurriculars, what you look like, being the right person, personally. Or to put it more relevantly, comparative lack of any of the above can hurt.</p>

<p>FWIW, I would not have proceeded the way you did. I would have decided what I most wanted to study, then applied some place with that goal. If that meant not attending Cornell, so what, there are other places in the world. I would not have commenced a major, involving numerous courses, that I did not reasonably expect to have highest interest in, or continue down that road once I made such determination for sure. You only go through college once, why waste it, is the way I see it.</p>

<p>But that’s me.</p>

<p>There is no guarantee that, at the end of the day, any future job aspiration will be realized, based on studying a bunch of stuff you think someone may want, from a particular school you think they may want. None of this may work out.</p>

<p>Try to find something that you actually like and are intersted in, and study that. IMO.
If you find such, seek a career that builds on that.</p>

<p>Doing stuff because you think someone else may want it probably does not work out lots of times, and then what you’re left with is not what you might have actually wanted for yourself, rather just what you thought someone else wanted, which turns out wasn’t right anyway.</p>

4

<p>Depends on what you mean by business and finance. For something like IB (investment banking), it’s the college you’re at, not your major that matters. People from Cornell who majored in economics to… maybe even English got recruited to work at big banks. </p>

<p>More times than not, you’re going to be doing grunt work while learning in your company or bank for your first few years. After a few years of that, getting an MBA will really get all the core business knowledge you need to know (in addition to building on what you learned with your required work experience for MBA admission).</p>

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<p>@Honorlions- Thanks for that, and that is what I am leaning towards breaking into (i-banking). You stated what I believe to be true as well, that it is more your college than your specific GPA that they will look at. However, not that I don’t believe you, but do you have proof of this lol? I just would love something tangible to look at and further confirm that these employers care more about your college than major. Granted I may still try and switch to Economics because I find it inherently more interesting than Sociology, I just am worried about my lack of math experience for that tract.</p>

<p>And @monydad- I agree with you saying you would not have proceeded as I have. As you can probably tell by this thread, I am pretty stressed about it all and am working to rectify the way I went about transferring (of course there were many reasons for the transfer and for picking this school beyond just majors but for the purpose of this forum I’ll leave them out). The point is I realize now that I do prefer economics or ultimately if I could switch to AEM that would be the best thing to do, but at this point I would not have the right number of credits and it would take me too long to graduate. It is just a shame that it took me this long to realize that I definitely want to pursue a career in business, (probably i-banking, but I also have a big interest in sports management/marketing).</p>

<p>At the end of the day, Cornell is great and attracted me so much due to its plethora of courses it offers. For example I am now only taking 2 soc classes and the other 3 are personal finance, marketing and an entrepreneur class. These things should all help me no matter what path I ultimately decide on in life. But at some point, getting back to the point of this thread, I need to hone in on potential specific careers and be sure that I remain on track and have the necessary knowledge and background to break into those given professions. That is what I am currently working on/worrying about.</p>

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<p>Just post your situation on the Investment Banking forum on the Careers thing, they’ll tell you the same.</p>