Arguably, one of the biggest decisions a college student will make is choosing a major. However, as with many significant decisions, students often struggle to make a choice. According to Best Colleges, between 20% and 50% of all college students enter higher education without declaring a major, and up to 75% switch majors at least once.

This is not necessarily a problem. Choosing a major determines how students spend a significant portion of their time in college and can influence their  long-term career path. However, uncertainty and anxiety often push students toward a “safe” major rather than one that is best for them. For a significant number of undecided students, literature may be a stronger option than they assume. 

It is important to narrow the scope of this claim. The argument is not that everyone should become a literature major or pursue a career as a copywriter. I mean that for the hordes of college students out there who have no clue whatsoever what they want to do with their life, literature is a better field of study than something like business administration or supply chain management.

To show why literature is better than the other options for lost undergrads, we have to determine why people pick majors when they aren’t passionate about them. Luckily, I think 99% of people already know the answer to this one: it’s money. That, and they probably heard that the market for jobs in that field is good. So people pick these majors because they have heard that there’s a lot of easy money to be made by working in those fields.

Admittedly, it’s hard to argue against huge piles of free money. But for any current college student, those piles of money are imaginary, and if they do end up becoming real, they will have to get paid towards the equally huge mountain of debt you’ll be carrying around once you graduate. So why not spend some of your time in college trying to find your passion, instead of cash? I guarantee predatory interest rates will be a lot less likely to take that from you.

You may be thinking that you’re just as likely to find your passion in a business law class as you are in world literature, but that would be a mistake. You see, when studying Business or some other market-driven major, even when you try to branch out with your electives, all you are really doing at the end of the day is exploring the college and its offerings, which can be great, but unless you are truly lucky, you won’t find something that really sets your soul on fire at a meeting for the Real Estate club.

When you’re studying literature, however, every core class has you really exploring the world you live on, not just the campus. You see the world through the eyes and words of poets, artists, and great thinkers. Instead of spending time studying shifts in consumer sentiment, you’re spending it looking at all the different ways people live their lives, and hopefully those glimpses through the grand kaleidoscope of human experience will show you a little bit of something that really inspires you and shows you a path towards really feeling fulfilled in your life in a way an internship at Chase Bank never could.

If you did a lot of looking into potential majors before going to college, you may be thinking of a big, as-of-yet undisclosed hole in my argument. Of all the majors commonly offered at universities and colleges throughout the country, the one people most often regret getting a degree in…is literature. Et tu, Brute? 

But if you’re thinking that completely deflates my argument, you may be misunderstanding the situation. As a Lit major myself, I know better than most how horrid the job market I face when I graduate will be, and I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy. But I’m not saying you should get a lit degree. In fact, you almost certainly should not, simply speaking practically. But you should study lit. Take a few classes, open yourself up to experiencing things you wouldn’t have otherwise, and if you can’t find your passion that way, switch back to your money-making major and become the best godsdamned middle manager Goldman Sachs has ever seen. But hopefully, today I was able to convince you to take a chance on finding your passion by showing you just how majorly lit differs from the rest.