Choosing Your Major

Your undergraduate career is not a hot dog eating contest...

At this point in your Georgetown career, we assume you fall into one of three categories:

You have already declared your major and are happily rolling along;
You have some sense of what you’ll choose, but you’re still exploring; or
You have no idea.

Students in all three categories should continue exploring interests in the curriculum. Your choice of major is an important moment in your academic career, and as your progress through to your senior year your major will become a deeper and richer part of your Georgetown experience. However, it’s important to keep some context around the choices before you, and we hope to encourage you to think in ways you haven’t thought before about majors.

There is a lot of rumor, myth, misinformation, and peacockery in the air around this decision. You have heard that some majors will get you a job, while others won’t. You have heard that double majors fare better in the world. You have been asked, “What are you going to do with that?” You have been told that your major will set you on a path that will change your life forever.

What is a major, and what does it mean?

Your Georgetown degree requires that you take about 40 courses. Aside from the science majors, only 10 or 11 of these courses will go toward your major. In this sense, your major will represent about one quarter of your academic life as an undergraduate. Another quarter is represented by the general education requirements, leaving nearly half of your courses open for free choice. This is freedom intentional. The goal of a Jesuit liberal arts undergraduate education is not specialization, but exposure to a broad, diverse, and rich smattering of learning experiences, with an opportunity to focus on an academic field (your major) and explore it in particular depth – all with an eye toward helping you become the kind of person you were created to be. In that context, there are important questions you should ask yourself when approaching the choice of a major:

What sort of thinking do you prefer? Do you prefer objectivity or subjectivity? Right answers or ambiguity?

What sort of work do you prefer? Papers or tests? Regular homework in small doses or intermittent work in big chunks?

What courses that you’ve taken so far have sparked your interest the most? The least?

What courses that you’ve heard about from friends sound interesting? Awful?

Do you prefer small, intimate courses, or do you feel “on the spot”? Do you prefer larger classes where you can be more anonymous, or is this anonymity alienating?

Would you prefer a smaller department to call home, or would you prefer a more independent, self-guided life in a larger department?

What sorts of things do you want to learn before you graduate?

Answering some of these questions and, of course, thinking about your own developing intellectual interests should help you hone in on your major. Conversations with your parents, friends, deans, and faculty can also be a big help. And remember that eliminating the majors you know you don’t want can be a great start.

Here’s a list of the possible majors and minors in the College with links to course descriptions and requirements for each.

What a major is NOT, and what it DOESN’T mean

We have found that the following factors often induce needless panic in the process of declaring a major:

settling for shallow pre-professionalism
viewing majors and minors as merit badges
looking primarily to please others by your choice

All of these are part of the current that can sweep Hoyas along toward graduation – but they needn’t and shouldn’t play instrumental roles in your decision about your major.

MAJORS AREN’T JOB TRAINING

What are you going to do with THAT major?

Answer: Whatever I want. Have you ever ordered a shrimp platter and been asked what you’re going to do with it? The question above conflates two separate and legitimate questions: 1) What are you going to major in? 2) What are you going to do after college? It also casually skips over the more fundamental questions that lie at the heart of a Georgetown education: What kind of person do you hope to become, and what kind of life do you want to live?

The experience of Georgetown College graduates makes it clear that there is rarely a direct, causal connection between your major and your career. The connection might be coincidental, in that you’ll generally choose both based on interests and preferences. Your major choice will not restrict career options, nor will it guarantee others. If you want to go to graduate school in a specific discipline, majoring in that field is generally advised. If you want a career in science or technology, majoring in a science makes sense, but even that’s not absolutely necessary. Law schools and medical schools accept majors of all sorts. But for now, liberate major from career. As you’re calculating whether to believe us or not (because you still suspect that you should graduate from college with specific, “practical” skills in order to get a good job) keep a few things in mind.

Georgetown College is not about job training. If you’re looking for that, you won’t find it (and it’s a good thing too).
We have found that the skills employers care about are represented by your degree, not your major. They want to hire good communicators, smart interpreters, fast learners, problem solvers, creative thinkers, and most importantly, interesting human beings. These are marketable skills.
Employers fully expect to train you. Having no specific job training is no disadvantage. Everyone has a first job. They don’t expect that you already have the skill set necessary to take over their company or organization, but they do expect you to be trainable, and flexible, and educated, and interesting.
Here’s a dirty secret: After you’ve had your first job, your major might become a mere conversation piece. When applying for the second job, you’ll be asked about your first job mostly, and only rarely about your major. So for all this job-crazed hand-wringing over a major, its interest to employers diminishes quickly over time. And if that’s the case, why not just choose your major on the basis of what seems most fun, interesting, and authentically you?

There are very good reasons to think about possible careers every day. We are not saying to put those thoughts and questions aside. Visit the Career Center. Get an internship. Talk to your parents and your parents’ friends. Do all of these things and more. But don’t allow the pursuit for your first job rob you of your undergraduate academic freedom.

MAJORS AREN’T MERIT BADGES

Remember all of that elective room we were talking about earlier, that half of the degree that you can fill with electives of all shapes and sizes? Some Hoyas are terrified by this freedom. You know who you are. This radical freedom offends your orderly instincts. Every step along your academic way has been premeditated to better position yourself in this competitive universe, and so far it seems to be working, right? Right.

So, congratulations, you’ve made it. Here’s where that pays off: the freedom to take interesting, rich, exciting courses now. Think about the present and the unique opportunity you have today. Don’t squander it by making all decisions based on strategy. If you don’t seize that freedom now, with academic choices still ahead of you, you’ll lose it.

This brings us to the issue of double majors. Double majoring can be good and it can be bad. Double majoring costs you dearly in terms of free electives, the crown jewels of liberal arts education. If you choose to double major, do it because you really want to, because you love both fields equally, or because they speak to each other in compelling and exciting ways. But don’t do it because of some abstract promise of a better job, or to impress some hypothetical employer, or because your academic freedom makes you nervous. We have seen no concrete proof that double majors get better jobs, or have more choices, or have longer lasting fresh breath. We have seen concrete proof that double majors have a harder time planning study abroad terms and extra-curricular activities, and they have more occasion to sweat and fret during senior year.

Credentials are nice, but majors and minors are not credentials. Your undergraduate academic career is not a hot dog eating contest. It’s up to you to weigh the costs of double majoring, which are clear, against the benefits, which are more abstract and uncertain.

Logistics – How to and When

You need to declare a major by Friday, February 29, the beginning of spring break. You can do it now, and you can do it any point up until then.

When you decide on the major you wish to declare, take an Academic Program Change form to the major department. There you will be assigned to a faculty advisor. Once you have the signature of that advisor, or of the coordinator for advising in that department, return the form to ICC 303, where it will be posted to your record as soon as possible. Feel free to add minors to that same form (an advisor’s signature is required for a second major), but all that we require for this semester is one major. Minors can be added any time down the road.

Please let us know if you have any questions. Happy hunting!


Tad Howard                       Marlene Canlas
Assistant Dean                   Academic Counselor