Trouble Concentrating?

Having just completed the fourth week of my sophomore year, I’m finding myself up at night contemplating the daunting concept of declaring a concentration before Thanksgiving, in conjunction with three problem set classes. Last year, it was totally fine to respond to the standard concentration question with, “Well, I’m still deciding between stats, econ, history, gov, sociology, and computer science.” I told that to my sophomore advisor last week and he looked at me like I was crazy. What gives?

From the moment we entered high school, and perhaps even earlier, we were told to build a resume as well rounded and diverse as possible. I was on the drumline, but also ran track; studied German literature, but took AP math classes. Ahh, what an “excellent sheep” I was. Although this habit of intellectual heterogeneity is exactly what got us here in the first place, it also ensures that the upcoming decision will prove a difficult one.

The biggest problem for me has been disentangling what I want to study from what I think I want to study. Did I enroll in Ec 10 last year to discover my enthusiasm for the fundamentals of micro- and macroeconomic theory, or simply because 763 other students did the same? How about CS50 this year?

Hundreds, if not thousands, of articles have been written to help students like me arrive at their own concentration resolutions. Unfortunately, the cruxes of most these essays hinge on the same cliché: Follow your passion. But what if I don’t know what my true passion is? Or I do, but Harvard doesn’t offer a degree in eating Nutella out of a jar while watching “Parks and Rec.”

I thought I found the answer to all my questions last week when I clicked on a video from The Atlantic, titled “What Do You Wish You Had Learned In College?” When the page loaded and Drew Faust’s face materialized on the screen, I could barely contain my excitement. The President of Harvard is about to tell me what to concentrate in.

But it was not to be. The video, recorded at this past summer’s Aspen Ideas Festival, asked several panelists, including Harvard President Drew Faust and Professor Elisa New, skills or concepts they wished they had acquired while undergraduates. Responses ranged from particular classes they lamented avoiding to universal life skills like living for the moment and accepting failure in stride, but Professor New most accurately summed up the question, saying, “all the things I wish I learned in college, I couldn’t have learned in college.” $&!*.

Like so many other things in my life, I was hoping to be able to simply check “choose concentration” off my ever-expanding to-do list. I wanted there to be a right answer and a wrong one, a clear choice that I could run with. But the reality is, I should be grateful for the opportunity to, after all these years, finally craft my own curriculum.

In a few short weeks I’m going to have to make a declaration whether I’m ready to or not.

I can ask for as much advice as people will give me, but ultimately the decision regarding my field of study is mine alone. Am I going to look back in thirty years at this decision with regret? I doubt it. My learning will not end with my commencement in May of 2017 (fingers crossed!). Education is a lifelong commitment, and an integral part of the college experience is learning to make difficult decisions and deal with the mistakes that will inevitably arise. I don’t know right now how to answer the “what do I wish I had learned in college” question. None of us do. But if I had to guess, my biggest regret is not going to be remotely tied to my field of study. Rather, I might regret spending so much time worrying about it.

Declan P. Garvey ’17, a Crimson editorial writer, lives in Mather House.