{"id":148,"date":"2019-06-20T17:14:25","date_gmt":"2019-06-20T23:14:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.decidemymajor.dev.cc\/?page_id=148"},"modified":"2020-03-27T10:11:13","modified_gmt":"2020-03-27T16:11:13","slug":"common-reasons","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.decidemymajor.dev.cc\/main-sequence\/common-reasons\/","title":{"rendered":"What Do You Want From College?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Let&#8217;s get started. It&#8217;s tempting to leap right into comparing college majors, but we need to first consider what college is even for. What we call &#8220;college&#8221; is actually a bunch of different concepts: a place you spend years of your life, a learning environment, the path to a degree, access to specialized jobs, etc. There&#8217;s a lot wrapped up in that one word, and you need to untangle which parts matter to you before you can make a well-informed choice of major.<\/p>\n<p>So, let&#8217;s untangle it:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What are you most hoping to get from college?<\/li>\n<li>When you imagine your college experience, what does success look like? What outcome(s) would you deem to be a failure?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Your answers will have a big impact on how you should choose your major, so it&#8217;s worth your time to try to answer them before proceeding. We&#8217;ll be discussing possible answers in depth in the coming pages, though, so don&#8217;t worry if you aren&#8217;t 100% sure of your answers right now.<\/p>\n<p>Although I can&#8217;t know what your specific reasons are, we can look at the statistics on what other students have said. A 2016 survey conducted by researchers at UCLA asked freshmen to rate the importance of various reasons to their decision to attend college. Tallying how often the students rated each reason as being &#8220;Very Important&#8221; to their decision, they produced the following results:<\/p>\n\n<table id=\"tablepress-1\" class=\"tablepress tablepress-id-1\" aria-describedby=\"tablepress-1-description\">\n<thead>\n<tr class=\"row-1 odd\">\n\t<th class=\"column-1\">Reason<\/th><th class=\"column-2\">Proportion of students indicating \"Very Important\"<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody class=\"row-hover\">\n<tr class=\"row-2 even\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\">To be able to get a better job<\/td><td class=\"column-2\">84.8%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"row-3 odd\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\">To gain a general education and appreciation of ideas<\/td><td class=\"column-2\">75.4%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"row-4 even\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\">To make me a more cultured person<\/td><td class=\"column-2\">51.4%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"row-5 odd\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\">To be able to make more money<\/td><td class=\"column-2\">72.6%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"row-6 even\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\">To learn more about things that interest me<\/td><td class=\"column-2\">83.8%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"row-7 odd\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\">To get training for a specific career<\/td><td class=\"column-2\">77.9%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"row-8 even\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\">To prepare myself for graduate or professional school<\/td><td class=\"column-2\">61.2%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"row-9 odd\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\">To please my family<\/td><td class=\"column-2\">34.7%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<span id=\"tablepress-1-description\" class=\"tablepress-table-description tablepress-table-description-id-1\">From <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heri.ucla.edu\/monographs\/TheAmericanFreshman2016.pdf#page=50\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The American Freshman: National Norms Fall 2016<\/a> (PDF, page 43).\u00a0According to the report, \"The data reported here have been weighted to provide a normative picture of the American college first-year student population\".<\/span>\n<!-- #tablepress-1 from cache -->\n<p>Although this list of reasons isn&#8217;t exhaustive and it may not capture your exact reason(s), it&#8217;s a good place for us to start. If we reorganize these reasons by similarity, we find most of them fit into two categories:<\/p>\n\n<table id=\"tablepress-2\" class=\"tablepress tablepress-id-2\" aria-describedby=\"tablepress-2-description\">\n<thead>\n<tr class=\"row-1\">\n\t<th class=\"column-1\">Category<\/th><th class=\"column-2\">Reason<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr class=\"row-2\">\n\t<td rowspan=\"3\" class=\"column-1\">Career Prep<\/td><td class=\"column-2\">To be able to get a better job<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"row-3\">\n\t<td class=\"column-2\">To get training for a specific career<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"row-4\">\n\t<td class=\"column-2\">To be able to make more money<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"row-5\">\n\t<td