Deciding between STEM majors

College Majors
1

Hi, I’m currently a Junior in high school, and I’ve been thinking about what I want to do in college alot lately. I really love math and science, and I have a good handful of things that I may want to do. The thing is, each thing has alot of pros but also alot of cons. I can’t really decide on one thing. I’ll just list my different options and talk about why/ why not I’d choose them, and hopefully some of you guys can help me out.

  1. Engineering In order of descending interest (chemical > mechanical > electrical). I love how engineering is very broad (covers many sciences). My job selection would be great, and the pay would be great as well. The topics and classes covered in engineering curriculums I think are interesting, and I love how engineering is a relevant field that plays a big part in our society. The thing is, I don't really like machines/ vehicles/ mechanical structures. This bothers me because this is a major part of engineering, especially mechanical. If I went with something like chemical, would I be okay? I also don't know how much I'd enjoy working in a factory/ industrial-type setting. Lastly, I'm worried that engineering is something that you need to have a passion for in order to do, and I'm not sure if I have that passion.
  2. Biology I LOVE the biology coursework. I'd probably have a blast in every class I took. The topics are incredibly interesting to me. What bothers me is that without going to graduate school, this major isn't really worth it. I'd most likely have to go to med school if I wanted to major in Biology, or go onto graduate school and get my PhD (which still wouldn't be great money). Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is a bad major if you don't go on to med school or get your PhD, and I want to go into something which will pay well.
  3. Actuarial Science My dad was an actuary, and my uncle/ one of my aunts are as well. I know many actuaries in my life. Math is a topic which I actually enjoy pretty well. What I'm not sure about though is that if I'd like math if I had to do it all day every day. Yes I like math, but I feel like there's a good chance I'd get sick of it. I'm not sure how interesting being an actuary would be, but I do know that this major pays extremely well.
  4. Med School (Biology/ Microbiology undergrad) One option I have is going to med school with an undergrad degree of Biology or Microbiology. Many of the topics in med school are very interesting to me, but I'm just not sure if I want to spend 8-12 years before I actually start my career. Money is a big issue as well (paying for med school). I've always been interested in Psychiatry, and I think that would be such a fun and interesting job. But again, med school is a pain in more ways than one, and I'm just not sure if it'd be the smartest thing for me to do.
  5. Computer Science Computer Science is a pretty popular degree right now which has a huge demand and pretty well pay. Those reasons are why I've looked into going into doing computer science. I'm kind of a a computer nerd, but I don't know if I'd really enjoy classes that were so programming heavy all day. I feel like I could easily have a blast in this major but at the same time I wouldn't be surprised if this was something that would bore the hell out of me.
  6. Physics

    Not much to say here. I'll be taking physics next year, and I guess the only reason it's on this list is because of the possibility that I may enjoy physics alot. I really respect physicists and I think they play a huge role in the scientific community. Coursework seems interesting, but I'm still not sure if it's something I'd really enjoy.

    Thoughts?

Oh, and I’ll add some bullet points of things about me which may help you guys have a picture of who I am and my interests which could influence what I want to do:
-Like biology, chemistry, math
-MIGHT like physics (haven’t taken yet). High respect towards the field.
-Good with computers, but not sure if I would like programming
-Willing to put in all the hard work and dedication necessary
-Robots/ AI interest me, but machines don’t
-Not sure how much I’d want a job where I’d be required to talk to groups of people all day

2

Medical school does not require any specific undergraduate major, although the pre-med course work overlaps considerably with biology major courses.

Take physics in high school and see how you like it and how well you do in it. You should like it and do well in it to go into engineering or physics as a college major.

Actuarial preparation also includes statistics, finance, and economics; see http://beanactuary.com .

You may want to go through these introductory CS courses to determine your interest in CS:
http://cs10.org/fa15/ (introduction for those with little or no programming experience)
http://cs61a.org/ or http://www.cs61as.org/ (introduction for CS majors, preferably with some programming experience)

3

Well, hopefully you know that you don’t have to pick any major right now. You’ve got a lot of time to settle on something.

Thoughts:

-Majors don’t get you jobs/money. Jobs get you money. You could major in biology and become a software developer or a CEO and make six figures.

-You don’t have to be “passionate” to do well and succeed at most careers. If you like it well enough to keep on doing it 8 hours a day for a few years at a time, then you can be successful. Passion is optional. I like my job a lot but I wouldn’t say I am passionate about it specifically. I do have some passion for related elements/the field in general.

-If you don’t like machines, you probably shouldn’t major in engineering.

-Biology isn’t necessarily a bad major to enter if you don’t plan to go to graduate school.

-Actuarial science is not a major offered at most colleges and universities. Usually, it’s only available at large public flagship universities and sometimes a few special private universities. You also don’t need to major in actuarial science to be an actuary. You can major in math or statistics or another quant major.

-Computer science is not the same thing as being ‘good with computers.’

-You don’t have to major in a natural/life science to go to med school.

-If you don’t want to talk to people all day, then being a doctor isn’t necessarily a good career choice.

