There are some people out there who believe there is a sunk cost of education, not so much economic cost, time cost. Over the past several years I’ve had several friends who encountered situations where they’ve already spent a significant amount of time studying one subject but chooses to switch midway through their university education. Let me illustrate what I mean with the following three examples:
In the first example, James experiences first degree sunk costs, which we can also say is completely ignoring sunk costs. After his first two years as a cognitive psychology major student, he went on to switch to computer science in his third year. This made him redo his second year, but he thought civil engineering was more suitable since he was a hands-on type of fellow. After his second switch and redoing his second year twice, he finally switches back to computer science when he realizes his grades in engineering weren’t that great. All told, it took him six years to graduate with bachelor’s in computer science.
James’ sister Jamie experienced second degree sunk costs being more well-planned than her brother. She makes changes early enough that the sunk costs are not significant enough to impact her academic pathway, so making a switch is just a matter of bureaucracy. Jamie also enters cognitive psychology but has a hard time with the theory in introductory courses. After her first semester she takes a variety of humanities and science course to fulfil the degree’s breadth requirements and discovers that she enjoys history. She switches into a history major in her second year and graduates on time in four years.
Third degree sunk costs are what I’m experiencing right now with my previous academic choices too deep to recover or too time consuming to salvage as credits for another major. I started off in business school knowing that was the one thing I was good at and the first three years went without a hitch. By the end of my third year I had discovered journalism as a possible career change, after taking a short journalism course to explore my interest in the area, I was sold. The problem was that I still had about a year left on my business degree, so I decided to finish off what I had now for the entry-level bachelor’s qualification even if I didn’t enjoy it as much, so it would qualify me to enter a master’s-level program in journalism.
Though all three examples were different in situation and solution, all three people ended up doing what they wanted to do. Don’t let sunk costs become a factor in determining your academic career, it’s not worth being stuck in a field you don’t enjoy for the rest of your life if you know you’ve found something more suitable. Even though you won’t be able to recover the time and effort you have exerted in the past, what you have learned will always come in useful in the future. Pursue a career you enjoy and live a life well loved.
