How will the college classes I pick help prepare me for my career?

Hi Sarah,
Having been a department chair at a university, I can reassure you that when programs are designed with specific courses for a major, those courses are considered vital and foundational for the career you plan to enter. College departments are typically led by very knowledgeable leaders who pride themselves in knowing what particularly skills and information you'll need to succeed in that discipline after graduation. Keep in mind that the college has a vested interest in making sure that you're ready for the working world; their reputation would suffer if their graduates were not prepared or incapable of performing in the job for which they've received a degree. When you get to college, you'll have an academic advisor who can answer all of your questions and guide you through the course load to make sure you have the best possible chance to become an outstanding contributor to your field and community. In fact, I'll bet that since you're an incoming freshman, you can contact the university and speak directly with the person with whom you'll be working in your department even before you arrive on campus.

Majoring in speech language pathology as an undergrad was the best decision I ever made. I had the foundation I need to understand the in-depth information we tackled in graduate school. The foundation I received from the classes are still used in my clinical practice to this date almost 15 years later. And at least 40% of the questions that were on my national Praxis (back then called Nespa) exam I immediately had implanted in my brain from undergrad!

Hi Sarah,

What a great career interest you have! I know while in school it can be difficult to see how the things you are learning today can be applied to the real world of work. Mr. Podgurski's answer above is right on target. Professors in college continue to research, learn, and get published so they stay in the forefront of what is relevant for your field of work. It really sets the foundation of what you'll learn and how to apply it.

Where the differences come in is that each job, company, institution, etc. has their own distinct way of doing things. How one company issues communications to the public or government, for example, may be different than the way another company does it. However, the fundamentals, or core of communications - language, rules, grammar, etc. are the same. Your college courses will teach you those fundamentals and you'll learn on the job about how they apply those fundamentals.

Best of luck to you!