<p>I'm fairly new here and still learning but I have a question about choosing a Major. My daughter is still in High School and a Sophmore so we have a lot of time. I've got her to write down a list of 15 Colleges she'd like to apply to. My wife thinks that before she tries to figure out what college she wants to go to that she should figure out what she wants her major to be first. </p>
<p>What are your thoughts on the subject? Do/Did you choose a school first and then figure out what you wanted to major in or did you choose the major and figure out what school was best for your major? Thanks for your help.</p>
<p>I think that having an idea of a major definitely helps pinpoint potential schools because not every school has all the majors. In my case, I decided that I wanted to study Architecture and that eliminated a lot of schools from my list because not every school has an Architecture program. Hope this helps!</p>
<p>i agree with smart&blonde...i'm still not certain about what i want to major in but i definitely know what i'm not going to major in. make sure that even though she doesnt know specifically what she does want to do, she has an idea of what she does and doesnt like. </p>
<p>i know that i'm not going to be invloved in science, art or music...that pretty much left me with social sciences and business. two areas that i love. after that, it will be much easier to narrow down her college search. i know it was difficult for me because i didnt know what i was looking for in academics. once she has a bit of a clue, she'll be able to remove tons of schools and it'll be easier to find her college.</p>
<p>Your daughter is only 15/16 years of age and your wife expects her to have a major/life plan made out already? I mean, it doesn't hurt to have a general idea of what you may want to do, but you really never know exactly what you want to do until you get to college and take a bunch of survey classes. Heck, most people don't know what they want to major in until they are older, much older! </p>
<p>My fiance still doesn't know what he wants to do and he has about 3 years of college under his belt...</p>
<p>I would personally start by looking at what kind of area she wants to live in, subarb, rural, urban and what size/student population would make her happiest. If she has no clue as to what she wants to do, larger universities are always great because they offer lots of options to students who are indeed undecided. If cost is an issue, you can then factor that in...etc. </p>
<p>I didn't know where I wanted to apply until I visited schools between my junior/senior years of hs and thought I had everything planned as to my prospective majors...well the school was excellent for me, but I ended up changing my major my first semester. Many students who go in with a major in mind end up changing it at least once...so again, my advice would be finding a school that meets her social needs and then making sure it has majors that fit all of her possible interests in mind...</p>
<p>That's my 2 cents since I've been through the process in the relatively recent past (graduated from undergrad in '04)...</p>
<p>Yeah . . . as said, it's one of many important factors to consider, but if you she is likely to end up in something such as english, history, or psychology, almost any school will work fairly well. If she is considering something such as music or theater, that's another story, as are certain programs that are more scarce (but not uncommon) such as linguistics or archaelogy. I think, at this stage, other factors, such as location, size, atmosphere, are far more important.</p>
<p>A suggestion- when my daughter was in 9th and 10th grade we visited the college fairs and spoke with the admissions counselors there--at that time her main interest was pursuing a college where she could easily do horseback riding. ie. a stables close to campus so you wouldn't need a car. She was also mildly interested in pursuing swimming also. Some of the women's colleges looked pretty good to her-- It's easy to get hung up in which major is good where except that doesn't work if you are undecided. My philosophy is that you should pursue an area where you enjoy the environment or that has activities where you will make friends. Many people said the clubs and organizations were the best part of college. As time went on (11th and 12th grade) she got more interested in collegiate swimming, and somewhat more open to a few places that didn't have horses behind the dorms. To pursue both we got a fairly limited list of colleges that offer both swimming and horses. As it turned out however her two top choices were AFA and West Point (who would have thought) She's swimming and she has a horse at the stables at AFA. It's a wonderful way to experience the 13,000 acres--on a horse. She's made a lot of great friends--she said, "Mom, every kid here is a great kid". She doesn't have a major yet, but she's at a great school and she's extremely happy there. She's doing well-we homeschooled her and it was pretty demanding of everybody. Academically she has landed on her feet there. Her dad and mom are very proud of her, our only regret is that all the grandparents are gone -the last one died just as she was going through the nomination process.....Regards</p>
<p>Sorry to bust in here, but do you know any website to research on college s and universities? I tried once but I got so overwhelm with so much infos and I gave up. Is there any method that I could use to make the search easier?</p>