To major or not to major.

[Leherself]

So I'm enrolled in the Bachelor of Liberal Arts program at Excelsior, and I'm currently debating whether or not to declare a major or just stick with the general Liberal Arts degree. Any thoughts? I'm not convinced that a major in "Humanities" or "History" looks outstandingly different from "Liberal Arts" on a resume or job application - and those are the ones I could finish with the least amount of additional coursework (after testing out of most of my remaining requirements). Natural Sciences might actually help me in my future career, but it would probably add at least six months to a year to my degree completion time.

Has anyone else debated this with themselves? What did you decide? Is it better to finish as soon as possible (check the box), or did you go out of your way for a particular area of study? Has this had a significant effect on your career or post-grad education?

Thanks!

[cookderosa]

So I'm enrolled in the Bachelor of Liberal Arts program at Excelsior, and I'm currently debating whether or not to declare a major or just stick with the general Liberal Arts degree. Any thoughts? I'm not convinced that a major in "Humanities" or "History" looks outstandingly different from "Liberal Arts" on a resume or job application - and those are the ones I could finish with the least amount of additional coursework (after testing out of most of my remaining requirements). Natural Sciences might actually help me in my future career, but it would probably add at least six months to a year to my degree completion time.

Has anyone else debated this with themselves? What did you decide? Is it better to finish as soon as possible (check the box), or did you go out of your way for a particular area of study? Has this had a significant effect on your career or post-grad education?

Thanks!

Can't answer that unless you say what you want the degree to do for you.

[Lindagerr]

A couple of questions: Are you under 30?

Do you like the work you are doing now?

What do you expect a liberal Arts degree to do for you?

If Natural Science would be better for your career then Liberal Arts may do nothing for you are you taking any science courses?

[sanantone]

In my opinion, humanities is not much better than liberal arts/studies unless you focus on communications and journalism courses. I don't know what art and religion courses will do for you in the job market.

[burbuja0512]

Any degree is better than no degree and there are lots of positive things to say about Liberal Arts, however if you have the choice, I would choose a History major. Why? Because it looks like you were more focused.

However, keep in mind that my perspective is biased. I hire people to work in B2B sales, so I see LOTS of degrees that aren't related to business. Usually the story is that people are interested in a certain topic (such as history or English, or communications) but then once they graduate, they realize that there isn't any money in their chosen profession. This can be the sign of a good sales person, someone who is "hungry" for sales and money-motivated enough to forego a lower-paying job that relates to their major in order to get a bigger paycheck. If the interview went well, I would be likely to hire this person.

On the flip side, a Liberal Arts degree says that you were interested in a lot of things, and could learn a variety of subjects with ease, but that you didn't know what you wanted to do and went through college without ever making up your mind. I would ask myself if you really wanted to be in sales or if this was just another subject for you to learn. I would probably ask a lot more questions during the interview regarding why you think that sales is a good fit. If you interview well, you would be taken just as seriously as the history major, but I would definitely question your intent and true desire for the job.

Obviously you're probably not studying in order to go work in B2B sales, but I can only speak from my perspective since I have hired quite a few entry and mid-level sales reps in my career. I would imagine that if you ever wanted to go into business, sales wouldn't be the only department to have this point of view, but I can't say for sure.

I can in no way shape or form comment on any other type of job... just my 2 cents from the (sales) corporate world.