The following post is written by Aaron Johnson from University of North Texas, one of our many friends at Uloop, a student powered marketplace. Read more great posts in their blog.

With college classes well underway, many, myself included, look to the ever-daunting decision of picking a major. Do I want business? Engineering? Journalism? Art? A foreign language? What does this do for me, anyway? What if I hate it?

Academic advisors kept asking me what I liked to do, and my reply continued to be: everything. While there were a few obvious things (most involving too much math) I knew I didn’t want to do, there were very few things I couldn’t see myself doing on the long list of majors they displayed for us.

As I continued to go to these advising sessions, I slowly began to narrow my choices down to a few. I don’t want to do something just because I’d make money; I want to do something I enjoy, or at least tolerate. I want to learn about it before I choose something. Thus, I continued to take exploratory classes.

As you look for what you’d like to choose in a major, don’t settle for something simply because you could see yourself doing it, or you think you’d make bank doing it. All too often you see people returning to college because their first go-round left them getting lots of money, but miserable, as they couldn’t stand the career path they had chosen. Read More »

Since school is right around the corner, I thought I’d give a list of some of my favorite inspirational and informative books for school. Whether they help you in deciding your major or cooking up a mean dinner, these books are a college student’s best friends (next to the microwave, Vitamin Water and Jersey Shore).

1. What Color is Your Parachute? by Richard Nelson Bolles
We’ve all taken those online quizzes about your future career, but have you ever really done a personality assessment to see what career is going to suit you best? “Parachute” has been around for years and is considered one of the foremost books on the subject. It’s not a short read, but it will get you to really evaluate every part of what makes you, you! By breaking down your strengths and weaknesses, you will find out not only what job will make you happy, but also what field you will find success in. My parents bought this for me after high school and I chucked it to the back of my bookshelf. However, after my first year of university, I dug it out and read through. I feel like it really assured me that I had switched into the right program for me.

2. How to Cook Everything, by Mark Bittman
This book is a life-saver for anyone who needs to cook their own meals. I consider myself fairly capable in the kitchen, but this book helped me expand my skills and taught me the basics. There are chapters on how to cook simple things like meat and pasta, which are then followed with recipes where you can test your new knowledge. I find that once you have a basic understanding of how to cook your food (like thawing your chicken breast, cooking it in a pan with oil, etc), you can combine them to create all sorts of great meals!

3. The Alchemist, by Paolo Coelho
This classic novel teaches the important lesson that, essentially, you must do what you love. It’s a short book with a powerful lesson. I think that for college students, this book can have a huge impact. It made me think about my purpose on Earth (known as your Personal Legend in the book) and totally influenced my career choice and goals. As a student, I think it’s so easy to get lost with all the pressure and distractions in life. Re-reading books like this (or The Little Prince – another great one!) every once in a while help to keep your goals in sight and your head on straight.

4. This Year I Will…, by MJ Ryan
Once you’ve decided your major and picked your classes, you’ve got to set yourself some goals! I know I sound like a broken record, but seriously! Writing your goals down for the year – whether they be academic, professional, personal, etc. – is a wonderful strategy. This book is great for helping you to not only set realistic goals (I’m going to do my best as opposed to I’m going to get the highest grade in the course), but create a plan to fulfill them through the school year. It’s designed to help you set and keep New Year’s resolutions, but there is no reason why you can’t apply it any time of the year!

5. A Great Agenda
My final book is not really a book in the “novel” sense, but it’s still crucial and probably the most important one on this list. If you’ve never used an agenda or day planner before, let this be the year! Go to your local bookstore and find a really pretty one (or, if you’re more tech savvy, use an online program!) and fill it with everything! I try to color-code mine (I know, I know – nerd alert) by class and then also for school and extra-curriculars. Seriously, once you get into the routine, you will thank me.

As a creative writing major, I’m extremely lucky to have parents who didn’t scoff at getting the arty side of a liberal arts education. My parents are voracious readers who have a high level of respect for the arts, and as a result they can be happy for me, even when my class schedule looks distinctly impractical.

Love in the Novel

Nabokov

Intro to Buddhist Thought

These are the kind of classes my parents put up with throughout my college career, with nary an Econ class to be found among the lot.

Many students feel a lot of pressure, however, to take classes that will turn around into the best profit. They know their parents are dropping some major Benjamins to keep them in a good school, and they want to return the favor by, at the very least, not making their parents go gray worrying that their children will be living in a box on the street. So they take Econ and finance classes. They try to become good little doctors and lawyers and I-bankers.

But most of the people I know taking that path aren’t particularly happy doing it. Read More »