What is the most common question you get in college?
I think we all know exactly what it is because we have all be asked a ridiculous amount of times. Regardless of your age or year in school, the personal introduction almost always goes like this:
“Hi. I’m [name]. I am a [year in school] from [some crazy town that you probably have never heard of before and didn’t know existed until 5 seconds ago]. All the while through the introduction, you just smile and nod. If the question hasn’t already come up by now…
BAM! Now it has: “So…what’s your major?”
Why is it that “college” and “major area of study” are so closely associated? How many times am I going to have to talk about my major, or rather lack thereof? Aren’t there other, more important, questions to ask a person?
Just because I am in college doesn’t mean that I have my future set in stone, especially as an underclassmen. In my opinion, underclassmen generally don’t know how they want to incorporate their education into future careers. (Let’s be serious….When you’re a freshman who has just moved into college, you probably don’t even know where the library is, never mind having the rest of your life planned out!)
Don’t get me wrong; declaring a major is important. If you don’t have a major selected by the time you are an upperclassman, you probably should seek some guidance to gain a better understanding about what your likes and dislikes are. But not before you are a junior or senior should there be a conversation about declaring your major.
So next time you meet someone new, don’t start with the same old question: “What’s your major?” A decent amount of underclassmen don’t know what their major is, and those that have declared may change it sometime before they graduate. If you meet someone for the first time and start by asking about their major, you are not learning anything of substance about them. So just don’t do it! It’s annoying.
You can basically ask any other question besides what a person’s major is. If you are really desperate and can’t think of what to ask as an icebreaker, here are a couple of questions you can fall back on:
“How’s your dorm?”
“Have you been to any parties lately?”
“Do you have a crazy roommate?”
“How’s your RA?”
This way you will actually know something useful about the person you’re talking to and you might be better equipped to tell if you’re interested in a friendship or not.
Spread the word! Starting college does not have to mean you need to know your major when you arrive. And being listed as “undeclared” does not mean that you are “divergent” or doomed to fail. Try something new, be creative, and—please, for everyone’s sake—stop asking, “What’s your major?”