Risk

Neither of my parents went to college and I don’t have any older siblings, so I haven’t really had the opportunity to watch first-hand as someone went through the process of choosing a major and finding a job. With this being the case, I have been for the most part guessing at what the best choices for myself would be.

I am definitely concerned about how the decisions I make now will impact my future, especially in regards to reducing income risk. My decision to attend college in the first place is partially motivated by my desire to make sure I can get the type of professional job I will be likely to want in the future. I know that my access to many jobs is dependent on whether or not I have a college degree, so in order to alleviate some of the income risk, I choose to earn a college degree.

My choice of major was originally made because of what seemed like a good choice in the present, however since them I have added a second major and minor, all with the intention of reducing my income risk. I originally decided that my major would be economics. I chose this major because I really enjoyed the AP Macroeconomics course I took in high school, so I figured that economics would be a good decision for my major because it was something I would enjoy learning about. This decision was based on what seemed like a good choice “in the here and now.”

After I began my first semester at UIUC, I decided to add a major in communication. I made this decision purely as a way of (hopefully) reducing income risk in the future. My thinking was that communication skills would be marketable in any job, and could also serve as a ‘back-up’ degree if I either decided not to get a job working with economics, or if I could not find a job working in that field.

Next, I decided to add a minor in mathematics. This decision was, once again, made only on the basis that I assumed it would help reduce income risk in the future. I found, though, that I really did not enjoy taking the heavy math courses. I chose to drop the math minor for two reasons. My choice was based mostly on the “here and now” because I did not want to keep taking math courses. I also wanted to reduce income risk though; I didn’t want poor grades in these math courses to negatively impact my future chances at getting into grad schools or getting a good job. Instead, I will get a minor in business. This will be more enjoyable for me now, but I figure it will also be beneficial in increasing my credentials for future employment.

My decisions have, for the most part, been made with the plan of reducing income risk in the future, however what seems best now has also been a motivation in my decisions, even if a minor one. If I had to describe my decisions as far as my educational path, I would say that I make choices based on reducing future income risk, except in the situation where I really don’t like the result of that ‘risk-reducing’ decision, at which point I will resort to making decisions based on the present.