Mullahy 1

Meagan Mullahy
Devin Patten
English 1010
July 16, 2015
Doing What You Love
In the article, If Students Are Smart, Theyll Major In What They Love, Cecilia
Gaposchkin expresses her thoughts about how college students should choose a major, and
provides ideas about the challenges that students face when doing so. Gaposchkin points out the
many questions that college students are frequently asked when making decisions about their
education What are you going to do with that? What do you want to do with your life?
Who do you want to be? These questions appear to be pretty critical and demanding, and like
Gaposchkin says, Such responses are based on the premise that choosing a major amounts to
choosing a career path, and thus a particular financial future, a degree of security, a lifestyle, an
entire identity. Gaposchkin explains that the aim for a liberal arts education is that it is not the
structure of a major that is most important, in terms of employment, but rather a graduates skills
to work and think through their majors information. She argues that the education maintained in
2015 will be out of date by 2020, and the assumption that selecting a major is essentially
selecting a career is a misconception. She believes that academic advisers and professors should
be aware of how extensive these misconceptions can be, and they should provide direction to
their students when making these decisions.
With Gaposchkins liberal arts mindset she claims, To assume a necessary link between
particular courses of study and students career prospects is to limit their options, and in many

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cases, their capacity for discovery and intellectual growth. She explains that when dealing with
practical majors, professors become overloaded due to large class sizes that are filled with
uninterested individuals, and in turn the educational experiences fall short and become less
individualized. Because of this, Gaposchkin believes that a student who studies something they
are truly excited about, rather than stressing about a practical major, they then have the ability to
be smarter and more creative; and this is what is valued most by employers.
This article argues that a Liberal Arts education is the best education. Illustrated by
Cecilia Gaposchkin, this type of education allows students to experience smaller classes, which
in turn provides them with a more individualized education. Liberal arts sifts through the
information that is viewed most valuable to a student after graduation, instead of filling their
education with things that will most likely be, as Gaposchkin puts it, obsolete later in life. Also,
Liberal Arts education is based on the idea that it is not the major itself that is crucial for a career,
nor does it define a students career. Instead, Liberal Arts educators believe that its how a student
applies their education and knowledge to the profession they end up in. Further, an individuals
ability to read, write, research, communicate, and think creatively is what is most important.
Cecilia Gaposchkin never gives direct detail to who she is or what she does, and because
of this I feel she lacks credibility. However, she does give little hints about herself. In her article
she says, As professors and academic advisers, we must be mindful of Company
representatives who recruit at my college So, I believe she is either a professor, an academic
advisor, or maybe a dean at a Liberal Arts college; and this makes her somewhat credible as a
writer and qualified to discuss this topic. Gaposchkin provides information about a number of
individuals including the writers and directors of The Lego Movie and 21 Jump Street, as well as

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professors and alumni from Dartmouth College; which also contributes to her reliability about
the subject at hand.
Cecilia Gaposchkin does a good job appealing to her readers, and speaks to both students
and intellectuals. She relates to students by discussing the exhausting questions that are so often
asked of them, What do you want to be? What do you want to do with your life? And then
talks about how advisors and professors can help the students through their decisions. This
shows empathy, and an understanding of what all college students go through, and brings
attention to teachers about how they can help the situation.
Gaposchkins overall message is pretty clear as she is attempting to persuade readers that
the best education is a Liberal Arts education. She doesnt necessarily want or hope for people to
act on this position, but rather she wants people to achieve a better understanding of this type of
education. The point at which her message is strongest is at the very end in her conclusion. She
says,
By releasing students from the pressure of the practical major and allowing them to
study what they are sincerely interested in, we allow them to become smarter, more
creative, and more able. This is what potential employers value, not course content that
is likely to be obsolete once they have finished training the recent graduate.
She also gives examples of how many individuals have majored in one thing and later attained a
career in something totally different; but they still use the education they acquired in their field
of study in their jobs. Examples of this situation provided by Gaposchkin include: Jake Tapper,
CNNs chief Washington correspondent, majored in history; Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who

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wrote and directed The Lego Movie and directed 21 Jump Street, majored in government and art
history, respectively.
As for myself, I am pretty open to persuasion with this topic. I am currently a dance
instructor and have been a dancer since I was two years old. It is what I am passionate about, it
is was I love, what I eat, sleep, drink, and breathe; and ever since I started dancing I knew that
being a dancer was what I was going to do with my life. However, after graduating high school
all I have heard is Well can you make a career out of that? What will you do with that? Is
that really what you want to do? Well, after reading this I know that is what Im going to do. It
is what I love doing, so why not study it instead of something I might be somewhat interested in?

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WorksCited
CeciliaGaposchkin.IfStudentsAreSmart,TheyllMajorinWhatTheyLove.
TheChroniclesOfHigherEducation.n.p.21May2015.Web.16July2015