Hi everyone! I’m a senior currently at a university and I’m constantly depressed because I’m still unsure of what I want to major in or want in a career. I constantly research, interview professionals, and speak with advisors. I just can’t make a decision because I personally don’t even know what I want. I am a Recreation Therapy major currently, but I’m not sure if it’s even for me. I’ve been through more than 5 different majors already and I’ve dwindled down over the years and do not know what to do anymore. Anything really helps please. I’m not sure what’s wrong with me and why I can’t make a decision. I’m looking for something, but I don’t know what it is yet. I hope I can get a job after college and move away to a place I’ll be more happy. I love science, but I’m bad at it. I’m good with animals, social science, and highly organized. I am creative and love photography. I enjoy helping people and possibly may like to work within a university or a creative company. Most of all I hope to travel one day to see if it fills this hole in my heart that I can’t figure out what belongs there. Anything really helps! That’s a little bit about me, any major suggestions or career suggestions. Sometimes I start to wonder if I even belong in college. Thank you.
At this point, your best bet might actually be figuring out what major will give you a baccalaureate degree quickest. Seriously. This is especially the case if your university does things like charging a higher tuition rate if you accumulate more than a certain number of credits.
The field of your degree is important for, but not determinative of, the field you work in after graduation. Not having an engineering degree (for example) means that you’re not going to be working as an engineer, but the connection between degree field and career field isn’t usually that tightly connected. Very few people with an anthropology degree, after all, end up working as anthropologists—but they reasonably well at getting hired in a bunch of different fields.
@dfbdfb Thank you very much for replying! I sincerely appreciate it. Do you suggest then I should just finish off with recreation therapy in that case? I mean I’m not quite sure what else I can do with it along with my minors in psychology and sociology. I’m just scared of not finding anything due to my decision of choosing recreation therapy as my major. If you do not mind me asking what did you major in and what is your career now? I just ask people for advice and see what their interests were. Thank you for the anthropology example…that was actually one of the majors I am interested in still, but was afraid I wouldn’t get a job afterwards.
Do you have any sort of academic advising, whether based in your major department or more broadly, at your university? You should go talk to an advisor—they’ll be able to look at your individual situation and help you plot a path to your degree, and very likely be able to look at your possible degree fields with an eye toward post-graduation employment. Your university’s career services offices (which they almost certainly have, even if not under that name) is also a good resource, because they’ll be able to help you with many of your questions better than anyone on this forum can.
Also, about to hit submit but had to add this postscript: Generalized discussions along the lines of “What majors are most employable?” and the like are problematic generally, but one of the biggest problems with it is that it leads to questions like yours, where you’re afraid of not being able to find a job because of your major. A baccalaureate degree serves multiple purposes, though, with one of the biggest being to show that you can learn generally, not necessarily about one specific field. Base your search on that, not on recreation therapy itself.
^Right. Plus, my answer could be “nursing,” but what good is that if you faint every time you see blood? Or I say “engineering,” but you hate math?
It is very very common for college seniors to come to the end of their degree and realize that they’re still not really sure what they want to do. That’s totally fine! I came to the end of a PhD program and wasn’t sure. You just try stuff out until you find something you like. My sister was an exercise science major and she did struggle a little bit with finding employment, but she DID eventually find a job (and she geographically constrained herself to a small area and a very specific type of position).
So if you are nearing graduation, it might be best to just finish with the recreation therapy degree and see what jobs you can find doing that. (FWIW, when my sister was looking, she found lots of jobs that required a major and certification in recreation therapy and wished she had that.)
@Rue321—somehow I missed you asking my field. My degrees are in linguistics (which, true story, I majored in as an undergrad initially by accident), and I’m now a professor of linguistics. So my path from degree field to employment is pretty linear. Among my relatives and very close friends with a college degree, though, are an individual with a horticulture degree who’s a certified financial planner, one with a mechanical engineering degree who writes firmware, one with a linguistics degree who builds tech startups, one with an English degree who writes software…