One thing I've always found funny about college freshmen is that we (I have) all seem to share similar sentiments which totally disappear later on in life. For example, one of our employees is going to college and says "I'd take a cut in pay to do something I liked, rather than take a high paying job which I didn't". Man will he abandon those but quick when he leaves college.
Another thing he keeps harping on is how he wants to be a teacher, yet knows next to nothing about what the career entails, or even what he needs to be majoring in to get there. He felt that simply an English degree would make him a teacher, when our state specifically requires some sort of education major, or at the very least two additional years through an accreditation service.
I find that crowd to be young and idealistic, to usually have a rosey picture of the world around them without considering all the crow they have to eat in order to get where they want. Most are very confident about what they want to do but very unwilling to either acknowledge or put forth the effort that it takes to acquire it -- mostly because in reality they don't know what they want to do. This is why professions like teacher, doctor, business and lawyer are such buzzwords amongst incoming freshman; it's the only jobs they really know. It might never occur to them that they will, more than likely, change careers seven or more times in their lives, even within their fields, and more than likely not necessarily use their major for anything.
I know English majors who do accounting, for example. I know Business majors, lots of them, who end up as personal trainers. I also know many, many, political science majors who couldn't do politics, and probably never will.
I think the mindset of a freshman comes from the invincibility complex so common in teenagers and young adults. The same reason we feel endless sex, drinking and drugs are a-okay, while they might go to pre-med class the next day and read exactly why those behaviors are taking good years off their life. It's funny, I've come to realize I don't really want to make some ******ed kid smile, or feed the poor, because those things don't make any money. Boy, that sounds crass, but the world makes you crass.
If I could give advice to myself back then from now, I would say this:
You can change the world, but you need to play by it's rules first. If you think the world is going to be overcome by your pop culture knowledge, or ability to list all the Presidents and talk at length about Plato's republic, you're wrong. All the world cares about is results, showing you can be dependable at work, and that you can make money.
After you make your money, then, and only then can you start to make a real impact. Selling out is a part of growing out because you need contacts and people who are willing to take a risk on you to do what you want to do. You can't power an industry or effort on hopes and dreams, no more than you can power your car on grass clippings.
If you want to try to be a human who contributes something to society understand you have to work your way up.