Some people believe that college students should consider only their own talents and interests when choosing a field of study Others believe that college students should base their choice of a field of study on the availability of jobs in that field

When a student enters college,he is at a stage where he may or may not be fully aware of his talent,interests, the amount of passion he posseses in pursuing those interests, the limitation of his abilities and most important where he finally sees himself if he goes on to pursue those interests. It is a stage where their perceptions about themselves, their ambitions and the world where they live in, are in the varying stages of attaining maturity. However,when it comes to the choice of the subjects in college, some people believe that college students should consider only their own talents and interests when choosing a field of study while others believe that they should base their choice of a field of study on the availability of jobs in that field.

In this case,both the stands taken here are a little too extreme.They both make the assumption that, either before choosing a subject a student is aware or has been made aware of all the implications of his choice of subjects, or he does not have any means of obtaining such knowledge about the choice of subjects he is going to make. In the first case, if the student is aware of the implications of his choices through counselling sesions on the part of college or any other source, he should surely go for the subjects in which he is interested, provided after the counselling session his interests haven't changed. In the second case the decision should lie with the student after he has been made aware of the implications of his choice.

Once,the student's interests are decided, he should surely go for a pursuit of those subjects where his talents and interests lie. However, there is a catch to this statement, a student maight be a good painter but that doesn't necessarily mean that he dreams of becoming a painter as his talents lie there. He might be interested in pursuing some other field such as engineeering which coincidentally provides good jobs too. So even interests may be different from talent. Thus, once a student is made aware of the implications of his choice of subjects he has sufficient maturity to take the decison. So he should go for the subjects which interest him the most.

There is an another angle to this choice too.At the end people are more staisfied if they are allowed to do what they are truly interested in. However,family issues and financial conditions can make a person go for jobs in which his ineterest doesn't lie. In such cases it is upto the person or the student to take a decision which should be based on his immediate priorities. For example, a student of arts is aiming to be a painter. If he comes from a wealthy family, he can certainly pursue his interest without any difficulties as earning money will not be his first priority. However, a student from a humble background may have different priorities, he might be wanting to be a painter but might end up choosing engineering or commerce studies as his subjects so as to be able to improve his families living conditions. However,such a student might have a burning passion for painting and might be ready to make compromises with his poverty to pursue his dream.

Summing up, the decison to take up subjects in college should be fully based on the students views, his needs and priorities at that given point of time and the strength of his will and passion to pursue his interests.