I’m currently a sophomore at a small, well regarded liberal arts school. I’m wishing right now that I could be a freshman again because I came in thinking id be an Econ major and thought that for a while, but I think that was just because I thought it’d be practical. I’m currently in a political philosophy class that was just to knock out a politics requirement for Econ majors, but the professor in the department is so awesome and the class is really interesting, and you can major in politics with an emphasis in political philosophy here. At this school, a lot of the alumni who’ve been successful in business are History or English majors, not business or Econ. I feel like I should just major in what makes me happy instead of just doing an Econ major because I think it’ll look good. I’m thinking about going to Business school later on anyway. Don’t get me wrong, Econ is interesting to me in terms of reading about it for fun, but in the classroom I don’t know how much I’d get out of it. I’m also thinking about being a math minor and possibly a French minor as well - both of which would look good on a resume. I don’t have to declare a major until next semester sometime.
I kind of want to just take a regular philosophy class next semester though, just to see how I like it. I could do Econ and Philosophy double major if I like it enough, though I would have literally no room to take other classes because I started philosophy so late, unless I took a summer class or something.
Either that, or I’ll try out a comp sci class and if I am decent at it, I could replace a math minor with comp sci.
I just feel like I’ve pigeonholed myself and it’s too late to change at this point…any advice would be appreciated.
Also, if it isn’t clear already I really like to learn about a lot of things, so it’s hard for me to decide on just one or two.
Also, of course many business and Econ majors have been successful coming out of here, but plenty of humanities and liberal arts majors have done equally well.
Double major. Then later decide if you want the get a phD in philosophy. A litmus test will be if the profs seek you out. If not, be glad you have the econ major.
My kid takes philosophy classes to challenge himself. He finds business school unchallenging. Similarly, my other kid double majors too.
Well, it’s not too late to change your major technically - you have until next semester. I agree that you should major in what makes you happy; you can be successful with a philosophy major, and I know philosophy majors from well-regarded schools who have been successful in business.
Do you have an advisor? You should meet with your advisor and see if it would be possible for you to change to philosophy and still graduate in 8 semesters, if that is your goal. Also, what I would do is next semester, sign up to the intro philosophy class that majors have to take. See if you like more than one class before you change your major to it. You can continue with your economics classes and you can always make that a minor if you want.
You can still take the philosophy classes you like and stay in your econ major. I enjoyed reading Sartre in college, but it is hard to make career out of it.
True, but most philosophy majors do something besides being a professional philosopher. Philosophy majors are tied with math majors for the biggest percent change from starting salary to median salary, according to the Wall Street Journal, and philosophy majors had one of the highest non-STEM mid-career median salaries - higher than marketing, accounting, and IT.
http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/info-Degrees_that_Pay_you_Back-sort.html