That’s the academic question I hear most. Most students enroll in a university to “get a better job” and they think they must have to a major that matches that anticipated career.

But, in fact, nothing could be further from the truth.

Your university experience prepares you academically. That is, it gets you to think, to solve problems. Higher-level thinking is valuable, as is having a diploma as a credential. But your university experience does not prepare you for a specific career.

After World War II, returning soldiers were given the opportunity to go to college. The timing couldn’t have been better. The economy was booming and those with a college education were snatched up by employers. As the economy grew, so did their careers.

It was assumed that their college educations helped their careers to catapult. And so, they urged their kids to go to college. That’s been the tradition, generation after generation. Now, the cost of a college education has catapulted. And not just because the cost of everything has gone up, but because of the myth of the necessity of higher education has been propagated.

If you’re going to a university or college, therefore, don’t focus on your ultimate career, focus on what interests you most. Assessments available at your university’s career center, and many others you can find online for free or a small fee can help you establish your areas of interest and, subsequently, your major.

Taking courses in subjects that don’t directly interest you can help set the direction of your major, too (remember the story of Steve Jobs and the calligraphy course he took? It made him aware of the different sizes of letters and, subsequently, helped him to perfect the Mac computer and its ability to set publisher-quality type.