Choosing a Major

College Majors
1

<p>Hi everyone - I'm a junior in high school, and I feel so confused about college!</p>

<p>I've always been most interested in music, art, culture, language, and bio. I can't really pick a major that I want to pursue though... Right now, I'm looking at cultural or linguistic anthropology as a very strong possibility, but I'm worried about it not being "useful" enough - that I won't be able to get a good job or good pay from it. Is there something else similar or fitting my interests that would be more useful, or are my worries not valid? Bio might seem like kind of an outlier there, but I really do find it interesting, as well as most types of environmental sciences - however, I'm not too sure how good I would do at them. I'm fairly good with math and science, but I'm not sure how passionately I could study them.</p>

<p>I'm also not sure at all about WHERE I want to go. I am very attracted to Brown, and I feel it would be a great college for me, but would it be good for my major interests? Otherwise, I live in PA and am willing to go anywhere within 10 hours of home for college (suggestions welcome!) I just feel confused about the whole college thing, haha. Anyone willing to help me out?</p>

2

<p>You don’t need, at this point, to know what you are going to major in. There are many fields (anthropology is one of them) that aren’t even offered in high school. If you go to a school like Brown–or indeed, to any liberal arts school–the first two years will involve a lot of exploration, and even after you declare a major you will likely be only spending about half of your time on departmental courses. The “track” is different for engineering and technical majors but it doesn’t sound as if your interests or talents lie in those areas.</p>

<p>It IS a good idea to be thinking about what you might want to do as a career, which may or may not match up very precisely with a college major. But here too, you don’t need to make any hard-and-fast decisions at this point. Once you get to school, a visit to the career services center early on is a good idea–too many students wait until the last semester of their senior year, when the center services might have been helpful in helping them set goals earlier in the game. </p>

<p>ECs, summer jobs, and volunteering can often be helpful in clarifying what you’re good at and what you’re not, and hence what careers might be suitable for you. For instance, do you like organizing things? do you have good people skills? are you detail-oriented? do you like helping people? teaching them something? do you prefer to work independently or as part of a team?</p>

3

<p>Thanks for the response! It definitely comforts me, when a lot of my peers seem to have a great idea of what they’d like to pursue in the future.</p>

<p>Concerning ECs, volunteer work, etc., here is some more info:</p>

<p>Freshman Year:
My school’s science fair - 2nd place
Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science Regional and State Competitions (1st place in regional, 2nd in state)
Seminar/Gifted Program Participation (JA Titan Business-Running Simulations, Career Fair volunteer, Rosetta Stone - German)
Spanish Club
Newspaper (staff writer)
Student Council
Peer Mediation
Youth Art Day Participation (musical performance in flute)
Jazz Band (Tenor Sax)
Concert Band (Tenor Sax/Flute)
Marching Band (Tenor Sax)
Pit Band (Tenor Sax/Flute)
SADD</p>

<p>Sophomore Year:
My school’s science fair - 1st place
Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science Regional and State Competitions (1st place regional, 2nd place state)
Capital Area Science & Engineering Fair - 1st Place
Spanish Club - La Presidente
Newspaper - Staff Writer
Student Council - Treasurer
Jazz Band (1st chair Tenor Sax)
Concert Band (Baritone Sax/Flute)
Marching Band (Tenor Sax)
Pit Band (Tenor Sax)
Hugh O’Brien Youth Leadership Maryland Seminar 2010 Sophomore Ambassador
Perry County Band Festival (Alto Sax)
Special Olympics Volunteer
Graduation Project @ Local Library - 40 hours and then 14 extra hours outside of the project so far - besides this 56 hours I have about 35 volunteer hours doing other assorted projects, and I plan to get that up to 100 after the next few months, hopefully 200 by the time of college applications
National Honors Society
Fall Play Stage Crew</p>

<p>And this is how I’m planning to have my junior year go as of now…
Pennsylvania Junior of Academy Regional and State Competitions (hopefully 1st regional and then 1st state - if I get a 1st in state, I’ll be interviewing for a Marine Biology Camp at the Wallops Island Marine Science Consortium in VA for next summer)
Capital Area Science and Engineering Fair (hopefully 1st again)
School science fair - hopefully 1st again
Spanish Club - not sure what position I’ll have this year
Newspaper - Editor-in-Chief
Student Council - Treasurer
Audition for my region’s District Band on either tenor sax or flute
Jazz Band (1st chair tenor sax)
Concert Band (Flute/Tenor Sax/Bari/Alto Sax/Clarinet/whatever my band director needs, haha)
Marching Band (Tenor Sax)
Saxophone Quartet (Tenor Sax)
Pit Band (ehh whatever is needed for the show)
Fall Play Stage Crew
Hugh O’Brien Youth Leadership Maryland Seminar Team Alumni Member (hopefully <em>crosses fingers</em>!)
Perry County Band Festival (whatever instrument they need most)
any volunteer work I can get into… continuing work for Special Olympics and Library
NHS
this year my best friend and I also plan on doing a pretty big community service project, but we aren’t sure which: either a wetlands conservation project (our school is built on an area of wetland that they have slowly been filling in) or a series of benefit concerts held at the school (a girl at our school was diagnosed with liver cancer in December - she is now, thankfully, cancer-free, but it has really touched everyone in the school. we’d like to help out other local kids/teens with serious medical problems or for the wetlands conservation project). We’ve also considered building up an empty grassy area in the middle of our school into a “Courtyard” for school-related activities and for eating lunch - all we have at the moment is a small, indoor cafeteria with no windows.</p>

<p>Sorry for the length of this post! Just wanted to offer a little more insight into my interests and activities. As for academics, I’m 2nd in my class but unfortunately I don’t know my GPA off the top of my head - we work on a 0-100 scale and weighted, my GPA is usually in the 99s or high 98s. I’ve taken Algebra II Honors and Honors Geometry, and this coming year I’ll be in AP English and AP US History. My senior year, I hope to take AP Biology, AP Music Theory, AP English and AP Spanish, but I’m not sure yet. I have time. :)</p>

4

<p>Someone’s a busy bee…</p>

<p>As for picking a college, look at the school websites - there’s always helpful information there. Also, be sure to try and find time [not sure if that’s possible] to visit some schools and maybe talk to professors/students/etc.</p>