Janine Savoie – Special to the Southern News
The financial burden of attending college has many students planning their education a bit differently. College decisions are based on many factors: tuition, location, and major. However, many students nowadays have a different idea on what they will go to school for. When you make your final college choice, do you choose a major you’re passionate about or the one that will make you the most money?
While not everyone will become a doctor or the CEO of a company, many students are starting to consider jobs with higher potential salaries over jobs they know and love; and that starts by the degree they choose to study.
As a child I was horse-crazy, but like many little kids I had no idea how much money goes into owning a horse, or how money worked in general. I just assumed that money grew on trees and that when you bought a horse it was a flat rate with no added costs.
When my teachers were setting up our end of the year play for my kindergarten class, they were surprised to learn that I wanted to become a doctor, among my five year old classmates who had less ambitious dreams like working at Old Navy or selling candy. However, the only reason I thought I wanted to be a doctor was because my mother had told me that it was the only way I would be able to afford to buy my own horse. So here I was, a determined little girl at five years old reciting my line in the play before an audience. “When I grow up I want to be a doctor so I can buy my own horse.” Little did I know I actually had a good idea at the time.
While I have no ambitions of going to medical school anymore, I have obtained a better grasp of the concept of money. My senior year of high school was spent pacing back and forth in my counselor’s office fretting over a major choice. I went ahead with my obvious passion: horses; but it took me three semesters to realize there wasn’t much money to be made there so I transferred out and switched my major. I still have no idea what I want to be when I grow up, but I do know that my field of study will open more opportunities for careers.
According to Adecco, a job placement firm, 60 percent of graduates cannot find a full-time job after college. The company refers to these students as “Generation Jobless,” the name of a study conducted through the Wall Street Journal. Generation Jobless refers to the current college attendees as well as graduates, all 25 and under, that face one of the toughest job markets. In turn, these students are choosing easier majors, despite the smaller salaries. Although we may strive to obtain a degree with a high starting salary, many students are saying that they just aren’t prepared for that and they take an easier route.
So which side are you on? Do you go with your passion or is it all about the money? Plan your education on how you plan to live the rest of your life, but be practical. As part of a generation with a poor job market, we need to do everything we can to prepare ourselves for a career. My initial college focus was to study something I loved, but now I’m more into studying something that will make me money in the future.
