# Majoring in something you like (more practical) v. something you have a passion for



## Persephone (Nov 14, 2009)

I'm at crossroads: major in math, which is more useful, more difficult (for me. I'm good, but not insanely talented), but more practical (leads me into many jobs requiring technical skills) or some form of humanities (Classics - I'm a natural at languages, History, Philosophy). I like the former, but I don't enjoy it when I'm doing it, unless I have some profound epiphany regarding the subject. The latter, I get a kick just out of reading, writing or talking about it.


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## Anonynony (Jun 24, 2012)

Well I know what I would do, I would do what I have a passion for.
Ok, this is going to piss off some femminist, but you're a girl it's easier for you to follow a passion, even if it doesn't pay well, because you can have a man take care of you. lol, but I don't recomend that!
You could always major in math and minor in classics roud:


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## searcheagle (Sep 4, 2011)

Watch this PBS special on this topic:









Persephone said:


> I'm at crossroads: major in math, which is more useful, more difficult (for me. I'm good, but not insanely talented), but more practical (leads me into many jobs requiring technical skills) or some form of humanities (Classics - I'm a natural at languages, History, Philosophy). I like the former, but I don't enjoy it when I'm doing it, unless I have some profound epiphany regarding the subject. The latter, I get a kick just out of reading, writing or talking about it.


It worries me when you say that major in math is "more difficult" because you should pick something that enjoy doing and have an aptitude for it. This makes it sounds like you aren't sure if you are capable of it.

Second, it sounds like you enjoy the humanities BUT not on an academic level. Nothing prevents you from studying humanities if you don't get a degree. I majored in business but regularly study history and politically related topics. (The History Channel is one of the top TV channels for a reason. Okay, when they're not showing re-runs of "Swamp People" and "Pawn Stars." :tongue

So, my vote is other. Pick something that merges what you like. Many majors use math but not super heavy maths, such as my business major degree. There are more than just the two options you listed. 

But if I'm forced to pick between those options, I'm not picking humanities. It's harder to find a degree with a humanities major.


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## nonnaci (Sep 25, 2011)

Pure maths => grad school or otherwise stats in industry. It boils down to a lot of mental juggling / gymnastics in the end if you're up for it. Why not minor in it and see where it goes?


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## sharky (Jul 1, 2012)

FigureSkater said:


> Well I know what I would do, I would do what I have a passion for.
> Ok, this is going to piss off some femminist, but you're a girl it's easier for you to follow a passion, even if it doesn't pay well, because you can have a man take care of you. lol, but I don't recomend that!
> You could always major in math and minor in classics roud:


I don't really recommend that either...some women get away with marrying into money, but what if you fall in love with someone who makes less money? What if it doesn't work out and you have to support children? What if you never get married in the first place? It's not about feminism, it's about not counting your chickens. 

Anyways, keep in mind that your undergraduate degree doesn't set your career in stone. I mean, Alan Greenspan started out as a musician.


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## Persephone (Nov 14, 2009)

searcheagle said:


> It worries me when you say that major in math is "more difficult" because you should pick something that enjoy doing and have an aptitude for it. This makes it sounds like you aren't sure if you are capable of it.


I was terrible at math in high school. Made stupid mistakes, never listened in class and never got past the: "here's a problem, here's how to do it... now DO IT" approach.I had such a terrible experience with math that my advanced precalc teacher, when she saw that I was dropping her class because I couldn't do it (blanked out through two classes and could no longer keep up, and gave nonsensical answers to her questions), told me: "I knew you aren't cut out for this." And those are words I won't soon forget.

In college, I had the opposite experience. Math was one subject that was always "risky" in high school. I can study and feel like I understand things well, but getting an A was still a crapshoot. I frequently ended up with Bs and occasionally Cs and I was always deeply ashamed that I couldn't do math. I took Calc I, II and Multivariable Calculus in a top college and made As in all three classes (grades are normally distributed, with C being the median) and all three professors thought highly of me. The concepts behind the numbers were exhilarating and for the first time I felt excitement for math. But given my past experience I'm still unsure whether I can "really" do math at a higher level, or if I'm only good at calculus, or whatnot. There's a tremendous amount of fear involved, for sure, but at the same time I'm tremendously happy that I might have discovered a talent that I never knew existed.

