Hi! I’m currently a high school senior and I will be enrolling into college come fall and I’m still undecided on a major! I’m interested in economics, politics, and foreign matters. can anyone list some majors that might interest me or let me know of any major quiz I can take that will help me decide on a major? Also some careers that link with my interests.
Thank you!
Political science, International Relations/Studies, area studies (Russia, the Middle East, Europe, South Asia, East Asia etc) or journalism are some options for majors. You can do many things with the skills gained from these majors:
-work for the federal govt (DoD, State, Energy, NSA, CIA, FBI, DHS etc)
-work at a think tank
-be a journalist
-work for the UN or the World Bank
-work for NGOs and other nonprofits
-work for defense contractors
-work for international corporations
-work for State and local governments
This is not an exhaustive list because you can pursue a career in many different fields with a liberal arts degree.
There are lots of different majors you can pick. dorie13 already listed some of them. You may also be interested in economics, history, or even sociology or anthropology, depending on the angle from which you want to approach things. Some colleges have public policy majors or other professional-ish majors that are directly relevant here. But people have gotten into foreign affairs, politics, and economics from a variety of other backgrounds - math (economic analysis), physics, chemistry, biology, or another science (science policy), engineering (infrastructure and development in foreign countries), philosophy (ethics in politics), etc. There are applications from many different majors and angles.
There’s really no quiz that will help you decide on a major. The way to decide is to take some courses in some areas you’re interested in during your freshman year of college. You can try out majors and see which classes appeal to you the most. You don’t have to decide right now.
Those interests align with political science, history, international relations, etc as juillet and dorie13 said.
In your first year of college, you should take a broad array of courses (while fulfilling your school’s general ed requirements) that will allow you to explore your options- you don’t have to declare a major until sophomore year.
Above posters gave many good options for majors, and I second the recommendation to look at IR, Political Science and Econ, as those seems to line up with your main interests.
Which college?