Ikigai, a Japanese concept that translates to "a reason for being" or "a reason to live," focuses on the intersection of what you love, what you're good at, what the world needs, and what you can be paid for. Doesn't that sound like a critical consideration for college students and applicants? Amy and Mike invited admissions expert V. Peter Pitts to explore how ikigai can help to choose a college major.

What are five things you will learn in this episode?

1. What is IKIGAI?

2. How can an Ikigai exercise help in narrowing down your major?

3. Do students really need to choose a major before choosing a college?

4. Do majors really matter? What matters more than choice of a major?

5. What is the biggest mistake students make in choosing a major?

MEET OUR GUEST

V. Peter Pitts retired after 42 years in the College Admission profession, most recently with Monmouth College of Illinois. Over his 27 years at Monmouth, he recruited over 2,000 students and still keeps in touch with many of them. He is originally from Iowa and holds an undergraduate degree from Wartburg College (IA) and a Master's degree from the University of Iowa, both in Sociology.

In his retirement, Peter publishes a website–https://www.lifechangingcolleges.com–that celebrates small private colleges. He also gives presentations to high school classes about a variety of college admission topics.  He is the author of Common Sense Guide to Choosing a College---Making a Case for Small Residential College, and his latest book is Choosing Your College Major: The Ikigai Approach.

Peter previously appeared on this podcast in episode 163 to discuss Do College Majors Matter? and in episode 347 to discuss Attending A Small College.

Peter can be reached at [email protected].

LINKS

Choosing Your College Major: The Ikigai Approach

Why majors don't matter | Kai Kight

Common Sense Guide to Choosing a College---Making a Case for Small Residential College

RELATED EPISODES

HOW COLLEGES ADMIT BY MAJOR

WHY THIS COLLEGE, WHY THIS MAJOR?

STRATEGIES FOR SELECTING A COLLEGE MAJOR ON TIME

ABOUT THIS PODCAST

Tests and the Rest is THE college admissions industry podcast. Explore all of our episodes on the show page.

ABOUT YOUR HOSTS

Mike Bergin is the president of Chariot Learning and founder of TestBright, Roots2Words, and College Eagle. Amy Seeley is the president of Seeley Test Pros and LEAP. If you're interested in working with Mike and/or Amy for test preparation, training, or consulting, get in touch through our contact page.