^

No shit. Anyone can be a sociology major. Takes smarts to major in engineering and the hard sciences. Also, shows you have skills....a la problem solving, analytical...work ethic...

Undergrad degrees might not open up a lot of doors, but it damn well can close a lot of em'....

scratch that, the right degree(s) can open up doors.

 

Please read my first sentence from my first post.

My point that 5% of majors will lock in/out certain careers, but 95% do not matter. And even so, there are always exceptions.

While everyone else is giving advice about the 5% I thought I'd shed some light on the 95%. This applies to undergraduate studies only. Your major in graduate school matters tremendously. But even with a very unrelated undergraduate program, you can still go to grad school for anything you want.

This is a relatively new trend. I went to undergrad twice, once about 10 years ago and I received another degree recently, school has changed a lot. I stand by my point that an undergrad these days is equal to a high school degree 10 years ago.

Also, let's say you wanted to pursue medicine or comp sci but your undergrad is totally unrelated? Your undergrad degree does NOT lock you out of those graduate programs.

My cousin is in grad school for computer science and did his undergrad in seminary (major was music), and my father is an adjunct professor for med students in residency (at the #1 ranked State University of New York campus) and he has told me that many top med students do not have any undergrad background in bio, chem, pre-med, etc. They were accepted because they were able to learn and teach themselves prior to taking the entrance/standardized exams. There's a running joke in the hospital he works at that it's more unusual for a med student to have an undergrad in pre-med than otherwise.

 

What quality of grad schools you talking about? For instance, I know if you want to get into a good graduate Econ program you need solid analytical skills, most commonly demonstrated by 20-30 hours of math (through real analysis anyway)....I looked up the MS in Comp Sci at my school (U of Okla), and you essentially need an undergrad in engineering to meet course prereqs.

Lots of med school students majored in political science....but they took the required med school prereqs just like everyone else. Organic, Physics, yaddy yadda. Those are universal to even apply. Regardless, people with the prereq course background study their asses off to do well on the MCAT (which tests those very areas). It seems highly unlikely that one could teach it all to themselves in both a timely and satisfactory manner.

 

I think you misunderstood him. Every pre-med applicant needs a certain number of quarters of math, chem, biology, physics, etc. before they can even apply. They don't have to have a formal degree in biology or chemistry, but they have the coursework.

The "extra" stuff that a biology major does is the higher level, specialized coursework. That they don't care about. But you betcha better have a solid background in the basics.

Smarts count in med school, but brute force is just as important. If you don't have a leg to stand on, all the smarts in the world isn't going to save you. There just aren't enough hours in the day.

 

It's really difficult to suggest a major in this type of format, so I would suggest you go to your college's career center and speak with an adviser.

 

I'm in the same boat pretty much, except I graduated HS 2002

 

Just replying to your two points.

About the quality of grad schools...My wife attends a top tier grad program for International Relations/Security and has no background in the subject (I just googled it and her school is ranked top 5 in the nation for her program).

About being unlikely to teach yourself...yes, it is unlikely, but very possible given a person with enough drive and motivation. My father immigrated to the US and taught himself English with no classes, then passed all the requisite exams and got into a residency program within 2 years of moving to the US (he had completed his accreditation overseas but had not yet started practicing)...for me, it seems impossible but is not. Can you imagine having to pass difficult exams and interview when you don't even know the language? Yet, it's been done.



You and Ckit are absolutely correct though. Doing well in pre-requisite courses is extremely important, and picking the right major for yourself would be a tremendous asset/benefit and make life 1,000% easier.

BUUUUT...All I'm saying is that if you're undecided, unsure of major, etc...then you're still in good shape if you're academically strong...depending on your major, some doors are more difficult to open, but if you're a good student no doors are totally closed.

 

if you cant do basic algebra, you better start practicing. i believe most schools you MUST take at least a college algebra course, which is harder than high school algebra.

taking advice from others on what to do isnt really the best way to figure out what you want. true it will give you ideas, but you shouldnt base your decision off that. i believe the best way to figure out what you WANT to do is to take a bunch of GE (i realize this may waste some time but you will find what your REALLY interested in)

 

De Vrys or whatever they spell it. Pick a career and get a job diploma, degree won't matter in this economy