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What's In a Major?

15
Vote

by user Happyskinny

In the fall I am going to be a senior at Clemson University. I am majoring in Sport Management, with a minor in Business Administration. I'm curious, what pops in your head first when you find out someone is a Sport Management major? Lazy, slacker, parties too much, doesn't study or want to learn? Maybe all of those things, maybe not, but thats what I'd like to find out.

When I was looking at schools, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. All of my friends were going into engineering, business, finance, or something along those lines. I didn't want anything to do with that, because I knew I would not be passionate about it. If I don't have a passion for it, I will not succeed in whatever I'm doing, and this was my life so I better damn well have a passion for it.

The one thing that I did have a great passion for was sport. When I found out you could major in it, I said well thats for me. I have always been interested in the behind the scenes action of what goes on in professional sport, from scouting all the way up to general managing.

When I got to school and told people what I was majoring in, people laugh and look at you like your an idiot. I wasn't prepared for this at all. It wasn't just one person, it was a lot of people. It angered me, but its not like I can come back and say yeah, well your bio engineering degrees not gonna get you anywhere. People think I'm just at school to party(which dont get me wrong, I love that part of college as well) and not learn. Thats totally wrong. I want to learn everything I can about the business. I want to have a foot forward when I go into my internship this summer. Thats why right now I'm working with the Pawtucket Red Sox, the Triple A affilliate of the Boston Red Sox so I can get some experience. I didn't come home over the summer and work at Mcdonalds. I took a pay cut of four dollars an hour(which is alot when your a college student with no money) to work at the bottom in the sport that I love. That sounds like committment to me.

I had to write this after last night some girl asked me my major and I told her and she said oh yeah, you look like one of those kids and basically told me my major was a joke. Don't judge people based on a few things you've heard, or what you think, because you may have no idea. Let the persons knowledge inform you of who they are, not their label.


Date

Wed 07/26/06, 11:22 pm EST


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EroosterMajor Leaguer
1224 days ago
Score 2+-
I used to get the same reaction when I mentioned my major, Commercial Recreation. It seems to me that people, in general, think of what a major or eventually a job should be. But fail to recognize that the management of their recreation also need to be college educated.
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EnyboDiv-I Stud
1224 days ago
Score 0+-
Is it anything like a humanities major?
Permalink | Reply
I am a cpcpMajor Leaguer
1224 days ago
Score 2+-
There are countless majors you can tell someone you're in and get a reaction of "oh... so what are you going to do with that?" Of course, I had two pretty self-explanitory majors and can't seem to find something to use either one of them for. As far as sports management though, I think that name has been tarnished mostly by jocks who take it because they want to make it in pro sports and think that will help. I don't know what all it involves and I've never known anyone in it, so I can't really give you much of a personal view.
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DNLLegend
1224 days ago
Score 2+-
I have a friend who works for a MLB team. He went to a great university and ... couldn't get a job in Major League Baseball if his life depended on it. He ended up working for peanuts (maybe literally) for some independent summer bus league that featured college players; the league didn't pay the players (due to NCAA eligibility concerns) but the players were able to find low-paying jobs in the area. Basically, think of it as extended college baseball.

This experience was the door-opener. When he met GMs at Spring Training the following year (having written them letters -- not emails! -- during the off-season), they were as interested in this as his formal education.

This was 5 years ago now, give or take.
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HappyskinnyAll-American
1223 days ago
Score 0+-
Yeah, thats what you've gotta do. In the Sports industry, its not what you know, its who you know. It's all about networking.
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ThecrookedcapAll-Star
1223 days ago
Score 2+-
I think a lot of people don't really understand majors outside of the really traditional ones. That's what happened when I decided to minor in Women's and Gender Studies. A lot of people asked "Why would you want to do that?" They're thinking was a stereotype that people who take those courses are man-hating feminazis, and can't be guys who watch sports. So don't worry so much about what other people think. It's about what you get out of it.
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Sayhey-rodSoccer Kid
1223 days ago
Score 0+-
What was the girl-to-guy ratio in thos classes? 20/1? Could that be the reason you decided to go with that major?!?!
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Ra33chSoccer Kid
1223 days ago
Score 0+-
Sports Management sounds like a pretty awesome major to me. If I wasn't doing what I'm doing, I'd have done something sports related.
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Ray agmJV Squad
1223 days ago
Score 0+-
I've found that it doesn't matter what your major is (unless you're an engineer). Companies just want someone who finished college with decent grades, is not a complete idiot, and shows up on time every morning. The rest you learn at the job.
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