The best thing you can do is take a class or two in each of these fields when you start college, then see what you like

4

@ucbalumnus I understand med school doesn’t require a specific undergrad, I’m just saying if I went to med school those are the degrees I’d go with. Also, I’ll be taking economics and statistics in high school, if I don’t like these classes should I probably not go into actuarial science?

Thanks for those websites, I'll definitely check them out

@juillet

Response to your thoughts:

-I understand majors don’t get you money, but it’ll be alot more difficult to get a job that pays well with certain degrees over others. Also, I’d want to major in the field that I would apply to my career.

-You really don’t think I should go into engineering if I don’t like machines? I was thinking chemical wouldn’t focus so much around them. Also, I don’t necessarily hate machines, it’s just that they don’t interest me.

-I’ve heard from many people that Biology is a weak thing to major in if you don’t plan to go to grad school (job opportunities, salaries, etc). Am I wrong?

5

Clinical Laboratory Technologist and Environmental Health Specialist are strong occupations for biology majors.

6

@jjwinkle Neither of those pay particularly well =/

7

Perhaps you should pre-define what you mean by “pay particularly well.” The Bureau of Labor Services reports that the median salary for environmental scientists and specialists is $63,570 a year, which is a very good middle-class salary.

But that’s exactly what I mean, in that that’s not necessarily true. Careers are what pay well and even if we go by the arbitrary requirement that your BA is directly related to your future career, there’s a wide variation.

Let’s, for example, say that you major in computer science. You could end up as a software developer (average salary $93K) or a systems analyst (average salary $79K). You could also be a web developer (average salary $62K) or a support specialist (average salary $49K). Also, salaries vary widely - writing software for Apple or Google is going to pay a lot better than maintaining the database at a nonprofit or NGO, and you’ll make more money in San Francisco or Seattle than you will in Atlanta or Austin.

Let’s take now a psychology major, the classic “useless” major (which happens to be mine). You could be a mental health counselor (average $41K) or a market research analyst (average salary $60K). You could also be an industrial-organizational psychologist (average $84K), a human resources manager ($100K), a marketing and advertising manager (average salary $116K), or a user experience researcher ($102K). And I deliberately picked jobs that you can do with a BA or a master’s degree.

Now, I’m not arguing that the average salary for certain majors isn’t overall higher than it is for other majors, but that’s because as an aggregate people in those majors tend to go into (and become qualified for) higher-paying careers more often for a variety of reasons. That doesn’t translate to it being more difficulty for one individual person to find high-paying work with a certain major, or for an individual psychology major to certainly be lower paid than an individual computer science major. I’m also not arguing that certain fields aren’t higher paying than others - computer science as a field is better paying than psychology, but I’m a psychology major who works in tech. Your major doesn’t necessarily determine your skills or your field.

Chemical engineers develop and design chemical manufacturing processes. The idea is to design equipment and processes that are necessary to the chemical manufacturing and refining process. They work with machines…a lot.

Yes. A lot of “people” have created these very simplistic stereotypes around particular majors. Many of them are either untrue or greatly exaggerated.

Right now, there are several majors that lead directly into professional jobs that are currently in vogue and pretty high-paying. Engineering is one: engineering is a pre-professional major; engineering majors usually become engineers; and engineers are typically paid well no matter where they live. Computer science is a another currently in vogue one; although it’s not pre-professional, many computer science majors do go onto software development careers and make decent money (even though that is not the only thing that you can do with a CS degree).

But I have heard “X is a weak/useless thing to major in if you don’t plan to go to grad school” about literally every other non-preprofessional major. I’ve heard it said about economics, physics, math, geology/geosciences, biology and chemistry along with English, history, political science, psychology, foreign languages, philosophy. I’ve even heard it said about certain engineering majors, particularly biomedical engineering. I’ve heard it said about some pre-professional majors like information technology, communications, clinical laboratory sciences, and engineering technology…

I don’t know who these “people” are, but I what I do know is a lot of actual, real people with many of these majors who are working jobs and caring for themselves and their families independently. What I think is that lots of people have overly narrow interpretations of what people from certain majors can do, and also are not aware of the truly vast number of careers, jobs, and fields that exist out there with their varied salaries.

8

@juillet Thanks for the thought out reply.

I understand what you’re saying, and I’m aware that you could end up making bank with a generally low average salary degree. But to my understanding (correct me if I’m wrong) those careers in the 75%+ percentile salary of a particular major are harder to come by and are of course, not the average. I don’t want to have a degree where the only way I’d be able to make a decent pay is by being in the top 1/4-1/5th range of salaries in a given degree.

9

So the “picture of who” you are that I see:
The overall theme of your post is you want a career that makes money:

As to engineering:
-“you’re not sure if I have that passion”;

As to Biology:
-on the one hand “this is a bad major if you don’t go on to med school or get your PhD”, but on the other hand you’re “willing to put in all the hard work and dedication necessary”??

