Do not major in anything in Liberal Arts

I have always been a high-achieving student. I vividly remember enrolling in Economics at UT Austin, convinced it was a more rigorous and intellectually demanding path than the business school, and that I genuinely loved the critical thinking found in the Liberal Arts courses. I also remember that in my second week at UT, I scheduled a career advising Zoom call because I was already motivated to land a summer internship and wanted to start exploring my options early. The "advice" I received was essentially nothing. I was told to browse LinkedIn and Handshake, with no real guidance and no mention of strong programs for freshmen.

Unfortunately, I ended both my freshman and sophomore summers without an internship. Junior year, I made it to the final round of a product management role at a FAANG company (largely thanks to my CS certificate) and booked a one-hour appointment with a Liberal Arts career advisor since I didn't know who else to turn to. She mentioned she had previously recruited for two FAANG companies and claimed she'd know exactly what they'd ask. She only gave me behavioral questions, with zero support on the technical side (despite knowing well this was a final round interview with technicals). I prepared exactly what she told me to, and not a single question she coached me on came up. I didn't get the offer.

By a complete coincidence, I ended up landing a finance role, and only then learned that finance actively recruits Economics majors and, in many cases, actually prefers them over Finance majors. I had NO idea.

The bottom line is, I wish I had transferred to McCombs from the start. For someone as driven as I was, I know I would have had significantly better recruiting resources and a far less stressful path to a job. If I could go back, I would have majored in Finance and minored in a Liberal Arts field to get the critical thinking I was after all along.

This post is for any freshman or sophomore considering a transfer: do it. Liberal Arts career services will not give you the support you need, and you will not get a good return on what you're paying for.