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Education: How to Select a College Major?



I don’t think I ever had a choice but to study and get a degree.  That was the story of all the middle class Sri Lanka Tamils growing up in the 1960s and 1970s.  We were indoctrinated from a very young age that education was our path to salvation.  That too, all of us had to become engineers or doctors.  If we failed to get admitted to the two or three Sri Lanka Universities that existed at that time (Colombo, Katubadde or Peradeniya), the rich kids were sent abroad to study medicine and the others studied accountancy at home.  

I don’t know why Sri Lankan parents wanted their children to study medicine or engineering.  Some have told me that it is because of their desire for their children to excel in fields with good career potential. There might be some justification for that in Tamil literature. Great Saint Thiruvalluvar wrote “The benefit which a father should confer on his son is to give him precedence in the assembly of the learned” (தந்தை மகற் காற்று நன்றி அவையத்து முந்தி இருப்பச்செயல்). I suspect that it also has to do with the prestige and social recognition that the parents get when their children become doctors and engineers.  

Sri Lankan education system in the 1970s, remnants of British colonialism, consisted of GCE (Ordinary Level) national exam after grade 11 and GCE (Advanced Level) after grade 13.  Most Sri Lankan students are assigned a field of study (biology for the medical stream, applied mathematics for engineering, and humanities for other) when they enter High School in Grade 10 at the age of 14.  The GCE (AL) results coupled with a complicated race and location based formula the government uses, determines a student’s future career.  A majority of the youth drop out without a university education.  

Those who enter Sri Lankan Universities rarely ever change their assigned field of education.  Hence, it is possible for Sri Lankan graduates to complete their education with very little interest in their assigned profession.  Comparatively, many students in the United States have more flexibility and change their majors multiple times. The rigidity of the Sri Lankan educational system may have contributed to the social unrest among the youth, leading to the JVP insurrection of 1973 and the Civil War from 1977-2010.
 


I chose to study Biology in grade 10 because I did not want to be woken up early in the morning by my dad to be taught mathematics.  After I completed my GCE (OL) in grade 11, I elected to continue my education in India because as a Tamil studying in Colombo, I thought I had only a little chance of entering the medical college in Sri Lanka.  But when I dissected the first frog in Grade 13, I knew biology is not for me and medicine is not my career.  It was a live frog that had been put to sleep but its heart was beating!  I had to change my field of study quickly if I wanted to stay and study at Madras Christian College in India.  I was able to talk to my teachers and friends and I selected Economics for my undergraduate degree. 

Question: What is the best approach to select a student's major before entering college?

 My experience:

  •  In Sri Lanka, the kids are assigned or chose a field in Grade 10.  At the age of 14, they often don’t know what they really want to do in life and can make a mistake.  The Sri Lankan educational system is not sufficiently flexible for the student to make any changes.  In comparison, students in the United States frequently change their majors while enrolled at the University.  Although the Sri Lankan approach can reduce the cost of education, it can have high social costs.
  • While enrolled at a University, if students keep changing their majors frequently, it can increase the cost of education.  In the United States, some of the cost is paid by the parents or through student loans, and the remaining is paid by the State from higher taxes imposed on all of us.
  • A better approach is needed.  There needs to be more investment in secondary schools for screening students for career aptitude and other psychological testing.  University education is more expensive and much can be saved by better testing and screening of secondary school students to help achieve national and local priorities. 
  • When the schools do not invest sufficient resources to help the student determine the careers, it is important for the family to invest resources and time.  The approach adopted by Sri Lankan Tamils to encourage all their children to be medical doctors or engineers is not sufficient when other professional approaches and lucrative careers exist. The Princeton Review is an excellent resource to use in guiding your decisions about selecting a college and your major. 
  • A family that does not invest time and resources on their high school student, can't complain later about high student loans and/or high taxes. 
      
    Share Your Experience:  When and how did you make your decision regarding your college major?

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