<p>I have to pick a major at the end of this year and I still have no plan, no clue... all the random sample courses I took last year only confused me more. Coming in as a freshman, I was pretty confident about just winging it and everybody kept telling me "oh you have plenty of time!" but that's not the case anymore. One year is nothing. Anyone else in the same (sinking) boat? :(</p>
<p>Well what are you interested in? Surely something made you interested in going to college.</p>
<p>What classes do you have A’s in? Which ones interest you? What are jobs you could see yourself having? (This might be less important, because it seems like people get a degree in something and do something completely random for their job). What are a couple of things that interest you that could make you a versatile candidate for a position?</p>
<p>If you don’t have either a clearly defined post-graduate plan or a demonstrable interest in a specific field, I would strongly recommend majoring in a subject that has bachelors-level marketability. Something like accounting or finance. Or math/stats/engineering if you’re quantitatively talented. </p>
<p>A BS/BA in history, psych, bio, chem, or any other liberal art is utterly useless as a terminal degree, particularly in this economy. Literally garbage as a terminal degree–I can’t stress this enough. If deadlines pressure you into majoring in something without immediate marketability, you will likely be still confused when you graduate but now you’ll have the added benefit of having zero job prospects unless you go to grad school.</p>
<p>Talk to your advisior, they help you out SO much</p>
<p>@Caillebotte. That’s not true. Plenty of people get jobs that have absolutely nothing to do with their degree. Many employers just ask for a Bachelor’s Degree and don’t care necessarily what it’s in.</p>
<p>It is more difficult to get a job with certain degrees, but that doesn’t mean you have zero job prospects. Having a Bachelors Degree in the first place opens you up to numerous jobs that you wouldn’t have if you didn’t have that degree. You just have to find them and be willing to do something outside of your major.</p>
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Yeah like Starbucks barista, waitress, lab serf, and perpetual unpaid intern.</p>
<p>It is certainly possible to find a job with an unmarketable BS/BA, but it is highly improbable that an undecided major who just rushed and chose her field because time was running out would have the passion to leverage such a degree in this economy. (And this isn’t a knock on the OP.)</p>
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You still live in this collegeconfidential bubble where they sing the praises of “fit” and “passion.” That bullsh** quickly gets thrown out the window once you graduate and are on the job market. You have no idea how brutal it is for people who aren’t either finance/marketing/math/engineering majors or pursuing an advanced degree in grad school.</p>
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<p>That’s just crap and you know it.</p>
<p>^^Just simply false.</p>
<p>CC is full of ignorance like usual. What else is new.</p>
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Haha well then why don’t you enlighten us, hauteclere the 17-year-old? Tell us first though, how many days have you spent on the job market as a college grad with a less-marketable major? Better yet, tell us how many days you have even spent in college period?</p>
<p>The truth is fu**ing painful. Trust me, I just graduated from an Ivy League school with an unmarketable major–I’m going through this myself. I’m not trying to rip on certain majors, I’m just being real with the OP. The job market is brutal and everyone I know with a traditionally marketable major is currently employed, happy, and making $$$.</p>
<p>Or consider taking some time off from school to work or travel, mature and figure out what you are interested in rather than pick “any old majpr” to graduate.</p>
<p>Caillebotte: curious what you are finding to be an unmarketable major? I was surprised to see sciences on your list above?</p>
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<p>Okay.</p>
<p><a href=“http://money.cnn.com/2000/12/08/career/q_degreepsychology/[/url]”>http://money.cnn.com/2000/12/08/career/q_degreepsychology/</a></p>
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<p>I’d like to think that’s more than the average salary for the jobs you suggested. Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.</p>
<p>A waitress:</p>
<p>[Waiter/waitress</a> Salary | Indeed.com](<a href=“http://www.indeed.com/salary?q1=Waiter%2Fwaitress]Waiter/waitress”>http://www.indeed.com/salary?q1=Waiter%2Fwaitress) = $26000</p>
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<p>[PayScale</a> - Waiter/Waitress Salary, Average Salaries](<a href=“http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Waiter%2FWaitress/Salary]PayScale”>Waiter/Waitress Hourly Pay in 2024 | PayScale)</p>
<p>$4055-$29590 for less than 1 year of experience.</p>
<p>^These statistics are beyond meaningless. Average salaries say nothing about whether these graduates can FIND a job in the first place. If you really want to find salient statistics, find the unemployment AND *underemployment *rates of psych majors with JUST a BS/BA. Compare this with the unemployment and *underemployment *rates of finance/engineering majors with just a BS/BA.</p>
<p>But whether or not you find these, it doesn’t matter. My advice is for an undecided major. If you have NO clearly defined academic passion, which appears to describe the OP, then why on earth would you pick a less lucrative field over a well-paying one? The answer is: you wouldn’t.</p>
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<p>It doesn’t, you’re right. However, they disprove your argument that they can only find jobs as waitresses and so on, which is what I was trying to do in the first place. </p>
<p>Furthermore, that was posted in 2000 - just consider the inflation boost to the salary by now (which is 33.84%, according to a website I used, if I haven’t made a mistake).</p>
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<p>Caillebotte seems to have the right idea. If you have NO passion in something then do some research and pick a major that you’ll be able to make enough money for your personal standard of living.</p>
<p>I picked my major based on the classes I was good at in high school. Currently looking for a 2nd major or minor so that i’ll have more options.</p>
<p>Just bouncing off of what Caillebotte was saying, there are very few majors that are just absolutely useless. You need to be aware of what the economy is like and how much work you’ll need to put in to get a job after you graduate. There are some majors like Psychology, where to currently do really well you have to at least continue your education and get a masters.</p>
<p>Normally, I would agree that you can find jobs outside of your major with a psych degree of something of the like. In this job market, however, even well-qualified graduates can’t find jobs because the economy is shrinking, not growing. Now, many people are underemployed (an extreme example is a person with a degree in astronomy is working as a secretary). This is happening more and more because many labs, etc. are unable to hire in the current climate.</p>
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<p>ON a side note, salary inflation is much closer to 20% since 2000, assuming a 2% raise each year to match core inflation. The problem is that inflation is really closer to 7 or 8% (healthcare inflation is 12% annually; education inflation is 6-8% annually; food and commodities 4-5% annually). This means that money now can’t buy nearly what it could in 2000 (which makes sense if one considers the weakening of the dollar).</p>
<p>In the current climate, it is safer to find a major that has a relatively high job placement rate with a BA/BSE degree.</p>
<p>^ I agree that it’s difficult to find a job with such majors, but I think he was taking it a bit too far… seriously? A job as a waiter?</p>