Latin is something I breeze through although I also took Latin for the first time in college. The average grades were probably in the B range but I always managed to make As with very minimal studying, often cramming 40 vocab words 1 AM before the quiz; I also have an aptitude for intuiting the meaning of complex Latin sentences. Whereas in math I have to do some thinking, I used to boast "I can do Latin in my sleep" (somewhat true. Cram at 1 AM to familiarize self with words, sleep on it, brief refresher next morning). Needless to say some antipathy and terror of math remains; I used to have nightmares about failing math exams.



FigureSkater said:


> Well I know what I would do, I would do what I have a passion for.
> Ok, this is going to piss off some femminist, but you're a girl it's easier for you to follow a passion, even if it doesn't pay well, because you can have a man take care of you. lol, but I don't recomend that!
> You could always major in math and minor in classics roud:


Haha. You're somewhat right... I'm queasy about trying to marry into money, but living in college dorm rooms (and currently a small, dingy studio apartment) made me realize I need very little money to be happy. I can live with making very little money as long as I have my own space, my books and a job I like. I'm not worried about my finances, but I can't shake the ambition to make lots of money... Just for making lots of money. I don't _need_ money. I might not even want to _spend_ it, but having a self-made woman as a mother, it's hard to let myself go and not even come close to matching her.


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## Anonynony (Jun 24, 2012)

Persephone said:


> Haha. You're somewhat right... I'm queasy about trying to marry into money, but living in college dorm rooms (and currently a small, dingy studio apartment) made me realize I need very little money to be happy. I can live with making very little money as long as I have my own space, my books and a job I like. I'm not worried about my finances, but I can't shake the ambition to make lots of money... Just for making lots of money. I don't _need_ money. I might not even want to _spend_ it, but having a self-made woman as a mother, it's hard to let myself go and not even come close to matching her.


I didn't mean like marry some random rich dude, lol. I ment someone who made enough to pay for both of you, that doesn't mean he has to be rich. Besides, marrying someone for there money is best left to someone more like a Kardashian :wink:


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## Tristan427 (Dec 9, 2011)

Persephone said:


> I'm at crossroads: major in math, which is more useful, more difficult (for me. I'm good, but not insanely talented), but more practical (leads me into many jobs requiring technical skills) or some form of humanities (Classics - I'm a natural at languages, History, Philosophy). I like the former, but I don't enjoy it when I'm doing it, unless I have some profound epiphany regarding the subject. The latter, I get a kick just out of reading, writing or talking about it.


I ran into the same problem. I myself still struggle with this a little. Perhaps find a mixture? Perhaps past population estimates, things like that. Statistical data and such.


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## donkeybals (Jan 13, 2011)

Say you hypothetically become a philosophy major. Then what?


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## FacePalm (Jun 27, 2012)

Persephone said:


> but I don't enjoy it when I'm doing it


u kinda answered your own questions.


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## OldManRivers (Mar 22, 2012)

With the numers of M.A. people in McJobs, it is worthwhile to think about a skilled technical trade. Get your college degree, enjoy education for the sake of learning, and have some sort of highly skilled technical expertise - This does not have an appeal to most people, but it cna be highly rewarding from an intellectual as well as financial consideration: for instance, who programs and troubleshoots industrial robots?


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## Persephone (Nov 14, 2009)

donkeybals said:


> Say you hypothetically become a philosophy major. Then what?


I'll blow grad schools away with my flawless thesis, get a fellowship, then... I'll philosophize... Become the founder of anarcho-post-structuralist modernism and become enthroned in the pantheon of famous dead philosophers.


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## donkeybals (Jan 13, 2011)

Persephone said:


> I'll blow grad schools away with my flawless thesis, get a fellowship, then... I'll philosophize... Become the founder of anarcho-post-structuralist modernism and become enthroned in the pantheon of famous dead philosophers.


Double you tee eff


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## AndrewGonzales (Jul 5, 2012)

See it is a difficult situation. You should think very rationally and take a decision. But whatever you decide give your 100% after that.


