Deciding which major to choose?

College Majors
1

I have switched Marketing, Accounting, Pre-Med(Liberal), Chemistry, Teaching. I have been lost. I have decided either accounting or engineering.

I am at a crossroads and I do not want to waste anymore time feeling lost, I want to make up my mind. I am hoping after some feedback here I will have new things to think about, maybe some of your comments will clear my mind.

Accounting- I do like the idea of working with people. I love the idea of going in and everyone loving me and I love them and my job. I like the idea comfort of knowing what to do. (It is very repetitive) which sounds annoying but soothing because they’re aren’t any big surprises where I have to play Einstein and think of intense solutions. I love the idea of traveling. My dream is to travel. Rather business or Vaca I do want to travel a lot.
The issue is, I am very bad when it comes to PEOPLE. Yes, I like the IDEA of but in REALITY I SUCK. (Lol) I am an only child, (so you know I’m already a little awk). I have a lot of enemies, In high school I was literally the most hated. (Literally) I had issues with EVERYONE from EVERY CLIQUE. I had like 3 friends who 2 are not my friend anymore. I feel like i am very nice and outgoing, but there is just some weird vibe i give off where people find me intimidating, or rude, or fake, or they think of some stupid vague reason to hate me without any real reason to. In my past jobs everyone hated me or found me awk. You have to REALLY get to know me to understand me, (Lets get back on subject) I feel like injecting myself into the corporate world will make me feel uncomfortable and will give me anxiety. When I think about it Im already like Omg people. But isn’t life about experiencing and overcoming these internal issues? I also like how I know there are multiple career choices afterwords…
I like to manipulate people, dig into peoples brains, I feel like business is where I can do all that.
OR

Engineering- I like the idea of being smart in math. I like studying a lot and I feel like you don’t have to be too social. I keep finding myself googling and watching math videos on youtube, and whenever I declare myself as a business major there is just something missing you know? Like, there is something that engineering has that business does not. (Vice versa). I’m always drawn towards computers and such, even though I do not know I just find it nice. I see myself in that area at my college… Just exploring. I feel like this is me before my mom passed away. Like this is me if I apply myself mentally like I used to, even though it was years ago.
The issue here is I am not good in math. (FOR NOW). I come from a trade school so they did not have higher up courses. So right now I am at a low math course. HOWEVER I do want to learn and to study. It feels like when my mom got sick and passed away I lost my mo-jo for school. I became “average” Yes I PASSED with B’s but that is because it was HIGH SCHOOL. And I keep hearing that smart people are dropping out of engineering because it’s hard and that worries me.
BUT, at this point I do not want or care for social life. (Maybe on vacations) but the idea of fusing social with work makes me feel weird. The thought of studying engineering makes me feel sexy (lol) but really. I feel like studying, and learning intense data is what makes me feel most beautiful and efficient. I studied Manufacturing in high school, I did bad but we did have bad teaching. (teachers did not care were lazy, got fired, got reported for assault, sexual harassment all that juicy stuff).

I am just a hot mess. After all that is said I am left with these questions as well.
If we all have a brain that functions can’t we all learn? Is “Smarts” in genes? Can we mold ourselves?
Aren’t we suppose to overcome life internal obstacles? Is my social virus just another mountain I need to climb or is it just something that is not important and I do not need to take serious?

They are both intense majors and I am willing to sacrifice all the time needed (from social, to leisure, to work) to get my degree in either one. But it just seems like people are making engineering look impossible. My ex-friend (1 from HS) is doing it. I am sure I can re-connect and use him if i ever feel really really lost. But if I keep up and do my work shouldn’t I be fine? But if that was the case wouldn’t all these guys and gals NOT drop out? Accounting seems good for study wise (seems like it’s more do-able and not so ‘impossible’ and work wise is good afterwords as well. It’s just that I hate being social at this rate. And I feel like doing that is linking myself to a world I do not want to be linked to.

2

I do apologize for venting, I spent way too many nights up crying and wondering what to do. I literally think about this stuff 24/7. I wanted somewhere to just let say it all and get a response.

3

Are you a high school student? Because if so, you’re not “wasting time feeling lost,” you’re exactly where you need to be. It’s difficult to decide on a major before you’ve had any experience in it or any knowledge about the career itself.

Why do you think that you would go in and “everyone [would love you]” if you were an accountant? A friend of mine has two accountant parents and that is not the impression that I get of their career at all. You might sometimes work with people, but some of the work is solitary too - really, you are working for people, and while you might meet with them periodically to set expectations and such, you’re going to be doing a lot of work solo unless you work in a huge company with a team of accountants. I also don’t think accountants necessarily travel a lot for their jobs.

There is a lot of math in a lot of areas of business - accounting, obviously, but also finance, operations research, and some areas of market research analysis. If you are not good at math, then you won’t be good in engineering, though. Being lower level in math isn’t really a problem if you have the aptitude for it - if you are ready to start with calculus in college, you can catch up (and really, that’s standard. I have a friend who majored in math and she started at pre-calculus.) But if you are not good at math, you will find yourself struggling.

A few areas that marry business and math/engineering together are industrial engineering, operations research, and financial engineering. There are some schools that have those majors. There’s also supply chain management, which I think is an offshoot/related area to industrial engineering.

Yes, we are supposed to overcome obstacles, but you also have to play to your strengths. A person who is terrible at writing and struggles to understand themes and motifs in prose wouldn’t enjoy being an English major, and they wouldn’t do well either. If you’re weak in math, then you’d struggle in engineering.

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LostJohn411 you do not need to apologize for venting. I am sorry that you stay up nights crying and wondering what to do. Figuring out what to do with your life is a big deal but it does not need to be decided at once. You can work towards your academic goals while you are in the process of figuring out how you will use the skills you acquire. So, if your current math level is not at the level you are satisfied with, you can take more courses and see how it goes and then reevaluate. These skills will be important whether you pursue an engineering or business or accounting.

I am wondering if you have spoken to a guidance or career counselor at your school who might be of help in establishing these goals?

Emotionally, you are a hot mess, you say. Perhaps if you can cool yourself down a bit, it will be easier for you to know what you think and know what is going on in your head. For this, I recommend talking to a mental health counselor. You can talk to that person about your social concerns, if you might turn people off and to try to figure out why you have lost friends. If you describe yourself as having a social virus then this virus will need treatment. As well, it is not clear from what you wrote when you lost your mom, but this is another important issue to find a trusted professional person to help you process your feelings. I am sorry for the loss of your mom also.

Yes we can all learn and mold ourselves over time. I think there is a genetic component to smarts but there is a lot of hard work too! Yes people can and do overcome obstacles, big and small. It sounds like you might be ready to do the work you need to do. Finding out and talking about it is a good start.