As to Med School (Biology/ Microbiology undergrad):
-**not sure ** if I want to spend 8-12 years before I actually start my career… (again willing to put in all the hard work and dedication necessary??
-med school is a pain in more ways than one, and I’m just **not sure **if it’d be the smartest thing for me to do.
-**Not sure **how much I’d want a job where I’d be required to talk to groups of people all day

As to Actuarial Science:
-**like **math, but I feel like there’s a good chance I’d get sick of it. I’m not sure how interesting being an actuary would be…
not sure …if I’d like math if I had to do it all day every day.

As to Physics:
-MIGHT like physics b**.

Honestly I think you should complete high school, take some classes in college, gain some more life experiences and see if you can narrow down your focus, or perhaps find a new pathway in college to your pot of gold. Except for the money angle the picture you paint of yourself is too vague to offer any specific advice. Good luck.

10

@Jugulator20

Yeah, my post was very broad with alot of “I’m not sure’s”… I probably could have narrowed the list down, but I just wanted people’s input on the specific paths I mentioned

Money is important, but it’s not necessarily the most important thing. I’m not going to do something JUST because of the money. I just want to be able to provide well for my family/myself and be well off.

11

Yes, how you like economics and statistics (as well as math) can help you determine if it is likely that you will find an actuarial career interesting (although, as with all subjects, college economics, statistics, and math is far more in depth than high school courses).

Of course, you need not decide your major now. If you go to college undecided, preferably at a college where your majors of interest are not impacted (i.e. requiring competitive admission to change into), and schedule your frosh year courses carefully (keeping in mind the prerequisites for all of your possible majors), you can sample various subjects in frosh year before deciding your major.

12

@ucbalumnus I do know that OSU has an engineering survey class that’s mandatory for all freshman engineers, and also that you don’t need to know your specialization until your 2nd year. This class pretty much has weekly group labs that go over every engineering specialty (civil, chemical, etc), so if I do choose to go there I should have some good experience and hopefully I’ll know what interests me the most.

13

I probably could have narrowed the list down,
Actually, no. You’re 16/17 years old high school junior. I’m not trying to be negative, but you don’t have the educational background, life experiences to be narrowing your list. “I’ve always been interested in Psychiatry and think it would be a fun and interesting job.” Really, based on what? Continue to think broadly.

14

@Jugulator20 I’m just saying that for the sake of posting a topic about it on a forum… I’d still continue to think broadly myself.

And I think Psychiatry would be a great job based on my high interest in the people that Psychiatrist’s deal with and the topics they study, but that’s beside the point

15

You still haven’t stated what you mean by “decent pay.” The average BA holder makes enough money to support themselves and their family. What kind of money are you talking about?

16

I’d prefer somewhere between 70-80k mid-career @juillet

17

I like to help people in choosing their paths, but I prefer to help those who don’t express intolerance for never rising above $50K/year. That much of a pursuit of money is a turn-off for me and conceivably other potential responders.

18

@jjwinkle It also bothers me when people pursue something for the sole purpose of making alot of money, and I assure you I am not one of those persons.

Obviously salary is going to be an important part in my decision making however.

19

Eh, I get it. Obsession with salary bothers me too, but I think wanting to make $70-80K mid-career is a pretty decent/normal goal. (It’s the kids who want to make six figures straight from college who bug me.) Let’s face it…making less than $50K a year mid-career - with a family and/or financial obligations - makes life kind of hard in the U.S., especially in the cities in which many young people want to live.

There’s a range, OP, and like I mentioned it kind of depends on what you do with those degrees. That said, the Wall Street Journal has a handy-dandy chart:

[Degrees That Pay You Back](WSJ.com)

Out of your list, all of those majors encompass the $70-80K range mid-career in their middle 50% of earners. Actuarial science isn’t on there, but I’m assuming you’d be planning to become an actuary with that, and actuaries definitely average over that mid-career. But as you can see, there’s a range. Even the bottom 10th percentile of mechanical and civil engineers make less than $70K a year. The major on your list that doesn’t is chemical engineering, so the chances of you making less than $70K per year as a chemical engineer are very small. But…that doesn’t matter if you don’t like what you do. And just by law of averages you’ll probably fall in the middle 50% of earners anyway.

Biology has the worst outcomes out of all of these majors if you just consider the BA - middle 50% range is $48K to $95K. However, if you decide to go to med school with it, or get a graduate degree and enter a high-paying field, then your options change.

Also, I might add that this is a completely blunt instrument - it’s only based on major, not job field or career. A psychology major can take a few classes, get a master’s in statistics, and be more in the math-ish range than the psychology range. Or a business major can decide that he wants to go to nonprofit work or study anthropology and be in the anthro/social services range.

Well, not really. It’s not particularly difficult to become an industrial-organizational psychologist or a human resources manager. Some higher salary bands are harder to enter because of skills or selectivity, but that’s within careers (like it’s probably harder to become a software engineer at Microsoft or Apple than it is to work at your local IT firm). But within major that’s sort of more about choice. You can choose to focus on I/O psychology and make more, or you can choose to go to social work school and make less.