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An undergraduate degree does determine the course of one鈥檚 academic and, metonymically, professional career. Hence, the traditional fixation for STEM, law, and, more recently, fancy MBA degrees – paths of study generally considered employable. However, to push through a degree without the least bit of academic gratification is unimaginably painful, and, in quantitative terms, affects performance and grades, translating into poor or no placements. It is often in moments of personal or financial crisis that people consider switching over to a degree they might enjoy and feel motivated to work towards. In most cases, people arrive at this realisation when they find themselves at a point of no return. They鈥檙e either too old or simply jaded to put themselves through the rigour of an undergraduate degree all over again, and often sacrifice their interests, fearing social disapproval and contempt. 

Besides, not everyone can afford to switch during what is supposedly mid-career. Those who decide to take the plunge also agree to a financial commitment. Apart from the money spent on an undergraduate degree of little value in their lives, they must now bear the cost of perhaps an even more expensive degree. Often, people are compelled to take loans because self-funding is no longer an option, and are then trapped in an incessant cycle of debt.

Alongside the glaring financial commitment, a delayed degree is sure to incite feelings of loneliness and inadequacy. One must interact with peers a lot younger than them, studying the same course, working under faculty around the same age as them, while also straddling family pressure. We tend to feel indebted to our parents for the financial burden, at a point in life when one ought to be financially independent. 

Speaking of the individual alone, I don鈥檛 think any amount of investment buys back the energy one has in their late teens and early twenties, the years set aside for an undergraduate degree. This is not to say that age should be allowed to determine when and how one decides to plan their life, but years once lost seldom return. Especially when there鈥檚 a switchover, one is most likely to have expended a lot of energy in the degree they started out with, and dropped out only when hit hard by the exhaustion and disinterest. While one might still be genuinely interested in the degree they pursue when they decide to switch tracks in life, which, by itself, is a brave decision, nothing equals the energy to conquer the world and make it big when one is fresh out of school. Again, in quantitative terms, lost years are hard to justify to potential employers and also to universities. The question one is often asked under such circumstances being – How do you hope to work with us when it took you all these years to decide what was best for you? – A question I might ask those who switch paths would be, Where do you get all that energy from?

To resume from a place of burnout is not the ideal place to start. When operating from such a standpoint, one is working to partly deal with this burnout and come out of it, in a sense, as opposed to the newfound energy and excitement one has at 18, when one is working to build something new and make a mark in one’s chosen field.

All these factors put together underscore the need for early flexibility, which is one of Ashoka鈥檚 greatest strengths. Each of us has the privilege and the time to explore possible options and then arrive at a decision regarding majors and minors. There are also no stipulated rules regulating major-minor combinations, and till the end of our second year, we do have the time to switch. Perhaps this isn鈥檛 emphasised enough, but an undergraduate degree, besides determining employment, directly and latently, informs the way we think, read, write, conduct ourselves and perceive the world around us, because every discipline has its unique way of training the mind into building a relationship with the world we inhabit, and the people we inhabit it with. 

鈥� Written by Srishti Choudhury, English Major, 51茶馆