Majors and Minors
As a liberal arts student, you have a wide range of majors and career options open to you.
Choosing a Major
How did you choose your major?
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>> Well, I took a psych class and a cell bio class my freshman year and I like both classes a lot and so neuroscience seems to be a good combination of the two.
>> I went to the academic fair my freshman year, I really thought that I was gonna be a science major and then I saw Professor Donadio and Professor Bertolini at the literary studies table chair. I went over and had a conversation with them about war and peace and they told me, you’re really into this and you need to be a literary studies major, I was like, I guess this is it then.
>> Well, before I came to Midd I was pretty sure that I was going to do political science as one of my majors, mostly because it’s kind of been a passion of mine since I was really young.
>> Growing up I was exposed to my Latin American heritage, but not its history. So coming to Midd I decided to take various courses, and in doing so I realize that I really enjoyed them. So soon after I decided to get some help, not often from my professors but from some career advisers. So I stopped by the CCI and I was able to get the resources and tools that I needed to carry out what I wanted to do at Midd.
>> Well, I am a psychology major and I decided, pretty last minute actually, like probably two weeks before the official deadline during our sophomore fall, And I just had taken such a random assortment of classes my first year at Middlebury. And then when I tried to come up or find a coherent theme across all of them or just my general life interests, I realized that I was really drawn to understanding how human beings interact with each other and how do they interact with their own minds.
>> I moved from a different major just last semester, and I think it was because I was feeling the need to put my passion and my skills into work. And so now I’m a film major and I’m really feeling happy about spending all of my creative energy.
>> At the end of my first year, I had taken two geography class, but I was still feeling pretty uncertain. And then over the summer I got an internship and I was funded by the CCI, I worked at NOAA on a geographic modeling project. So I got some more exposure to like spatial thinking in the real world, and that really helped me solidify my interest in geography and so now I’m a geography major.
>> Freshmen year I took a class in my major now which is Gender Studies, and it was kind of just a filler class, I wanted to test out a bunch of different waters. And I completely fell in love with it, and
then I just kept taking classes as my college career kept going.
>> Dance was the interpersonal connection, the narratives I was able to tell really drew me, and the people, they were real.
>> I was originally a physics major and a computer science minor. And I went abroad and I only took computer science classes because I couldn’t use any credits for the physics major so I thought, why not? And I realized while I was only taking computer science classes that this is something I really enjoyed, it’s something I really wanted to do. I went over to the CCI, I talked to some advisers, I’m like, this is kind of like the direction I want to go in, this is the kind of jobs I want to do. And ultimately I decided wit some help that it made sense that I would switch majors, because I could, it wasn’t an issue of credit, it was more of an issue of what do I wanna do with the rest of my life, what should I be studying, and it just made sense to do computer science.
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Selecting a major at Middlebury is an exciting point in your academic career, but it may also feel like a big decision.
In addition to your first-year seminar advisors, other faculty, upperclassmen, peers, alumni, family, the team at the CCI is happy to offer advice and resources to help you in this decision.
Guides by Major and Minor
CCI has developed guides that offer valuable information on learning goals specific to majors and minors. These guides also provide suggestions for campus involvement, internships, and real-life career examples of Middlebury alumni. To access these resources, simply download the major and minor guides that interest you.
Field Guide Events
During the academic year, meet Middlebury alumni from a specific major at a CCI Field Guide event. Alumni come to campus to discuss how the liberal arts and their major have had an impact on their life and career decisions. See upcoming and past field guides.
Network
Middlebury alumni build meaningful and dynamic careers in every field you can imagine, from every major. Students can find our alumni and discover the many interesting and creative ways our graduates apply their liberal arts learning to engage the world by searching Midd2Midd, our on-line alumni/student community.
- Check out a list of previous internships and sort by major to get ideas from your peers.
- Check out Midd2Midd for more ways to connect with Middlebury’s broad and engaged alumni network.
Meet with an Advisor
CCI career advisors provide guidance to help you think through decisions about majors and potential career paths. Make an appointment in Handshake.
Additional Guides
What Can I Do With This Major?
Developed by the University of Tennessee Center for Career Development, this is a good working list across a wide variety of majors. The information can give you ideas about career fields that might interest you, but don’t limit your thinking to only these areas—you can pursue a variety of post-graduate goals with any academic major, especially as a liberal arts graduate. The CCI holds a subscription to this site for future reference.