“Why communications?”
“Don’t you want to make money when you graduate?”
“Oh, you’re a communications major…So you don’t know what you want to do yet”
“Communications is the easy one, right?”
I often find myself defending my major to these uninformed questions every time someone decides to divulge him or herself into the topic of my education while away college. Whilst they think they are asking the “hard-hitting” questions I am afraid I am way too familiar with the negativity surrounding my major of communications.
“Why would someone major in communications?”
The main question that sets the stage for the conversation, and responding to this insanely broad question is like learning to foxtrot across eggshells. One small step and you will be judged. How did I decide to go into my field--What attracted me to advertising and strategic communications? To answer it simply, what interested me in the communication field is the opportunity and the people that come along with it. You cannot categorize communications into one fragment. Its wide array of different subdivisions is what makes this field so exciting-- Broadcasting, journalism, public relations, advertising; the list goes on and on. I willingly chose this major because of all the places it can take me, the doors it has the possibility of opening, and the amazing people I can come in contact with while doing something I love.
“Don’t you want to make money when you graduate?”
In this field particularly it is understood that one should not expect to walk into a CEO position at a top advertising firm straight out of college. Rather, upon graduating I believe one must show that they have the drive to willingly start at the bottom to earn your respect in a department or agency. When working for the PR or advertising world, one must demonstrate a consistent drive for wanting to do better. That driven mindset and approachable attitude makes not only you want to do better but encourages others on your team to do the same thing. Money is one of the least of my worries because when you can find work that feels like you get paid for having fun, you know you’re in the right place.
“Oh, you’re a communications major…So you don’t know what you want to do yet”
Oh the contrary, dear stranger. I know exactly what I am getting myself into by studying communications. I think I speak on behalf of com majors everywhere when I say that the lingering stigma of “if you don’t know what you want to do, major in communications” must be terminated. Almost every student enrolled in the College of Communications is a driven, intelligent, and creative millennial wanting to make a change in the world through communications. So labeling us young and naïve is your first mistake.
“Communications is the easier major, right?”
Nothing in this world is easy. Communications may be fun, but what you get out of a communication degree is only as impressive as what you invest in it first. Every field has their individual peaks and valleys of that industry. For specific students, some classes in the College of Communications can go smoother than others, but it is unfair as an outsider to assume that by being a communications major, one can just waltz across the graduation stage in four years to be handed a degree. A lot of these blind questions are based off things seen and heard in the forefront of media and news-- the “stereotypes” of college. Although if you think our major is easy, you are sadly mistaken. We work extremely hard not only in the classroom but also in the entire student-run campus events, such as campus newspapers, internships, promotional events, and talk shows all available in our department. There is so much more to this than the in-class lectures, it is the total experience that gives the outdated statement “communications is an easy major” a false assumption.