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## Setsuna (Jun 27, 2012)

I am going through this same dilemma myself, I love the humanities but am not sure if I can make a viable living at it. At my last job, my supervisor had a BS in Communications, but she was working a job where any Tom, Dick or Harry could get a position (setting up internet service over the phone). She was a supervisor by the time I knew her, but she started out on the phones like me (a high school graduate). Although I am all for learning for the love of, I would also feel really discouraged if I went to all the time, expense, and effort of higher learning only to end up at an entry-level position anyway. I'm thinking of Life (the game), where you go on that extra loop because you choose to go to college, and then you end up drawing the mechanic card anyway. Sometimes board games imitate life.  
What OldManRivers mentioned, about getting a technical degree, is a option well worth considering. You can go to school for a couple of years, pull down a decent income, and then major in Harry Potter studies or whatever else to your heart's content. 
Additionally, you should realize that your job doesn't necessarily have to be your _life. _Too many people (myself included) think that they've got to find the perfect fit when it comes to their career. Right now I'm working a job that I wouldn't call my life calling by any means, but it also wouldn't make me miserable to do it for the next forty years, you know? I might not be researching Han dynasty pottery, but I'm making a difference in people's lives and providing a valuable service to them, and in the long run that's what I want from a job. Try reformatting your perspective- rather than saying, 'I want a job in the arts', think of more general qualities you want your job to have: 'I want to help people' 'I want to be competant and knowledgable in my field'. This will open you up to options that you hadn't yet considered. You can always do the practical, day-to-day stuff at your job, and then appreciate art and languages on your personal time. Your whole life shouldn't and hopefully won't be about your job.
Hope that I helped!


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## Shades of Gray (Jan 13, 2012)

When you say that "something you have a passion for" is less practical, what you mean is that it is less employable. The choice essentially becomes major in "something you have a passion for" and have no job (or one in something that you will likely dislik) or major in "something you like (more practical)" and have a job in something that you like. That choice is obvious. 

Just pursue your passion in your spare time.


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## bellisaurius (Jan 18, 2012)

I don't know. I probably would have had a similar dillemma if I didn't like engineering so much. If you're a natural at languages, that's pretty practical in itself (liguistics, perhaps?). I will say that if you're going into classics and not a top tier school, you probably won't be getting any professorships at a university, but you might make a workmanlike living at a community college. 

Which in year in college are you at? How much debt are you willing to take on, and do you think you want to go to grad school?


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## kittychris07 (Jun 15, 2010)

You have to do something that you like doing. I majored in math, and sometimes that major made me miserable. Before you make up your mind about math, try to take linear algebra and perhaps a more theoretical math class (like abstract/modern algebra, real analysis, or complex analysis, number theory, or foundations of advanced math) to see how much you like doing upper level math. Calculus is nothing like the upper level math classes. I highly enjoyed some courses (such as calculus and numerical analysis and linear algebra) but I didn't like the upper-division theoretical courses. Also, I would suggest that you try to learn more about possible careers in math. Talk to people about what they do at their jobs. I didn't do this when I started the major, and I eventually realized I would not want a career that involved doing mathematics. I ended up switching to doing a job related to accounting instead (after pursuing a master's degree in accounting). 

However, even if you choose not to use your math degree to get a job that only math majors can do, a math degree could still help you get many types of jobs that require a quantitative degree that is not specifically a math degree. I definitely feel I would have been suited towards one of these types of jobs (such as a financial analyst or a valuation analyst). 

If you do major in classics, it would probably be a good idea to take some business courses or accounting/finance courses computer science courses or IT courses or economics courses (or even math if you like it well enough). Perhaps you can double major or get a minor in one of these subjects. It will definitely be very difficult to get a job with a liberal arts degree, but if you have a minor in one of these it might help you get a decent job. Also, if you try to study business, you would probably need an area of concentration to help you get a job (such as accounting, operations management, finance, marketing, human resources/organizational development, or management). The general business major might not help you get a job. 

I don't know anything about getting a teaching job as a professor in classics.

Something else you might try is majoring in a modern foreign language. There should be jobs in some of these areas (specifically Spanish and Arabic? ).


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## bigtex1989 (Feb 7, 2011)

Anything you have a TRUE passion for can become viable or practical. If you like History, you could write lots of books or go on digs, or become a super expert in one area and get paid lots to research more in that area or give talks. Even liberal arts can become viable if you truly love it. There will always be musicians, and if you love it, you will be one of the best. 

If you don't like math, then don't do it lol. Math is an extremely challenging field and if you don't like it, you WON'T be good at it. If you aren't good at it, you won't get a job. Your math degree has then become useless.

"Do a job you love, and you'll never work a day in your life" -Confucius


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## LaBarrister (Jul 2, 2012)

I'm two years into a double major in chemical engineering and English literature, and I wouldn't change it for the world. Do what you do, and do it well. Don't be afraid to carve new paths in the terrain.


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