Hacking College: Why the Major Doesn't Matter—and What Really Does

by Ned Scott Laff, Scott Carlson

How college faculty and staff can help students "hack" their college experience through a proactive, personalized approach to success.

College is a complex, high-stakes game, according to authors Ned Scott Laff and Scott Carlson, but students can learn how to win it. Hacking College offers college advisors, faculty, and staff in student and academic affairs a groundbreaking guide to rethinking higher education so that students can succeed in an increasingly complex world. Drawing from extensive research and real student experiences, this essential book exposes the hidden challenges and bureaucratic traps that undermine student success, from convoluted transfer processes to a single-minded emphasis on majors.

Each chapter provides actionable strategies to help advisors lead students to tailor their education to their aspirations. Through vivid case studies, Laff and Carlson advocate for a proactive approach to education—encouraging students to "hack" their college experience by crafting a personalized field of study. This method challenges the traditional focus on declaring a major and empowers students to link their personal interests with academic pursuits so that their education aligns with future career and life goals.

Enriched with insights on how to find underutilized institutional resources and foster meaningful mentor relationships, Hacking College encourages students, educators, and institutions to transform passive educational experiences into dynamic journeys of discovery and self-fulfillment.

Genres: Education, Nonfiction

238 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 25, 2025

Reviews

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

Choosing a major can be hard, especially for teens, in this book authors Ladd and Carlson propose a different approach, one that asks students to think more about what they envision doing, instead of a surface decision about a major. Additionally, they urge students to make their own opportunities to find the hidden job market.

The points raised were good ones, but it would be easier for teens who have clear passions. For my own kids, they don’t know what they want to do. They only know that they want a good job, whatever that means for them. Their interests are varied, so a direct path forward is more unclear, making it harder to help them the way that this books suggests.

The other advice to network and create your own opportunities is spot on, but not new. It is one of the things that is easy to advise, but harder to put into practice.

[McKenzie · Rating 3 out of 5]

In Hacking College, Ned Scott Laff and Scott Carlson argue that the solution to students feeling like they are graduating from higher education institutions with "empty degrees" is to teach students how to break out of the mindset that major equals job, and learn instead to network to see how there are other opportunities, especially jobs not advertised on sites like LinkedIn, that they can create for themselves.

I agree with certain aspects of this argument - when I was an academic advisor, I spent countless hours telling students that employers didn't really care about what major or especially minor students pursued, but more about how students could connect their experiences in and out of the classroom to the skills that translate into their ability to perform job duties. The piece of Hacking College that I most struggled with was the assumption that all students come to college having some specific inherent dream they believe they can't pursue, that they just need to learn to view as a career path. The examples given in the book range from working in city government to opening a floral shop: the undecided 18 year olds I worked with were much more lost than these anecdotal students, and were frozen in terror at the idea of choosing any one career path to pursue. I agree this is why so many of them chose business because in their minds business equals job, but I am equally concerned about swinging back to telling students to pursue their niche passion and that if they do so jobs will follow. The unemployment market for recent grads right now is so abysmal that the idea of coaching a student to use their degree to open a floral shop eventually feels like a disservice.

Higher education is at a moment of inflection; certainly we need to change how we view majors and career paths, and this book is an interesting addition to that conversation. Like many higher education books, there are ideas here that could be picked up and put into practice (especially by advisors and faculty members who have one on one conversations with students about how to decide what to do with their lives), but I do not think the concept of Hacking College is quite the panacea its authors purport it to be.

[Charlie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I personally am a believer in the importance of picking the right major given there is a lot of data that show the average student will do better economically in certain majors. What you study is often more predictive of economic ROI than where you go. So I thought I might disagree quite a bit with this book with a subtitle that the major “doesn’t matter.”

I still think majors matter if you want to optimize the current system, but it challenged my thinking and I finished agreeing that every student, regardless of major, should enhance the value of their degree by engaging in personal exploration, finding their why and building a customized plan. And agreeing with the dangers of assuming that any degree plan is a golden ticket. Plenty of CS and business majors end up with empty degrees in the words of Carlson and Laff.

I think more institutions would be well served to test the Field of Study method detailed in this book - ideally as a credit-bearing course! If the goal of the liberal arts is to create “life long learners”, practicing the Field of Study process is a great toolkit to have.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall strong concept. However, this process seems to work for kids who have clear passions and can’t translate them to work. This is a very useful process for that student and the idea of blank spaces is crucial for kids to utilize.


However, the process falls apart with the very typical college student who “just wants a good job” but has no direction, no clear passion like the kids in the book. Not every kid has a passion for art or museum curation. Some kids work at Walmart and scroll dumb videos on TikTok. Or sometimes people don’t want to connect their passion to work— the kid who loves sports but doesn’t want to work in the field (or any hidden job related to it). Sometimes a passion is just a hobby, and that’s ok. I wonder how this process would work with this large population of students.

[Caitlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

The ideas in this book speak to my approach at work and I think they will be useful. I will need to continue to think about these ideas and how I can best incorporate them. This would be a good book to read with colleagues.

[Katie Winkler]

Content was great. Very validating following my years as a faculty member and advisor. The audio book reader was a bit monotone, so I give it 4 starts instead of five

[Joy Matteson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wicked good. Most higher ed folks should read this. Recommending this one to colleagues.

[NJM · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely writing and tons of insights on what higher education can and should be with case studies of how it sometimes succeeds. But occasionally too glib on the obstacles to doing this.

[Kristen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish I had this book 25 years ago!!

[CA Junior · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hacking College, de Ned S. Laff e Scott Carlson é um livro de muitos méritos mas também com alguns defeitos. Seu maior mérito, e isso não é pouco, é mostrar que todos os cursos de graduação em todas as instituições de ensino superior podem conduzir o aluno para um futuro de sucesso no
mercado de trabalho. Infelizmente diversos cursos sofrem com o estigma de formarem profissionais em áreas onde "não tem emprego". Pais, professores de ensino médio, consultores, diversas são as pessoas que buscam orientar os jovens para não fazerem esses cursos, mesmo
que isso signifique abrir mão de um sonho. E infelizmente existe aqui uma profecia auto-realizável: cursos ganham essa estigma, alunos acreditam nela e passam a crer que não é viável viver daquela
profissão. Recentemente uma reportagem na televisão mostrava um pequeno grupo de teatro de rua. O diretor e ator explicou para a repórter que tinha outra profissão, para pagar as contas, mas o teatro era para a alma. Obviamente que viver do teatro não é fácil, e não por culpa daqueles que trabalham no ramo, mas talvez Hacking College possa mostrar que existem caminhos que devem ser tentados. Que unir o sonho e o mercado de trabalho pode ser viável - embora não seja fácil.

Outro mérito do livro de Laff e Carlson é mostrar que os alunos precisam (devem) entender como os sistemas burocráticos de suas instituições de ensino superior operam. Saber as regras, as exceções, os caminhos burocráticos corretos, o modo de agir. Instituições de ensino são máquinas complexas, com estruturas estabelecidas e muitas vezes pouco abertas para mudanças ou flexibilizações. Conhecer os caminhos ajuda muito, como fica claro ao longo das 200 páginas deste livro.

Entendido os méritos, vamos para os problemas. Primeiro, o título. Uma rápida busca no dicionário Oxford Languages para o significado da palavra "hacking" retorna: "the gaining of unauthorized access to data in a system or computer". Mesmo aceitando que não se trata apenas
dados ou computadores, o fato é que "hacking" acaba muito associado a algo não autorizado, algo burlando o sistema. E não, não é essa a ideia do livro. Em momento algum o livro busca burlar regras, achar caminhos não autorizados. O livro defende, isso sim, que os alunos conheçam as regras e saibam atuar conforme elas. Isso, para mim, não é "hacking".

Outro ponto problemático dessa obra é que ela tenta se colocar como ampla e geral, mas esquece (voluntariamente ou não) de comentar sobre alunos que sonham com cursos tradicionalmente associados como de sucesso no mercado de trabalho. Por que não falar sobre aluno que sempre sonharam fazer engenharia, passaram para esse curso e depois seguem uma carreira brilhante neste
campo? Em alguns momentos os autores parecem induzir que só existe felicidade e real vocação nos cursos não associados ao mercado de trabalho. Seria possível alguém sonhar e ser feliz em um curso de economia? De engenharia? Sim, seria! Mas infelizmente os autores parecem não perceber isso.

Finalmente, ao longo do livro também fica claro que os autores apresentam somente casos onde sua metodologia teve sucesso. E fazem questão de mostrar um caso onde a visão defendida em outro livro deu, segundo Ned e Scott, errado! Quando estamos falando de academia devemos lembrar que teorias existem para serem testadas e questionadas. Apresentar apenas casos de sucesso não mostra como a teoria é boa, apenas cria a sensação de que os autores preferem não contar os problemas
e os defeitos. Confiaria mais se sucessos e fracassos estivessem presentes, como é a vida normal no meio universitário. É apenas na parte final do livro que os autores aceitam que não estão apresentando uma solução fechada e milagrosa, mas aí, para mim, já era tarde.

[Lashawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hacking College flips the script on higher ed. Instead of trudging through requirements and majors on autopilot, Laff and Carlson show you how to treat college like a buffet—choosing what excites you, building a unique path, and even uncovering hidden career opportunities. Practical, smart, and genuinely inspiring—this is the book every student should keep within arm’s reach.

[Valerie Ott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliant insight into creating your working self. I would recommend all freshman (or 18 year olds) read this book.

[Jordan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Innovative take on how to do college and set yourself up for success in your career afterwards!

[Melanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been hoping that a book like this was out there that emphasizes the value of the liberal arts, the importance of personal exploration for college students and for them to take ownership and initiative of their college experience. I recommend this book to every colleague I meet!