During my first semester as a freshman in the Exploration major at the Ohio State University, I have been exposed to several majors that the university offers. One such major is International Studies, which I discovered as I was researching various Arts and Sciences majors in my survey class by utilizing a helpful major exploration tool: the simple exercise of going through Ohio State’s list of majors and crossing off those that I have no interest in. This helped me narrow down my options to several majors including International Studies. I visited the web page for International Studies which gave me a general understanding of the major and because I have an interest in learning about other cultures in an international context, I thought that I would interview a student in the International Studies major to get their perspective on the major. At first, I used the Senior Bank search engine to find a couple of seniors to interview but in the end I found a student in my Spanish 3401 course, Chloe Greening, who is a fourth year student at OSU, and is in the International Studies major specializing in International Relations and Diplomacy.
I began the interview by asking Chloe when and why she chose to major in International Studies and specialize in International Relations and Diplomacy. Chloe explained to me that she “came in wanting to do health sciences and be a respiratory therapist;” however, during her sophomore year at Ohio State, she applied to the Respiratory Therapy major and was not admitted. I knew that the Respiratory Therapy major was competitive, however Chloe told me that the only twenty-two students are admitted to the major. This information both surprised me and reiterated the importance of having an alternative major as a backup plan. After learning that she did not get into the major that she hoped for, Chloe said that she took a step back and reanalyzed what she wanted from her college experience. She mentioned that she took several hard science courses like Chemistry 1220 and physics for her intended Respiratory Therapy major, but that she did not truly enjoy those courses. So, rather than continue with those types of courses and re-apply to the major her junior year, she decided to switch majors. In addition, Chloe commented that she did not “really have a passion for” respiratory therapy in general and said that she had always been interested in other cultures and always got along with the immigrant parents of others from places such as “Yugoslavia, Ethiopia, and Nigeria.” In the end, her interests, coupled with the fact that the International Studies major is non-competitive, lead to her decision to choose this major.
Taking into account the fact that Chloe intended on completing a major that differs considerably from her current major, I asked her if she feels that she made the right choice in her major. Chloe said that she feels that she “made the right choice for herself.” She commented that she thinks that if she had more of a brain geared toward the sciences and had more of an interest in them, then she would have stayed on her major track or switched to another that related to health sciences. Despite this, Chloe regrets her late decision to start a new major. Although the International Studies major as a Bachelor of Arts only takes two years to complete, the major requires students to minor in a foreign language, and her need to complete the courses for her Spanish minor will cause her to graduate in five years rather than four. Not only did choosing to switch her major and beginning to take classes towards her new major at the beginning of her junior year prevent her from graduating in four years, it also prevented her from pursuing a double major or additional minor, which she otherwise would have elected to do. I was surprised that the International Studies major can be completed in two years, because as an undecided student and an indecisive person in general, if I end up in a situation where I switch my major later in my college career, there will still be time to complete the International Studies major and graduate in four years, especially since I am already taking course to complete at least a Spanish minor. While switching my major so late in my time spent at college is not ideal, it is helpful to know that the option still exists, and if I choose to major in International Studies even earlier, there will be a chance for me to complete a double major.
Chloe also pointed out that although she is ultimately happy with her choice to switch to the International Studies major, there are “pros and cons of it being a broad major.” One aspect that she considers a con is that it is up to the student to find a career that works for his or her interests, and this amount of control over a one’s future can seem daunting. Chloe initially did not like this because she would prefer to know exactly what career she will have after graduation. However, she noted that this control can also be considered a pro because students are not “locked in” to one specific career path such as those in Respiratory Therapy or Education majors would be. Another aspect of the International Studies major that Chloe feels is a pro to a broad major like International Studies is that students learn valuable, transferable, skills, such as communication skills, that they can use in a wide variety of jobs. The value of transferable skills was discussed in both my survey class and a College of Arts and Sciences lecture that I attended, so I thought that this interview helped to reinforce this point.
