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Should I give up and change my major?

I'm majoring in anthropology. It's not the most employable field, but it is a diverse degree that can land you jobs in places like business.

I absolutely love this field, I feel that it's a passion. However, I will have to invest a lot of time and money into it for little monetary payoff.

I have about 2 years before completing my degree. Should I change majors to something more employable like business? Or should I just finish my degree and go on to a masters program?

I'm having a lot of difficulty deciding. If I didn't love anthropology so much I wouldn't be torn at all.

Note: I've already done a lot of extracurricular activities, internships, and volunteer work in anthropology, which is reflected in my CV. So it's not like I'm just scraping by and doing the bare minimum to get an "easy degree"

Any thoughts are greatly appreciated.

3 Answers

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  • Jules
    Lv 5
    7 years ago

    Do you mean take out loans or give them money that you already have?

    Do you fully understand the severity of interest rates? If you take out a $25,000 loan with more than 6.8% interest, your loan will be like $35,000 if you pay it off within 10 years. That's the four years you are in school and the 6 years afterwards.

    Here are two loan calculators.

    http://www.finaid.org/calculators/loanpayments.pht...

    https://studentloans.gov/myDirectLoan/mobile/repay...

    It also depends on your GPA. Do you plan to go to grad school. Are you involved in any clubs that don't have anything to do with Anthropology? Joining a Marketing student organization may be a good idea. You have to develop skills that are marketable. You need to network in fields where they hire students with different types of degrees.

    You should focus on finding careers that you like, don't focus on majors that only last two years. How many hours have you dedicated towards researching careers? I probably spent 50+ hours before I graduated.

    So many people come on here and say that they cannot find a job with their degree. You are on the right track with your internships and volunteer work. You are better off than some people.

    Don't be afraid to take a semester off to figure out what you want. You may have other interests that you never knew about. I started to teach myself how to code during my senior year of college. I had no idea i liked computer science. I also started volunteering and I had no idea that I enjoyed working with kids or that I liked careers in healthcare.

    Have you had internships in other fields also?

  • ?
    Lv 6
    7 years ago

    I think you should continue the degree if it is something you really love. I have the same worry, i go to a fine art college and i am alots worried it wont give me a job. but if you have already invested alot of time and money on credits that can only be used for anthropology then stick with it, that is what i am doing transferring is difficult when you have a very specific major. I am going into my third year of college. who knows you might find a job in anthropology there is no point in worrying if you life ends up turning out good anyway. you might use more money on a different degree and not get anything out of busness if its not something you really like.

  • ?
    Lv 6
    7 years ago

    If you want to work in business, esp in the city, the only way I see a finance firm/bank/company hiring an anthropology student over another business student is if you went to a school with a reputation, you had a high GPA and expressed interest in finance/business through extra curricular.

    You should really decide what you want to do, if you want to work in your own field, stay with your current program, finish, go to reputable grad school and break into the field or go into academia. If you are trying to enter business anyways and if you are currently attending a good school and have a high gpa, then change your major into business, because it will be incredibly difficult getting a business job with anthro unless you attend a good school with high gpa.

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