Monday, June 28, 2010

Tips for choosing a college major from blindness perspective

The following is based on my experiences...
To all new blind college students,
Around this time, students who have graduated from high schools would be starting a big transition period - adjusting to college life. From under the guidance of a teacher to being independent, it is not an easy for anyone, particularly those who are blind or visually impaired. Another chllanege for us - blind guys - is how do we choose a correct major to help us succeed in college, and in extension, get a job and succeed in life. Thus, I'd like to offer quite a few tips for choosing your major from blindness perspective:
Tip 1: Be sure to preview what you are going to study at college. Some majors may seem interesting at first, but upon listening to the first lecture, students would be tempted to switch to another major. I had friends who thought computer science would be an easy course - just sit down and think about amazing games to program. But upon listening to the first C++ or Java lecture and getting the assignments, they struggled to understand how to even write Hello World program. I had a friend who was going through the same episode - in the end, he changed his major to something else. So, be sure to preview your major - do some reading over the summer about what you'll studying, ask professors or older students who were in that major to see what they think of that major.
Tip 2: Choose a major that you definitely have a passion for. If you are passionate about humanities major, go for it; if it is sciences or engineering, go for it. If you don't have passion for your major, chances are that you might want to change your major.
Tip 3: If you really have to change a major, try out your major one more time, then switch to another one. If you had a bad professor or if you didn't understand the material on the first lecture, try the same classes 9maybe with different instructors) in the upcoming semester to really make sure that the major you've selected was indeed the one you want to study. For instance, there were instances in my own college life that I thought I should change my major to something else; however, after going through another quarter with my major (taking the same classes again) and getting confidence with programming, I decided to stick to CS for now.
Hope this helps out here... Good luck in college for new college students...

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