小编：继我们美丽的外籍Sophie跟我们分享了她为何在哥伦比亚大学停止了对数学的追求而投入到英语写作和心理学的怀抱，今天我们另一位外籍 Alexus 将会向大家分享他为何在阿姆赫斯特学院（全美排名第二的文理学院）选择了一个“没有专业的专业”。

作者介绍：Alex Strong，阿姆赫斯特学院，“美国研究”学士，阿姆赫斯特招生办公室远程辅导员

When I arrived at Amherst College, I had a lot of trouble deciding on a major. You see, I loved all of my history classesin high school, and I always had a knack for anything related to English. But in college, where graduation would serve as a not ­so­ gentle push into the job market, with nothing to show potential employers but the subject printed on my degree and three summers of internships, would my own intellectual interests matter at all?

当我在阿姆赫斯特读书的时候，选专业时遇到了很多困难。在高中我非常热爱历史，但同时任何和英文有关的东西我都十分擅长；然而毕竟大学毕业后就意味着找工作，当招聘者只会看到我薄薄的简历上那行专业和3个暑期的实习时，我个人的兴趣真的有那么重要吗？

knack: an ability, talent, or special skill needed to do something 诀窍，窍门

On paper, economics sounded like a nice mix of practicality and intellectual fulfillment, whatever that means. But did I really want to study economics for four years? Spending my first year on the economics track answered that question for me: a resounding “Of course not.” I found myself bored and disengaged in my economics and math classes, stifled by what I saw as rigid approaches to problem solving that did not quite jibe with the kind of outside­ the ­box thinking I expected to come with a liberal arts education.

经济学听上去像是一个理论和实践完美结合的学科。但是我真的愿意4年都读经济学吗？通过大一那一年各种上和经济有关的课程，我的答案是不！在数学和经济课上，我感受到了厌倦和无趣，这些课程似乎只有一些死板的套路，和我当时期盼进入文理学院时能够收获的创新思维有着很大的区别。

resounding: leaving no doubt, very definite 彻底的，完全的

stifle: to stop (someone) from doing/expressing something 受压抑

jibe: to be in accord 与...一致

So there I was, preparing to begin my sophomore year with absolutely no direction, knowing full well that I would be expected to declare a major by the end of that year. I spent a lot of time weighing English and History, building “Pros and Cons” lists for each in my head and then scribbling “Pros and Cons” lists on notebook paper when thinking about them wasn’t enough. To this day, I’m convinced that I would have greatly enjoyed pursuing either major. But at the time, my judgment was clouded by 19 years of pop culture stereotypes that told me History majors go on to wear tweed jackets and spend the rest of their lives in academia, and English majors go on to wear aprons and spend their lives serving coffee. I didn’t buy into those stereotypes completely then, and today I fully recognize how shortsighted and wrong they are, but I would be lying if I said they had no impact on my decision.

所以大二开始的时候，即使我知道第二年结束时就得定下专业，我对我想学的东西依旧没有方向。我花了很多时间在英语和历史这两门学科中徘徊，在笔记本上分别列着学习它们的各种好处和坏处，并且时常琢磨有没有什么是被遗忘的。现在看来，当时的我选择这两个专业中的任意一个都会非常满意。但是在那时，我的判断被陪伴了我19年的大众偏见所迷惑，让我认为学历史的人出来后就是穿着粗花呢粗糙的衣服在学术界倾尽一生；而学英语的人毕业后则是穿着围裙为客人倒咖啡。尽管那时我并没有完全相信那些成见，并且如今我已意识到那些观点是如何狭隘与错误，但是当时它们确实多多少少影响了我的决定。

scribble: to write (soomething) quickly and in a way that makes it difficult to read 潦草地书写

tweed: a rough, woolen cloth that is woven with different colored threads 粗花呢

So I did what anyone would do in my shoes: I decided to not major in anything. Now, my degree says I majored in American Studies, as does my transcript and the cover page of my senior thesis. But my decision to major in American Studies was motivated primarily by my reluctance to commit to any one area of study. After striking out with economics and math,I wanted as much control over my path of study as possible, and I saw the American Studies major as a vehicle that I could use to do just that.

所以我做了一个大部分人都会做的决定，就是没有选择任何一个学科为专业。如今我的学位，成绩单以及我毕业论文的首页上都写着我读的是American Studies（美国研究），而我选择这个专业是因为我不想被任何一门学科所束缚。在我知道我不想学经济和数学之后，我想尽可能控制自己的学习之路，而“美国研究”这个专业可以让我做到这一点。

At Amherst (and everywhere else), the American Studies department and departments like it exist as bridges between academic disciplines. Courses in the department itself make up a very small percentage of the major curriculum (I only took five), with the rest consisting of any combination of courses in other academic departments that somehow relate back to the United States of America. I had the opportunity to take a survey History course on the 20th century in the U.S., a film course on the famed American director Spike Lee, and a special research seminar focusing on public education policy in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and all of them counted towards my major. Despite my initial resistance, I did eventually have some outside direction in my course of study. The department required each major to choose a concentration, either within a specific academic discipline or a particulartopic of study. I decided to concentrate in Urban Studies, which allowed me to blend my interests in urban policy, architecture, and urban history while still keeping my course selection broad.

在阿姆赫斯特（以及其他学校），“美国研究”是一门跨学科的专业，在本专业内只需要上很一小部分的课程（我只上了5 门），其他的学分需要在其他各种学科内完成。我上过关于美国20世纪的历史课，关于美国著名导演Spike Lee的电影课以及一门针对麻省剑桥市的公共教育政策研究课，这些课程都和我的专业有关。“美国研究”这个学科同时要求我们找研究重点，我选择的是城市研究，因为它能让我涉及到关于城市的政策、建筑及历史等方面，同时保持较宽的课程选择面。

The decision to major in American Studies proved to be the right one for me. I loved freedom that came with being able to take courses in so many different departments, and I feel like I got the most out of my college education. But is it advisable for others to follow my path?

事实证明，选择“美国研究”这个专业是正确的。我很喜欢这种自由地在不同的学院学习的感觉，并且我觉得我的大学教育值了。但是跟我走一样的路是个好建议吗？

To be brutally honest, in most cases, no. Amherst itself afforded me the luxury of choosing any major I wanted without having to seriously consider practicality in the job market, as the school’s reputation and the perceived quality of the education that goes along with that would carry their own weight with potential employers. Ideally, this peace of mind would exist for students at every liberal arts school, where learning for the sake of learning is supposed to be the name of the game. But we all know that isn’t the case in the real world, where job prospects demand serious consideration in almost every case. If there is anything to be learned from my story, it is that keeping an open mind is the best thing you can do for yourself, from the college selection process through the day you are handed your diploma.

诚实来说，在很多情况下答案是不。阿姆赫斯特学院本身的名气及教育质量在招聘者心中有着特殊的地位，因此我们学校给了我选择课程而不用考虑职业的权利。理论上来说，任意一个文理学院的学生都学着自己最热爱的学科。然而找工作的现实性，很大程度上违背了这个理论。我的经验是，从选择大学到拿到毕业文凭，不要限制你的思维和选择，是你能做到的最重要的事情。（翻译/jr，编辑、校对/欣茵）