KEEGAN FRANCL
franclkl@lopers.unk.edu

There are three types of people in college: those who know exactly what they want to do, those who don’t know what they want to do, and those who want to do everything. 

I’m the latter. I probably switched my major seven times before my parents begged me to quit wasting their money and figure out my life. I’ve had a taste of everything. Teaching, fashion merchandising, history, art, business management, journalism, English. You name it. I probably majored in it for at least a semester. 

Finally, I sat in class one day and thought to myself that it was time I finish college already. All my friends were graduating within the year, and I would still have another two years left if I kept the current major I was in.  I visited Academic and Career Services and sat down with Amy Rundstrum and basically said, “I don’t care what degree I have when I graduate, just get me out of school,” to which she laughed and suggested the idea of obtaining a general studies degree. 

A general studies degree? My first thought was the science and math classes I painstakingly completed with barely a C+ my freshman and sophomore year of college. 

Uhh, yeah, no thanks. 

Rundstrum explained that a general studies degree actually means that you can take classes in whatever majors you want as long as they are upper division courses. Even better, I was now on track to receiving my diploma in two semesters rather than two years because all my varied classes would count toward my degree. 

This semester I am taking business management, history of film, mass communications, public policy, women’s history, and an English literature class. Switching to this degree has made college more enjoyable because now I am taking classes I am interested in and find useful. I’ve turned it in to a reward system. I took a marketing class this summer because I know those skills will be useful in my career; then to reward myself I took a film class for fun. 

So, what do you do with a general studies degree you ask? 

Well just about anything you want to. Let’s be honest, unless you want to get a specific job that requires a specific degree, you can get a job anywhere with any degree. For example, the vice president of the women’s buying team at Buckle has a criminal justice degree, not a fashion merchandising degree. 

It’s truly all about your ambition and experience. Take classes you’re interested in and gain skills you think will benefit you in your career such as graphic design, marketing, or journalism. Work for someone local, volunteer on campus, or get an internship to gain that important resume experience that your employers will look for. No one at Buckle cared what my degree was. They hired me because I volunteered to help a local boutique buy and market their product and had the experience they were looking for. 

So if you’re a lost soul like I was, burning through your college fund, consider a general studies degree and explore what UNK has to offer.