As I previously mentioned, I did not know the specifics of the International Studies major before interviewing Chloe so I wanted to know more about the courses that she is taking to complete her major. Chloe told me that one of her favorite courses she has taken is Geography 3701, which is called “Making of the Modern World.” She said that this course covers a range of topics, and although the course itself “is pretty dry” due to the high volume of data discussed by the professor during his lecture, she thought that the course presented interesting information about global populations, immigration (immigration to the United States and to other countries around the world), and “how the movement of people is beneficial for economies.” Prior to this interview, I thought that a geography course would focus more on maps and physical characteristics of the Earth rather than the movement of people on Earth and their interactions within it, so I am glad that she dispelled my misconceptions. Chloe mentioned that she is currently taking another geography course called “Political Geography” which is an elective for her major that she likes as well, so if I switch to the International Studies major I know now of two possible courses that I could take, at least if I specialize in International Relations and Diplomacy.
I also had the chance to ask Chloe if there were any courses that she enjoyed taking that fell outside her major. She mentioned two such courses: Microbiology 4000 and English 2202, “Selected Works of British Literature: 1800 to Present.” Chloe said that she liked her British literature course because her “professor was very enthusiastic about teaching,” “the class had a clear structure” in which they discussed four different styles of British literature correlating to different time periods, and also because they read pieces that interested her. Chloe enjoyed microbiology because although there was a lot of information in the course, it was clear to her that her professor wanted his students to learn, and the labs in the course interested her when compared to the labs in her chemistry courses. Although I will not have time to take English 2202 during my time at OSU, because of Chloe’s recommendation, I will now consider Microbiology as a possibility to fulfill one of my science general education credits.
Other than her coursework, I asked Chloe if she has been involved in any extracurricular activities and what plans she has for after graduation. She said that she has not really done much with International Studies outside of her classes, in part because of her late switch to the major, but she knows that “a lot people in her major do CCWA” (The Collegiate Council of World Affairs). She also informed me that she currently takes a model United Nations class and knows a few people who are involved in the Model United Nations club at OSU. Other than these two extracurricular experiences, Chloe told me that she does not know anyone who is doing research for International Studies, but does know several people who are doing study abroad which she plans to do and recommended that I do. Chloe is unsure of what exactly she wants to do after graduation but is “leaning towards going to school more” (graduate school). Additionally, she mentioned that people in her major work for nonprofits, defense centers, or for the government such as in a governor’s office in the United States, in the United Nations, or on another international level. If she were in graduate school, Chloe feels that she would be interested in legal matters having to do with international relations such as being an attorney involved in the international adoption process, an interest that stems from the fact that her parents adopted her from China.
After our conducting this interview, my choice of what major I will pursue has not changed drastically, because I am still considering other majors such as Education and Speech and Hearing Science, however it is reassuring to know that I would be able to double major in International Studies and Spanish (I have a desire to work towards a Spanish major if I can fit it in with another major) or another major. Even though I gained valuable information from my interview with Chloe, I will do further research into International Studies because of its broad nature before I can confidently declare it as my major. Some of the things that I will look into are the different specializations of the major (International Relations and Diplomacy, Latin American studies, and Global Studies all sound interesting to me) and the types of jobs that people graduating with a major in International Studies have other than those mentioned by Chloe. I feel as though it would be useful to interview other students who are in other specializations of the International Studies major, or, as Chloe suggested to me, meet with an advisor for International Studies to talk about major requirements and hone in on my interests. To find interviewees, I could use the senior bank which I would consider a useful major exploration tool in that I am able to use it to find students who are prepared to graduate from their major and can provide insight on their experiences within their major and guidance on any actions that I could take to pursue the same major (that cannot be found on a university website alone), like Chloe did for me during this interview.
Overall, I felt that hearing Chloe’s experience of switching from the Respiratory Therapy major to an International Studies major was helpful because it reinforced the idea that I have heard in my survey class and from other peers that following your interests and strengths in college rather than choosing a major because of its career outlook or high wages will aid in establishing happiness and a sense of fulfillment in your life. I will use the information from this interview and my survey class, as well as information I continue to gather from appointments with academic advisors to guide me on my journey of choosing a major and graduating from the Ohio State University.