Considering Changing Major Senior Year

College Majors
1

Hello,

I am a rising senior at the University of Maryland, College Park who is currently majoring in Sociology. However, I have realized that I do not enjoy my Sociology Major due to a myriad of factors, such as it being way too theoretical. I have also realized that my major is not conducive to employment opportunities. I have a lot of internship and work experience and have worked at places such as the Library of Congress as a Research Assistant, The GLBT Archives and Museum in San Francisco, and am currently working at the National Park Service on policy and philanthropy.

A little background on me: I went to Duquesne University freshman year and majored in Social Studies Education, transferred my sophomore year to St. Mary’s College of Maryland and began my major in Sociology, went to a community college for two semesters to complete General Education Requirements and take a much needed mental health break from traditional schooling, and just transferred to the University of Maryland where I was a Sociology Major but took no Sociology classes because a professor stated that there were no jobs in the field. I then took a history course, a psychology course, an LGBT studies course, and a Spanish course preparing me to either get into the History major or Family Science major. I also realized that UMD is much too large for me as a student and that my job prospects are probably very low with such a major.

My current options are to finish Sociology at UMD (I could graduate next fall), change my major to Accounting (graduate two years late but with better job prospects), complete a History degree at UMD or UMBC (a semester late; UMBC has a campus near my house), or complete a degree in Political Science at UMBC (near my home and graduate a semester late).

Any and all help would be appreciated!

2

90% of recent college graduates (less than 5 years post college) with a major in sociology are employed. Once you look at experienced graduates, that number goes up to 96%. Sociology majors can get jobs. You have had lots of internships and work experiences, so your odds of getting a job are pretty good.

You might be surprised to learn that the unemployment rate for accounting majors (8.8%) isn’t that much lower than the unemployment rate for sociology majors (9.9%). Accounting majors do make more money on average - they average $43,000 a year, whereas sociology majors average $30,000 a year. Salaries go up for both with 5+ years of experience, with the average then being $66,000 for accounting majors and $50,000 for sociology majors.

History, political science, and sociology are all kind of in the same boat. They’re all liberal arts and sciences majors; they don’t prepare you for a career in any specific field, but give you a base-level qualification to work in lots of fields that require a BA. You could potentially work in a related area - like as a policy analyst at a think tank; an advocate or junior lobbyist’s assistant at a corporation; a Congressional aide or government staffer; etc. You could also potentially work in a relatively unrelated area - like a technical writer, a middle manager at a company, an analyst at a for-profit, a consultant, etc. I’ve seen recent college grads go in both directions.

So frankly, I don’t see the point in changing your major from sociology to political science or history. TO me, your choice is whether you want to stay a sociology major or whether you want to change to accounting - which is a pre-professional major that provides entree into a specific career.