Some people believe that college students should consider only their own talents and interests when choosing a field of study. Others believe that college students should base their choice of a field of study on the availability of jobs in that field.

The author contends that some people state that the students' choice of their field of study should be based on their own interests and talents, while some others believe that availability of jobs in that field is more important in preference to their interests and talents. In what follows the main reasons posited by both groups are first discussed and then my own position would be delineated.

Those people who argue that students’ choice should only be based on their own talents and interests seem to have two chief reasons for their position. The first reason is based on the premise that the students' effectiveness will be higher when their field of study is in accordance with their interests and talents. Psychologically everyone prefers to do what they desire rather than doing things they don't like doing in order to go on living. As a result, in that way they definitely will have better performance and efficiency. In addition studying absolutely is not as easy as one might think and sometimes students need to study hard. Perseverance and dedication is essential. Indeed, the students' interests, coupled with their field of study will help them to tolerate difficulties and encourage them to continue. As the second reason, the students' talents are another important matter to be considered here. To take one hypothetical example where a student is highly talented in Mathematics and engineering concepts; for instance he/she chooses to study in Medical or nursing fields which is obviously different. Engineering requires enterprising, thinking and problem solving while in medical fields students deal with lots of information and data to be memorized and need a good memory. As a result the students will face a serious challenge. This choice not only leads to a poor performance, but also wastes their talents.

As we stated already, there are some others who believe job availability should be the students' only criterion to choose their field of study. These people seem to give more weight to the students' financial responsibility in future. They might believe that the purpose of education is to make a living by acquiring a job with high income and secure future. According to statistics from National Business Journal, job availability varies from one region of a country to another one. For example Oil and Gas related jobs are more prevalent in oil-rich regions as the Agriculture Engineering related jobs in fertile regions. So the students should choose their field of study with consideration of job availability in the place they plan to work. Further these people by asserting that money is better than knowledge probably believe that no one is interested in science for itself. There is one fact that we all need money for the living and everything converges to this fact that what a person can do and what a person can't do. To put it differently, this group of people state that money plays an integral role in our life and everything end up with money. Indeed, Oxygen is the only thing we don't pay for.

As for my point of view, I should say that I lodge myself somewhere between the two positions. In fact, what is missing in both of the viewpoints above is that we can establish a new mechanism to make sure all job availability, students' talents and interests are included in the decision-making process. In my point of view one should not think one-sided and unbalanced. The best mechanism in this situation is to create a priority list. I suggest sort a list of interests and get priorities straight. Then consider job availability among them and search for a field of study which takes priority over all other fields. Implementing this mechanism, students consider both angles in making a right decision.