rowspan=\"3\" class=\"column-1\">Self-Improvement<\/td><td class=\"column-2\">To learn more about things that interest me<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"row-6\">\n\t<td class=\"column-2\">To gain a general education and appreciation of ideas<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"row-7\">\n\t<td class=\"column-2\">To make me a more cultured person<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"row-8\">\n\t<td rowspan=\"2\" class=\"column-1\">Other<\/td><td class=\"column-2\">To prepare myself for graduate or professional school<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"row-9\">\n\t<td class=\"column-2\">To please my family<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<span id=\"tablepress-2-description\" class=\"tablepress-table-description tablepress-table-description-id-2\"><\/span>\n<!-- #tablepress-2 from cache -->\n<p>We&#8217;ll cover each of these categories in detail. Your job is to consider which reasons resonate most with what you want from your life, taking into account all the nuances we uncover in our examination.<\/p>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.decidemymajor.dev.cc\/main-sequence\/\" class=\"su-button su-button-style-flat\" style=\"color:#FFFFFF;background-color:#EA474B;border-color:#bc393c;border-radius:5px;-moz-border-radius:5px;-webkit-border-radius:5px\" target=\"_self\"><span style=\"color:#FFFFFF;padding:7px 20px;font-size:16px;line-height:24px;border-color:#f17f81;border-radius:5px;-moz-border-radius:5px;-webkit-border-radius:5px;text-shadow:none;-moz-text-shadow:none;-webkit-text-shadow:none\"><img src=\"http:\/\/www.decidemymajor.dev.cc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Left-Arrow.svg\" alt=\"Previous Page\" style=\"width:24px;height:24px\" \/> Previous Page<\/span><\/a>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.decidemymajor.dev.cc\/main-sequence\/career-prep\/\" class=\"su-button su-button-style-flat next-page\" style=\"color:#FFFFFF;background-color:#EA474B;border-color:#bc393c;border-radius:5px;-moz-border-radius:5px;-webkit-border-radius:5px\" target=\"_self\"><span style=\"color:#FFFFFF;padding:7px 20px;font-size:16px;line-height:24px;border-color:#f17f81;border-radius:5px;-moz-border-radius:5px;-webkit-border-radius:5px;text-shadow:none;-moz-text-shadow:none;-webkit-text-shadow:none\"><img src=\"http:\/\/www.decidemymajor.dev.cc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Right-Arrow.svg\" alt=\"Next Page\" style=\"width:24px;height:24px\" \/> Next Page<\/span><\/a>\n\r\n\t<div class=\"progress-bar-container\">\r\n  \t\t<div class=\"progress-bar pb-8\"><\/div>\r\n\t<\/div>\r\n\t\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Let&#8217;s get started. It&#8217;s tempting to leap right into comparing college majors, but we need to first consider what college is even for. What we call &#8220;college&#8221; is actually a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":388,"parent":117,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-narrow-banner.php","meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v17.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\r\n<title>What Do You Want From College? - Decide My Major<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If you&#039;re trying to choose a college major, step one is to figure out what you want out of college. We&#039;ll help you do that.\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.decidemymajor.dev.cc\/main-sequence\/common-reasons\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What Do You Want From College? - Decide My Major\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If you&#039;re trying to choose a college major, step one is to figure out what you want out of college. We&#039;ll help you do that.\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.decidemymajor.dev.cc\/main-sequence\/common-reasons\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Decide My Major\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-03-27T16:11:13+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.decidemymajor.dev.cc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/nicole-honeywill-dGxOgeXAXm8-unsplash.jpg\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1500\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1000\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.decidemymajor.dev.cc\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.decidemymajor.dev.cc\/\",\"name\":\"Decide My Major\",\"description\":\"Advice on Choosing a College Major\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.decidemymajor.dev.cc\/main-sequence\/common-reasons\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.decidemymajor.dev.cc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/nicole-honeywill-dGxOgeXAXm8-unsplash.