A New Path

I hope my foray into blog-posting goes well, so here I go:

I am currently a junior at the University of Washington, and yet I haven't even formally declared the majors that I plan to pursue. Although my major is technically listed as 'political science,' I have abandoned my pursuit of this major in favor of philosophy and business administration with a concentration in accounting. The reason I no longer want to pursue political science is not because I have grown weary of the subject (the department offers some of the more interesting and engaging classes at the UW that I would like to take), but rather, I realize that holding a political science degree is not worth much to employers. This is due in large part, I think, to the fact that many students graduate with a political science degree, and that major is one of 'last resort'; that is, graduating from the political science department is relatively easy, and one will usually declare the political science major after an unsuccessful pursuit of other, more difficult majors.

The primary reason for my choice of philosophy and accounting as majors rests in large part to my aspirations of attending law school, and once there, to specialize in corporate or tax law. Philosophy courses are, as I have been told by professors and fellow students as well as have inferred from taking the classes, an excellent preparation for the skills needed by successful lawyers of all specializations. These skills include critical thinking, reading comprehension, and writing. Critical thinking means, more specifically in terms of how I define it in relation to the law, the ability to identify an argument, to assess it by first reconstructing it and then attacking the truth or falsity of the premises or the way in which the premises establish the conclusion (reasoning), and to formulate one's own argument and to predict and defend against argumentative attacks by critics. Philosophy also emphasizes and improves one's reading comprehension of difficult material. Most importantly, one must have the intellectual capacity to recognize the main arguments of a text and to recognize the reasons put forth by the author in support of the conclusions of these arguments. Philosophy, moreover, stresses the ability to write clearly and coherently, that is, each sentance must lead to the next and also have a reason for being in the essay as well as each key word must defined explicitly in order to avoid equivocation (changing the meaning of words) in other parts of the essay. Since the duty of a lawyer is inherently argumentative (persuading a spectator of one's position on an issue and discrediting the other side), the general ability of argumentation as embodied in the skills of critical thinking, reading comprehension, and writing are essential to successful lawyers.

I chose to major in Accounting primarily to gain the fundamental knowledge necessary for working in a corporate environment. Furthermore, if future events do not accord with my plans, and I am not able to attend law school immediately after I graduate, then I will always have a profession that I can fall back upon; whereas with a political science degree, I would probably end up having to work a pathetic service-sector job making only $24,000 a year.

The reason I desire to work in the field of corporate law is ultimately because of the salary I would be paid. Although this may seem like a shallow reason for working in this job, I will provide two reasons for my choice. (1) Since I enjoy argumentation and debate so much, I have known since my freshman year of college that I want to become a lawyer; and since I am going to become a lawyer, I should be a corporate lawyer since they generally receive the highest salaries. (2) Since corporate lawyers do get paid the most, this means that I would have enough money to support my parents in their old-age. This is important to me, not only because of their love and support, but also because it is customary in Filipino families for the children to care for their parents as the latter ages. In a sense, the children are like the parent's retirement funds for they invest much into the young in order for them to grow-up and become successful. So, in conclusion, I just hope that I will be able to make my parents proud by becoming a successful law professional, and my path to this end begins with a successful experience as a philosophy and accounting major.