Health fitness and psychology top list of majors signed at CMU; leadership most popular minor

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Editor’s note: Every Friday, CM Life will publish an in-depth piece, examining different issues.

It’s a question every college student hears addressed to them dozens of times: “What’s your major?”

The answer defines where many students may be going for the rest of their lives.It helps students classify their peers and find others who share similar interests.

And although it may change several times over four or five years at Central Michigan University, statistics show some majors are especially popular.

The top major at CMU is health fitness, with 549 signed majors as of the spring 2010 semester, according to the Office of Institutional Research.

Students with a bachelor’s degree in health fitness can enter a career in cardiac or pulmonary rehab, working with high-risk patients.

“It can be a very rewarding job with lots of patient-contact hours.” said Jeff Betts, chairman of the School of Health Sciences.

Many students, however, enter the program with the intention of going on to graduate school for nursing, physical therapy or to become a physician’s assistant.

“I’d say about 400 students are in the program as a way to get into other programs,” Betts said.

Health fitness fulfills many of the prerequisites for pre-medicine programs, including anatomy, physiology and chemistry.

“It’s a good major for what I want to do,” said Owosso senior Kayla Latz. “It incorporates a lot of options for after graduation.”

Latz plans to go to graduate school to become a physician’s assistant.

The second most popular major is psychology with 478 signed majors last spring. It is also the second most common minor at CMU with 312 signed.

“It has to do with who you are and why you’re that way, which is something everyone is interested in,” said psychology professor John Monahan.

If a student goes to graduate school after completing an undergraduate degree in psychology, they could enter a career as a school, clinical or industrial-organization psychologist or do applied psychological research.

Without graduate school, students usually go into some sort of human service, such as social work, Monahan said.

A psychology degree can also be useful for a career in management and psychology students “do very well in the business field,” he said.

Sterling Heights senior Jennifer Zagorski said she stumbled into psychology and explored the topic in high school.

“Right now I’m working with a professor in legal psychology to get an internship with the FBI,” Zagorski said.

A legal psychologist does research on jury decision-making, helps with jury selection and may sometimes be called in court as an expert witness, Zagorski said.

Zagorski said psychology is a popular program at CMU because it is a growing field.

Minor

Climax senior Ashley Pryor decided to minor in leadership after becoming involved with other activities at the Leadership Institute.

“I figured the minor would complement all the hands-on things I was already doing and it would look really good to employers,” Pryor said.

The leadership minor, a 24-credit interdisciplinary minor, is popular because it can be tailored to fit well with any major, said Dan Gaken, interim director of the Leadership Institute.

The 404 students that have signed leadership minors at CMU come from all colleges and degree programs on campus, Gaken said.

“I think its appeal is that it’s universally applicable,” Gaken said.

Julia Sherlock, director of Career Services, said a leadership minor is appealing to potential employers.

“It shows you have applied experiences in leadership,” Sherlock said.

Pryor is majoring in human resources management and has already accepted a position as a human resources assistant for the National Football League, where she will start work after graduating in December.

During an internship with the NFL this summer, Pryor said she worked with interns from Yale, Stanford and Harvard and said her leadership minor helped put her on the same level as students from more prestigious universities.

“There were 18 openings and 3,500 people applied,” Pryor said. “I think the (leadership) minor definitely set me apart with that huge pool.”

Choosing the right career

Sherlock said students should choose a career path based on what they are interested in and enjoy doing, not just what will make money.

“Use your freshman year as a year of discovery,” Sherlock said. “Take advantage of UP classes and stretch yourself to try new things.”

Sherlock said it is better for students to explore their options and test out several different fields while in school than to graduate and find themselves in jobs they don’t enjoy.

Sherlock said companies are actively hiring in the fields of accounting, engineering, technology, corporate fitness and health care.

“There’s also a big push for sales,” Sherlock said.