<p>My husband says the only college course that has been useful in his life as an entrepreneur was Carnival Techniques.</p>
<p>I have a friend who graduated from a top-25 LAC a couple of years ago with a degree in anthropology. She was hired immediately by a major mutual fund company. Not sure exactly what she does for them, but believe she ensures certain regulations are followed within the company. She was told they hired her because of her liberal arts degree. Said they needed somebody who could write well and they had confidence that liberal arts people would fit the bill! She loves her work and is now pursuing an MBA on a part-time basis. She admits that she had absolutely no interest in the business/financial world until she got this job. The job was in an attractive location for her and she took it as a 'stop-gap' measure until something came along that she might enjoy more, not realizing that she would LOVE it!! At the end of the day, you never know where a liberal arts education might lead!</p>
<p>If you can generate your own work you will always be employed. Thus for me being an english major worked fine. I hated sevreal of my early jobs and began freelancing as a writer and loved that.</p>
<p>Ditto internship advice. </p>
<p>Big bucks come when you find a need and fill it. You can do this as a writer, an inventor, a marketer, whatever.</p>
<p>I suspect people who are fluent in Chinese or Arabic will have very good job prospects for a while. I have a college friend who nailed Japanese (in a different era; 1980) and has had a marvelous career in a variety of companies that do buisness with Japan.</p>
<p>It's true you never know where those degrees will lead you. My sil English major has been a bus driver, a librarian, a journalist (small town paper), a school teacher (at every level nursery school through high school) and is now finally happy as a clam trying to put together a new Urbanism development on 24 acres. My best friend, also an English major, became an Episcopal priest and writer of children's books and fantasy fiction.</p>
<p>Another area to look into, if your college offers it, is a Geography major.
S is like you, interested in social sciences. At a couple of colleges we visited, the Geography majors were highly recruited for good positions in city organizations, govt, really an array of job opportunities. In fact, the ones with some GIS classes did especially well. It was a surprising field that we really hadn't considered.
The coursework can follow more the social science angle (human geog) or the heavy science aspect, depending on the college. At some schools, it requires a little of both. It's can be a nice blend of human behavior studies (anthro, sociology, psych) and environmental studies, some history, econ, etc.</p>
<p>Adding my voice to the chorus that is telling you that finding something you love to study is going to do you more good in the long run than being a mediocre student of something that you think will get you a good job. </p>
<p>I would take as much math and lab science as I could--keep plugging away until you hit the wall in those classes, but major in whatever floats your boat and plays to your strengths. Get involved in something like drama or debate that will polish your presentation skills and make you think on your feet. Take classes that will challenge you as a writer and researcher.</p>
<p>That first employer will look more at your grades than at your major, so don't major in something that you aren't going to do well at. After you get that first job hardly anybody will care what your degree is in or what your GPA was--it's all based on your performance in the workplace.</p>
<p>mombot</p>
<p>I agree that following your passion is often the best way to go. In my case, I needed to feel like I could get a job to pay off loans and support myself. But if the job (nursing) had been something I didn't want to do, it wouldn't have made sense.</p>
<p>Stashing courses in Mandarin and economics can't lead you too far astray, imo. My own gut feeling is that Arabic may become a blind alley in a decade or so. Now, exotics like Pustun or Urdu, on the other hand....</p>
<p>Internships are a mixed bag. D just completed an excellent one and could give an excellent compare and contrast to other internships and what they offered and how others did/did not take advantage of them.</p>