Japan comprises four main islands and about 1000 small islands; these slivers and dots of land are among the most densely populated in the world. The amount of activity on them—in business, engineering, and pop culture—is astonishing. Japanese products, design, thought, and film play a major role in the American consciousness and marketplace. Japanese majors have the opportunity to bridge east and west, to understand the language and culture of this remarkable country.
The Japanese major is a challenging course of study. Japanese majors go through intensive classes in written and spoken Japanese, as well as additional work in Japanese culture and history. Classes in Buddhism, Shinto, Kabuki theater, Japanese film, or Noh drama might be offered as part of the overall curriculum. Most Japanese programs also recommend or require students to study abroad in Japan.
Japanese speakers are in demand in business, technology, and law. Japan’s rich cultural heritage also makes the major appealing to those who are interested in visual and performing arts.

Preparation

If you are fortunate enough to go to a school that offers Japanese as a language, obviously you should take it. Any training in foreign languages will help you become accustomed to college-level language study. Courses in political science and Asian history will also get you ahead of the game.

Of course a major in jewelry and metalsmithing means more than designing fabulous pieces with which to adorn yourself or the object of your every desire. But, that would be a nice perk! As a jewelry and metalsmithing major, you’ll gain all the skills you need to design jewelry and create other works of art from metals. You’ll learn a wide range of techniques, including casting, forging, and raising, plus how to enamel and how to set stones. You’ll learn the art of fabrication and master the use of jewelry and metalsmithing equipment such as ultrasonic cleaners, buffing machines, ring sizers, sandblasters, enameling kilns, and rolling mills. And as with any art major, you’ll study the forms jewelry and metalsmithing have taken in the past in order to gain perspective on their current state and to get an idea of where your own art might fit in—even how it might push the field in brand new directions.
Your major in jewelry and metalsmithing can lead you down any number of paths, and you’ll acquire the skills you’ll need to pursue a career in retail, design, and many other fields. Bonus skills include those required for jewelry repair and restoration, the ability to create work for retail or exhibition, and the fundamentals of setting up your own studio or shop. Most important, this major will give you the opportunity to focus on your own creative vision. You’ll be able to experiment with forms and techniques you may not have even known about before, while being surrounded by faculty and students who can critique your work and offer advice and inspiration. Your imagination may be limited only by the materials you can afford to work with. That is, most freshmen aren’t making eight-karat solitaire bands—but there’s nothing wrong with sketching designs of them for later.

Preparation

To prepare for a major in jewelry and metalsmithing, you should take a well-rounded selection of courses including math, science, English, history, and languages. Because much of this major requires you to produce your own works of art, art classes will help get you thinking creatively. Computer proficiency is a must for any major, so if your skills are weak, take a computer class or two. You can do some of the best preparation on your own: drawing, thinking, and even making mock-up samples of the kinds of art you might like to make someday.

Journalism is a hands-on, professionally oriented major that involves gathering, interpreting, distilling, and reporting information to audiences through a variety of media. Journalism majors learn about every conceivable kind of Journalism (including magazine, newspaper, online journalism, photojournalism, broadcast journalism, and public relations).
That’s not all, though. In addition to specialized training in writing, editing, and reporting, Journalism requires a working knowledge of history, culture, and current events. You’ll more than likely be required to take a broad range of courses that runs the gamut from statistics to the hard sciences to economics to history. There will also be a lot of lofty talk about professional ethics and civic responsibility as well – and you can bet you’ll be tested on it. To top it all off, you’ll probably work on the university newspaper or radio station, or perhaps complete an internship with a magazine or a mass media conglomerate.
We know it goes without saying but you’ll also have to write an awful lot of articles if you decide to make Journalism your major. This is true even if you ultimately want to work in radio or television. If you don’t enjoy writing, you probably won’t like Journalism very much. Finally, take note: at universities with elite Journalism programs, time-consuming weed-out courses abound and you must be formally accepted into the Journalism program, which can be ridiculously difficult and competitive.

Preparation

Obviously, any experience you can get with your high school newspapers or television or radio station will be helpful. You might take several English courses and join the yearbook staff so as to further polish your writing skills. Beyond that, try to develop a solid understanding of current events and, believe it or not, many Journalism programs require you to take a course in statistics and several foreign language classes. So, in addition to writing courses, take mathematics and a foreign language all four years.