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.decidemymajor.dev.cc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/nicole-honeywill-dGxOgeXAXm8-unsplash.jpg\",\"width\":1500,\"height\":1000,\"caption\":\"Students taking notes in a lecture hall\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.decidemymajor.dev.cc\/main-sequence\/common-reasons\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.decidemymajor.dev.cc\/main-sequence\/common-reasons\/\",\"name\":\"What Do You Want From College? - Decide My Major\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.decidemymajor.dev.cc\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.decidemymajor.dev.cc\/main-sequence\/common-reasons\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-06-20T23:14:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-03-27T16:11:13+00:00\",\"description\":\"If you're trying to choose a college major, step one is to figure out what you want out of college. We'll help you do that.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.decidemymajor.dev.cc\/main-sequence\/common-reasons\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.decidemymajor.dev.cc\/main-sequence\/common-reasons\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.decidemymajor.dev.cc\/main-sequence\/common-reasons\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.decidemymajor.dev.cc\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Main Sequence\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.decidemymajor.dev.cc\/main-sequence\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"What Do You Want From College?\"}]}]}<\/script>\r\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"What Do You Want From College? - Decide My Major","description":"If you're trying to choose a college major, step one is to figure out what you want out of college. We'll help you do that.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.decidemymajor.dev.cc\/main-sequence\/common-reasons\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"What Do You Want From College? - Decide My Major","og_description":"If you're trying to choose a college major, step one is to figure out what you want out of college. We'll help you do that.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.decidemymajor.dev.cc\/main-sequence\/common-reasons\/","og_site_name":"Decide My Major","article_modified_time":"2020-03-27T16:11:13+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1500,"height":1000,"url":"http:\/\/www.decidemymajor.dev.cc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/nicole-honeywill-dGxOgeXAXm8-unsplash.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.decidemymajor.dev.cc\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.decidemymajor.dev.cc\/","name":"Decide My Major","description":"Advice on Choosing a College Major","inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.decidemymajor.dev.cc\/main-sequence\/common-reasons\/#primaryimage","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https:\/\/www.decidemymajor.dev.cc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/nicole-honeywill-dGxOgeXAXm8-unsplash.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.decidemymajor.dev.cc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/nicole-honeywill-dGxOgeXAXm8-unsplash.jpg","width":1500,"height":1000,"caption":"Students taking notes in a lecture hall"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.decidemymajor.dev.cc\/main-sequence\/common-reasons\/#webpage","url":"https:\/\/www.decidemymajor.dev.cc\/main-sequence\/common-reasons\/","name":"What Do You Want From College? - Decide My Major","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.decidemymajor.dev.cc\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.decidemymajor.dev.cc\/main-sequence\/common-reasons\/#primaryimage"},"datePublished":"2019-06-20T23:14:25+00:00","dateModified":"2020-03-27T16:11:13+00:00","description":"If you're trying to choose a college major, step one is to figure out what you want out of college. We'll help you do that.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.decidemymajor.dev.cc\/main-sequence\/common-reasons\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.decidemymajor.dev.cc\/main-sequence\/common-reasons\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.decidemymajor.dev.cc\/main-sequence\/common-reasons\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.decidemymajor.dev.cc\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Main Sequence","item":"https:\/\/www.decidemymajor.dev.cc\/main-sequence\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"What Do You Want From College?"}]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidemymajor.dev.cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/148"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidemymajor.dev.cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidemymajor.dev.cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidemymajor.dev.cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidemymajor.dev.cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148"}],"version-history":[{"count":93,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidemymajor.dev.cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/148\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3932,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidemymajor.dev.cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/148\/revisions\/3932"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidemymajor.dev.cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/117"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidemymajor.dev.cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidemymajor.dev.cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}