a ranty rant about subject POSts. yay!

Hi,

I’m going into my second year at the St George campus, which means it’s time to choose majors and minors.

I was wondering if you had any advice about choosing from my options.

I’ve applied for a major in Health Studies (which I’m really hoping to get into because it’s really interesting to me) and a major and minor in Psychology, but I can’t decide what combination of POSts I should choose.

My first option would be to do a double major in Health Studies and Psychology.

I really enjoy psych and I did very well in PSY100. My only concerns are that Psychology might be really difficult and it might not be a good degree to have, since so many people at UofT do psych.

My other option is to do the major in Health Studies and a minor in Psychology and a minor in Environmental Studies. This way I won’t have to do too much psych, plus my friend who is an upper year student told me Environmental Studies might not be too difficult. But, the problem is that I only like a few courses from Environmental Studies so I would have to be very picky about the courses I choose.

Thanks for listening to my rant, I’m really stressed out about this decision.

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hey there,

no problem at all, compadre. rants are my absolute favourite kind of question. in my opinion, ranting is the first step to figuring out your problems. once you’ve angrily typed it all out, you can start sorting through it. also, they give?me an opportunity to rant, which is always appreciated.

first, i’d like to nip in the bud an especially hardy strain of problematic thinking that keeps cropping up around here. you said that psychology “might not be a good degree to have, since so many people at UofT do psych.” no!! don’t let that influence your decision!?you can’t base career decisions off of what is popular/”useful”/”prestigious.” school and life are both much too rough for you to try and do something you don’t enjoy. if you don’t love it, you will inevitably fail. if you do, you at least give yourself a fighting chance. also, “useful” and popular things go in and out of fashion, you know. ever heard of the dot com bubble?

besides,?a supersaturation of the market with B.A.s in psych?does not a supersaturation in psychologists make. you need a Ph.D. to become a clinical psychologist, and not everyone is going to make it that far. as for those with a bachelor’s?degree, there are a myriad career options available to you – so there aren’t a million people after the same handful of jobs, if that’s what you were thinking.

if you do the minor in env. sci. and a minor in psychology instead, then, admittedly, you won’t have to take too many courses to complete the env. sci. minor. but?what’s the point of taking 4.0 FCEs in a subject you’re just taking because you think it’ll be easy? and what if it’s not easy? what if you get stuck in a full-year course with a really hard prof, in a subject you’re only lukewarm about? your emotions should be BOILING HOT about the thing you’re studying!

i understand that neither health studies nor psychology are a walk in the park. these are competitive, challenging subject POSts. if you can’t reasonably expect yourself to do well while trying to double major them, then of course, i’d discourage you from it. however, if you’ve done well in first year with courses similar to the ones required by these POSts, then you?can’t not do it just because you think the competition will be too fierce.?if you did well in PSY100?and enjoyed?it, well, i’d say that’s a significant indicator of your interests?and abilities.

ultimately, the last thing i want to do is stress you out more. subject POSts can be changed if, after second year, you find that the double major is just too difficult. however,?you don’t know how difficult it is?yet, so you can’t make a decision based on your (or your friends’) perception of how hard it may be. and?i can’t tell you how hard it is either, because a) i’m not in either of those POSts and b) difficulty is subjective based on who you are. that’s why it’s impossible to try and make a decision based on what’ll be easy. you have to make it based on what’ll be enjoyable.

if you’re feeling conflicted about what you’ll enjoy the most, the solution is very simple. just lay down somewhere very quiet, close your eyes, and listen carefully to your own head. don’t try and bully it around. ask yourself, “if money/parents/ego weren’t an issue, what’s the thing i’d most want to do?” or, alternately, “if i had an eternity to myself in a huge, empty library, what would i start reading first?”

whether the book is by Freud or Goodall, that’s gonna be your answer.

best of luck,

aska