As the halfway point in the semester comes and goes, students are tasked with preparing for the ebbs and flows of next year. The end of this semester is creeping up, and class registration is coming up. As a first-year student, course registration last semester was incredibly daunting and stressful with the latest time slots, the competition for spots in core requirements, and the indecisiveness of majors and minors. My route for studies this year was unexpected. Only a year ago, I applied to Tulane as a Psychology major, decided I wanted to be a journalist, took Psychology courses in the first semester, and this semester dropped and unexpectedly signed up for several Philosophy classes, my newfound minor. I am double majoring in English and Communications as I aspire to be a journalist. However, Tulane doesn’t have a journalism major, so instead, I get involved in journalistic practices through The Crescent. As college students, we are indecisive, have to consider our time management, and have never had significant freedom to pick and choose classes. In the initial “college process,” it seems like majors can guide the schools we apply to, what programs we look into, and what scholarships we apply to. However, if there’s anything this past year has taught me, it is that young minds are subject to change. Although Tulane students aren’t required to declare a major until the end of sophomore year, the stress of majors, minors, and “degree audits” is a looming problem over every registration season. However, to cool the nerves, it’s calming to consider the substantial number of successful figures whose majors have little effect on their rise to the top.
For example, the notorious “college dropouts,” such as Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs, trailblazed and changed the tech world indefinitely. Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta (formerly Facebook), went to Harvard University, majoring in Computer Science (which did align with his business ventures), but dropped out to pursue Facebook in 2004. Similarly, Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, attended Reed College and dropped out six months later. Although these two figures reiterate that college degrees and majors aren’t the only roads to success, these two are sporadic cases, and despite momentary anxieties, dropping out isn’t most people’s first cop-out. However, surprisingly, many CEOs, founders, and co-founders of big brand businesses majored in entirely unrelated topics that helped shape their drives and passions but didn’t necessarily result in their careers.
Similarly, in the same article by the Times, Andrea Jung, CEO of Avon, earned a B.A. in English Literature from Princeton University. Today, Jung is a role model for several young women in the business world. As a previous Princeton “bookworm,” owning a $10 billion global company seemed impossible. She admits how she resorted to attending journalism or law school but went out on a whim with a training program at Bloomingdale’s, which planted her passion for business.
Elon Musk, one of the most successful men and entrepreneurs, majored in Physics and Economics at Queen’s University in Ontario and the University of Pennsylvania. However, today, he is the CEO of all entrepreneurial ventures of Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink, and The Boring Company. Although his education gave him a fundamental understanding of physics and economics, his entrepreneurial success is more due to his ambitious visions and risk-taking. Second, in “10 CEOs Who Prove Your Liberal Arts Degree Isn’t Worthless,” with Time, Howard Schultz, the CEO of Starbucks, discusses how, despite his current years of success in the business world, he received a B.S. in Communications at Northern Michigan University on a football scholarship. Schultz told Time how he maintained a B average, got his diploma as a first-generation graduate, and post-grad took a year off until stepping foot in the business world in an internship with Xerox. Schultz clarifies how, despite feeling lost after college and lacking direction in his passions in his years at NMU, “a college degree gave me the courage to keep on dreaming,” which is an opportunity all students at Tulane are given.
Separate from the stereotypical “unhelpful” English and communication bubble, Richard Plepler, CEO of HBO, earned a B.A. in Government at Franklin & Marshall College, followed by four years in D.C. before moving to New York and starting a one-man consultancy in the communication business irrelevant to politics.
Susan Wojcicki, the CEO of YouTube, studied History and Literature at Harvard University. Coming from a family of teachers with no business role models, she assumed she would go into academics. However, one class in her senior year at Harvard, “CS50,” changed her life. Wojcicki’s experience reassures that throughout students’ four years at Tulane, there’s no time limit to discovering one’s passion; one class senior year made her the most powerful woman in tech.
Further, in a 2004 interview with Westword, Steve Ells, the co-CEO of Chipotle, who received a B.A. in Art History at the University of Colorado Boulder, states in college, he followed his interests but “didn’t have any sort of career aspirations.” However, he attended the Culinary Institute of America after college, where he fell in love with the food business.
Lastly, John Mackey, the co-CEO of Whole Foods, received a B.A. in Philosophy and Religion at The University of Texas at Austin. However, not only was he a “literary hippie,” but he was also a college dropout, stating that if a class bored him, he “quickly dropped it.” Mackey acknowledges that not taking a business class benefited him because he had nothing to learn or violate; thus, ignorance of a subject could be key.
Although I don’t advise dropping classes that “bore” us because we can, it is reassuring to note that the major we study, classes we take, and grades we receive are temporary concerns, not worthy of ruining our only four years in college. Worst comes to worst; we can drop a class, take a summer course, or graduate on our own time with the major we want. Despite assumptions that college is a set-in-stone 4-year plan leading to graduate programs or the corporate world, it is okay if intelligence is all we gain from our majors. As evidenced, majors and minors enrich our knowledge and broaden our horizons and perspectives. A lifelong career in our intended field of study is not required to make college worthwhile; it is a time of personal growth and self-enrichment. In the long-term, the openness, passion, creativity, perseverance, collaboration, and strategic skills obtained from various majors ultimately help people capitalize on opportunities that shape their success… not the course they didn’t register for in the Spring of 2024.
About Ellie McCusker
My name is Ellie McCusker, and I serve as Editor in Chief of The Crescent Magazine. I am a senior at Tulane University, originally from San Francisco, California, majoring in English and Communications with a minor in philosophy on the pre law track. It is a demanding course of study, and The Crescent has consistently been the center of it. The Crescent has been the constant of my four years at Tulane. I joined as a writer for the College Life section during my freshman year, was appointed College Life editor as a sophomore, served as Assistant Editor in Chief in my junior year, and now have the privilege of leading the publication as Editor in Chief. What has kept me here are the writers. Our staff arrives each week with new ideas, reads one another's stories closely, and edits one another's work with genuine care. That culture is the reason The Crescent has shaped my time at Tulane more than any other commitment I have taken on, and preserving it is my central priority this year. I have long been drawn to writing and storytelling, and I consider The Crescent the finest venue on campus to encounter both. Our contributors bring distinct voices, interests, and perspectives to these pages, and that range is precisely the point. Thank you for reading, it means a lot to us all on the team! Ellie McCusker Editor in Chief
My name is Ellie McCusker, and I serve as Editor in Chief of The Crescent Magazine. I am a senior at Tulane University, originally from San Francisco, California, majoring in English and Communications with a minor in philosophy on the pre law track. It is a demanding course of study, and The Crescent has consistently been the center of it.
The Crescent has been the constant of my four years at Tulane. I joined as a writer for the College Life section during my freshman year, was appointed College Life editor as a sophomore, served as Assistant Editor in Chief in my junior year, and now have the privilege of leading the publication as Editor in Chief.
What has kept me here are the writers. Our staff arrives each week with new ideas, reads one another's stories closely, and edits one another's work with genuine care. That culture is the reason The Crescent has shaped my time at Tulane more than any other commitment I have taken on, and preserving it is my central priority this year.
I have long been drawn to writing and storytelling, and I consider The Crescent the finest venue on campus to encounter both. Our contributors bring distinct voices, interests, and perspectives to these pages, and that range is precisely the point.
Thank you for reading, it means a lot to us all on the team!
Ellie McCusker
Editor in Chief
