I have decided to change my major

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I have decided to change my major to either geography (with an urban planning emphasis), or foreign languages.

My reasons for these possible majors are:

Geography: I worked as a GIS technician for nearly 5 years before I decided to go to school full-time, and when I realized I was struggling continuously in my chemistry, calculus, and structural geology courses, I began longing to return to my former field of work.

Foreign languages: Just another fascination I have.

Maybe you can use the foreign languages as a minor or humanities electives?

Glad you're moving forward after all of the uncertainties you've been through lately.

Good for you Tim. Hopefully it will be a good fit for you.

I always wanted to work in medicine, but when I chose the hope of having a family (and knowing them) over years of medical school and long on-call hours, I gave up on the field entirely. I majored in Psychology, still a "help" field, but I just wasn't satisfied in my endeavor. When I found myself most fascinated with the more medical aspects of psych (i.e. EEGs, psychopharmacology) I realized my "heart" was still in medicine. I switched to a Liberal Arts major with a generous electives base and filled them with sciences. I graduated from that program in December and applied to the RN program. Now I feel as if I am on a path that I will be very happy with. If only I had realized this BEFORE I fulfilled all the psychology credits, lol!

College is partly about learning who you really are and what you really want. I wish you the best!

WAY TO GO TIM!

Hope it works out for you.

Unless you can pinpoint where you would use a language degree, you might be better served with the geography.
GIS... I knew someone who was studying that up in Alaska at UAF. He seemed to enjoy it quite a bit! Actually, I know two people who did.

Plus, if you wanted to not be in the field, perhaps you could turn to teaching?

Now the question is:

How will I be able to afford to live in places like Seattle or San Francisco on the salaries that those degrees pay?

(That was part of the reason I was hesitant to change my major)

Congrats on the major change. You should talk to your adviser and/or career counselor about career options for those majors. Keep in mind you can also minor or double-major (I plan to pick up a minor) that will make you a better and more versatile job candidate.

Yeah, after finding out what geologists do, and what kind of working environment they are sometimes in, I decided that it just wasn't for me.

While I like being outdoors, I don't think I would like working in a remote area when it's 40 degrees below zero. Or I wouldn't want to end up having to travel to a country that is in political turmoil.

Geography seemed like a subject that would be natural for you, Tim, to study in college, given your past work and education in GIS. I've heard that both the geography and the foreign language fields do have a lot of job opportunities available for them.

Best of luck.

If I choose geography, I would be transferring to Texas State University, in San Marcos (just south of Austin).

The school I am currently attending does not offer geography as a major.

UT Austin and Texas A&M offer it as well, but both those colleges are way overpriced.

You can get financial aid to helped pay for college, Tim.

Try out of state as well because you shouldn't limited your options to in-state college and universities.

Portland State University has courses in Spanish, French, Japanese, Arabic, Turkish, and Mandarin Chinese.

Any of these languages interest you Tim?

Otherwise, try Washington State, Evergreen State College,
Oregon State, University of Oregon, or University of Puget Sound.

Last edited by AnonymousAnonymous on 01 Mar 2008, 4:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.

What kinds of jobs can one get with a foreign language degree.

A Government Job or Foreign Business Companies that needed translators.

Mason itself has multiple languages offered including Korean, Japanese, Chinese and other areas of the world.

Portland State University offers Geography as a minor only,
but if you talk to an adviser about an emphasis in urban planning,
they may be able to help you out.

PSU allows double majoring, so if pick two foreign languages as your major,
you will be able to work things out as long as you see an adviser once a week.

Some schools that offer geography majors also offer specializations in things like GIS, urban planning, etc.

The nearest college that offered a bachelor's degree in urban planning itself was in Hattiesburg, Mississippi (about 150 miles northeast of New Orleans).

geography is a terrific, diverse area of study - mapping, gis, cultural, political, enviro
science, international studies, etc. if you get bored with one thing you can shift to
another without changing majors.

the major us association of geographers has some useful info on the field and good
job/career resources: http://www.aag.org/

under the jobs/career menu, there is an "ask a geographer" option - friendly geogs
to email questions + an overview of different areas of geography.

fg