Ok, as someone who majored in something unrelated (International Relations) to what I'm doing now (web development), and having run a business since high school, I think I can give you some insight.
Get a degree with something practical underlying. I wish I had done econ as a second major, or minor. But more for purely intellectual reasons (what financial motivations cause people to do things). Your major is really 60 ( i think, its been a while) of your 120 credits, in some cases its even less.
So use your 20-30 remaining courses wisely. This whole idea of telling people you majored in something imaginary will honestly make you look more like a smug a-hole for years to come than clever, and people won't take you as seriously as you are taking yourself. think about how this sounds "I majored in life studies".
However I highly recommend working on your communication skills, take lots of classes where you have to write analytical papers on a variety of subjects. The greatest businessmen are also great communicators. They know how to convey their pitch and turn it into sales.
take a media studies course or two, take an intro to marketing course, take commercial law (one of my fav courses), take an international business class, and before you realize it you've just knocked out a minor in business/commerce.
Math wise, talk to an advisor in that department, your goal seems to fall under 2 courses: statistics, and financial math. both very useful. Calculus and higher may not really solve your issue.
History wise, you're on track here to understand human nature, and likely sharpen your paper writing skills here.
don't forget to take a science course or two, even if they aren't complicated/hard science classes, you want to avoid a narrow-focus and expose yourself to great minds all over.
you might also think about taking an introductory Computer Science or engineering class. I wish I had taken more of these as well.
One of the key things you're going to need is a good advisor or multiple advisors. Most advisors in college don't care about your track, they are just forced to help you, and have a huge volume of students to deal with. Here is an insider tip (both my parents are college profs): look through the course lists, find ones that interest you, and look up the teacher's email. Shoot them an email, tell them you'd like to pick their brain, and want some advice on their field. See if they are free, and if you can come by their office hours. People LOVE to think others find them interesting. Before you know it you'll have a handful of advisors, many whom could help you in your business pursuits as well.
so in conclusion, get a real major as its going to help you be more marketable to others (think people investing in YOU, long term). Take a bunch of interesting classes, don't be afraid to take a class in another department (just ask, they'll let you in), and if you plan correctly, you can probably knock out a bunch of minors w/overlapping courses.
Thanks for this excellent response, it's something thats been on my mind. A lot of what I want to do is in communications but it sounds stupid to say I majored in communications. The name is important.
But here's my issue; anything that sounds sexy for business doesn't work for me
Marketing Management - A lot of this looks interesting, but here's my thing: It seems, from my experience, people with marketing degrees are no better at marketing than others.
Management - These classes look useless to me.
Economics - I'm not interested in the macro part of the economy as a career
Finance - I'm not interested in large scale money management and investing.
So my solution is an ad hoc major. I wouldn't have to call it "life studies" or another lame name. I could pretty much call it whatever I want, right?
Okay, why are you going to school? To learn some things? To get some paper? Both? To party? Oh, actually, let me break the "learn some things" down... To learn some job-applicable things in classes? To learn some non-directly-job-applicable things in classes? To learn about people who think differently from the people you met in high school?
All of these are good reasons to do post-secondary education. Lots of them are compatible with each other, too. But if you don't care about some of them, don't optimize for those things. With that in mind...
A lot of people are talking about the on-paper value of your degree, and you appear to be interested in that. I'm not sure that's actually right for you; it appears to me that you're on a career path where no one will ever care about your degree. Moreover, even in careers where the presence of a degree matters, the nature of that degree might not; some jobs just say "must have degree" on them, and that's that. Some jobs do care, but those are rare rare rare. So, I doubt that you actually need to focus much on the paper value of your degree.
That said, let's talk about the paper value of your degree. First, school choice. I'm a Canadian, I assume you're American, so this may be wrong, but I think that cheap US schools ("cheap city college"?) have very low brand value. (As I understand it, for a first-world country, the range of brand value in schools in the US is very high... some very very high-brand-value schools, and some very very low ones, and a whole range in between.)
And now, I'll get to the major. Normally you don't get to name your own major. There are exceptions to this, some of which are high-prestige. For example, Will Shortz does love to brag about his degree. But in general, if your major isn't a "real major", it's a joke. Also, many schools have a "not-really-any-major" option, which may be called General Studies, or something like that. Or, my school has an option to get a degree with no major, but two "extended minors". These nothing-major degrees are all very low-prestige.
But remember, maybe you don't care about the paper value of your degree.
brand value has a BIG importance in the US. you are basically buying your way into a separate class of opportunities.
Also the opportunity cost of getting a branded/respected degree is MUCH lower now than in say 20 years from now. You are buying a safety net.
also the fact that most "marketing" majors know squat about practical marketing is irrelevant, most students lack the ambition and foresight to break beyond their major of study. you're showing us now through this thread you're thinking ahead.
no one will be more impressed if you have a self-named degree over being a marketing major, but proving yourself an expert in web marketing analytics (which you become on your own, and build up your brand).
Get a degree with something practical underlying. I wish I had done econ as a second major, or minor. But more for purely intellectual reasons (what financial motivations cause people to do things). Your major is really 60 ( i think, its been a while) of your 120 credits, in some cases its even less.
So use your 20-30 remaining courses wisely. This whole idea of telling people you majored in something imaginary will honestly make you look more like a smug a-hole for years to come than clever, and people won't take you as seriously as you are taking yourself. think about how this sounds "I majored in life studies".
However I highly recommend working on your communication skills, take lots of classes where you have to write analytical papers on a variety of subjects. The greatest businessmen are also great communicators. They know how to convey their pitch and turn it into sales.
take a media studies course or two, take an intro to marketing course, take commercial law (one of my fav courses), take an international business class, and before you realize it you've just knocked out a minor in business/commerce.
Math wise, talk to an advisor in that department, your goal seems to fall under 2 courses: statistics, and financial math. both very useful. Calculus and higher may not really solve your issue.
History wise, you're on track here to understand human nature, and likely sharpen your paper writing skills here.
don't forget to take a science course or two, even if they aren't complicated/hard science classes, you want to avoid a narrow-focus and expose yourself to great minds all over.
you might also think about taking an introductory Computer Science or engineering class. I wish I had taken more of these as well.
One of the key things you're going to need is a good advisor or multiple advisors. Most advisors in college don't care about your track, they are just forced to help you, and have a huge volume of students to deal with. Here is an insider tip (both my parents are college profs): look through the course lists, find ones that interest you, and look up the teacher's email. Shoot them an email, tell them you'd like to pick their brain, and want some advice on their field. See if they are free, and if you can come by their office hours. People LOVE to think others find them interesting. Before you know it you'll have a handful of advisors, many whom could help you in your business pursuits as well.
so in conclusion, get a real major as its going to help you be more marketable to others (think people investing in YOU, long term). Take a bunch of interesting classes, don't be afraid to take a class in another department (just ask, they'll let you in), and if you plan correctly, you can probably knock out a bunch of minors w/overlapping courses.