Choosing a Major
One of the biggest choices of college and my take on it as a web professional.
Recently I covered whether or not I thought college was a necessary endeavor. Now I’d like to touch on what many would think of the next basic step in the debate over college. “What major should I choose?”
Now if you’re looking to get in to the web design / development realm there is one big choice you have to decide about yourself. Decide what area you’d like to be included in when you go to the business world. Would you want to do more programming aspects, more graphical aspects, or be well versed in working for yourself?
Programmers
The debate is on going about individual people’s opinions of the majors that would work better but in any case a computing major at a technical school would be the best suited for someone who wants to get in to web programming.
Computer Science, Software Engineering, and Information Technology will all give you a lot of background in general and typical programming aspects, mostly software versus web. But this base in good programming style and technique will definitely help make you a better web programmer.
Designers
The only real choice for students interested in designing would be to go to an art school, or at least a school that has a well developed art program. You should be looking into the graphic design, print design, or new media design programs to get a good basis in design for the web.
Meanwhile while taking this major you should also look at getting a wide base in other elective areas as well. Maybe business or marketing.
Self-Employed
If you want to do more on your own than “working for the man” I would recommend you go to a school with a good business or marketing department. Get your degree in that and in your spare time learn what you want on your own in web development.
By doing this you will also be able to salvage your career if the web development industry dries up. You’ll still be able to have a degree that can translate into other fields and work wonders for you.
The real thing to remember in all this is that it is a personal and case-by-case decision. There is no universal answer, I can just provide my own personal opinions and insights to try and help others get along.