What’s your major?” Start a conversation with someone you have never met and I guarantee the question will come up within the first few minutes. It is the college equivalent to “So…do you come here often?”

The reason we ask this is because we assume that the answer is loaded with expositional information about the stranger that allows us to be more efficient in our hasty judgment. Law school? Level-headed, intelligent workhorse. Business major? Ambitious, realistic go-getter. English major? Pretentious, introverted book-nerd.

Are these generalizations fair? Of course not. But we all make them because we assume that someone’s interests reflect their personalities to some degree.

So before you pick a major based on its potential paycheck, ask yourself this: are you genuinely interested in business or law? I do not mean the kind of interest that is acquired and then desperately nurtured after reading through “The Forbes 400” or watching a “Law & Order” marathon. I am talking about the kind of interest that would inspire you to sit down on a warm, summer Sunday and cozy up with a book about business ethics or passionately talk to your friends in a bar about zoning codes.

Before all of the future businessmen, businesswomen and lawyers get upset, I know many of you have interests in your subject that transcend where the decimal point is going to be in your paycheck.

And if you are offended because you do not, then you can take solace in the fact that you will be able to get your revenge by shorting me on my tip when I serve you your dinner at Applebee’s after my coming-of-age novel only manages to sell three copies – all to my mom.

I see how nice your buildings are, which leads me to believe that your alumni are successful enough to make some hefty contributions. I wish I could bathe in the immaculate bathrooms in Barsema Hall. The bathrooms in Reavis Hall just leave me feeling like I probably should.

I am just merely trying to point out to students the fact that there are a plethora of interesting majors that also have potential careers attached to them. English major? Go into editing and publishing. Russian? Be a translator. Communications? Get a job in public relations.

“There is a time and a place for everything, and it is called college,” said Steven Barleen, acting associate director of the Academic Advising Center. “College is the time to take chances and try new things.”

It is also probably the last chance you will get to explore any interests you might have, making it easier for us to have a conversation that makes it past “What’s your major?”