Difficulty deciding a major

<pre><code> I have only posted to this forum once before about another issue I was having with selecting a school to go to. It has been more than a year and I can happily say that I enrolled in the County College as opposed to somewhere else. I started the last semester as a computer science major. However after further research and time with that major, I decided that computers was not for me for multiple reasons. My new problem now is deciding a major. I have still continued with school as a liberal arts major; I chose that because it was very general and I could still get classes in that I might need in the future. Considering I have decide on where to transfer in a year, I have begun thinking about what I want to transfer into. As of now, I know what I don't want to do. I certainly do not want to do anything with computers, nothing in the medical field, and I hate mostly anything to do with business; these things seem to really limit my choices for practical majors. I know that whatever it is I do, I do not want to be miserable with the job, I want to at least enjoy what I do and not just choose a major because the jobs pay well. I don't necessarily want a mansion or a new sports car every year, but I do want to live comfortably; I would like to be a homeowner and own a decent car, without having to be in huge amounts of debt (other than a mortgage or a car payment, of coarse). As of right this minute, I have narrowed it down to three things that I am considering because they interest me. The things that I do enjoy, as I will mention, are things that aren't practical, they are generally viewed as areas of work that don't pay well unless you teach (and even teachers don't make a lot comparatively), so I have come to the conclusion that I will most likely be a teacher of something, and there are three main areas of study that really peak my interest:

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<li> Last semester I took an intro to philosophy class and fell in love with the subject, it seemed to be a subject that contained all of my personal interests (logical arguing, political philosophy, art-specifically music) and this semester I am taking an ethics course with the same teacher. I am thinking about becoming a philosophy professor based on my interest in it.</li>
<li> I have played music since I was 6 years old and have loved it all of my life. Lately I have not played music as much as I used to because of school and work, but I do still play, and write.<br></li>
<li> Less though than the other two but still an option, is teaching History or some type of Social Study. I loved my social studies classes in High School (generally in High School I was in world history, U.S. history, AP history, contemporary world issues and finally Vietnam era) and my sociology class I had last semester.</li>
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<p>As many of you are probably thinking right about now, I will never make a good living and will have to endure and pay for a lot of school to make little money, however this is essentially what I am trying to figure out. I have had a conversation with my mother and step-father about this and they aren't crazy about my first idea. Based on what they have found, they say that I would have to get a P.H.D just to even start looking for a job as a philosophy professor, and that it would be a lot of money to do that much school. Based on what they found the average money a philosophy professor makes is about $60k a year, and that a lot of it would be going back to pay student loans. They understand that I don't necessarily want a mansion and all of that, but they have said that to even have a little (a house and a car for example) you need to make a lot, and certainly more than $60k a year (keep in mind we live in the more expensive part of New Jersey, so everything here costs an arm and a leg, and $60k a year minus student loan debt wouldn't even come close to actually living decently though I would be willing to maybe live elsewhere). The same thing pretty much goes for teaching music, minus needing a P.H.D. The advantage here is that school would cost a lot less and therefore, most of the money I would make I could keep. The disadvantage here is that I would probably have to start out teaching High School or Middle School, which is something I am not to fond of doing. I was recently a high school student, so I know what little "snots" I'd have to deal with five days out of the week as well as spending much of my time grading a lot of work. As far as I can tell, college students are less "snotty" and there is less work that would need to be graded. But to teach music in college I would need a P.H.D and therefore eliminate the advantage of not having to get one. I realize, though, that I could start out teaching high school and ultimately teach at the college level after getting my P.H.D over a longer period of time while I had a steady job at a high school. The same thing pretty much goes with teaching history so I will not repeat myself.</p>

<p>Is there anyone who can give me some information on my situation, maybe someone who has been in a similar situation or has pursued these areas of study? Any help will be greatly appreciated!</p>

<p>I think before you go down all of this thought process, you should figure out if you like teaching or not. No one really goes into teaching for the money, so you should really consider whether you really want to be a teacher or not. Perhaps you could volunteer in a middle or high school, tutor, or work as a teaching assistant in college.</p>

<p>Just being interested in a subject isn’t a good enough incentive to get a PhD in the subject. Try to get some exposure to research in this area to see if you would be interested in doing it full-time. I don’t know much about philosophy, but you might want to talk to your philosophy professors about what grad school is like in philosophy and what experience you should be getting.</p>

<p>Also, look into funding for philosophy and music graduate programs. In the sciences, any PhD program worth going to will fund you, so that you generally don’t go into huge debt. I don’t know about other fields, but look to see if there are fully-funding philosophy programs.</p>

<p>I think you could benefit from exploring more career choices, rather than just classes or subjects that you find interesting. Sometimes, it’s better to find a career or field that you really want to enter or pursue, and then find the major that will get you there.</p>

<p>Thanks, I never really considered teaching to be an entity of its own, just that majoring in one of those subjects meant, generally, that the most practical thing to do with a degree in one of those fields was automatically teaching; I know that there are more things you can do with a degree in one of my interests, but teaching seems to be the most practical. I am certainly planning on speaking to my professors about my interests and seeing if my interests can be satisfied in the future by seeking that degree. I wasn’t automatically planning on getting a PhD necessarily, but I assumed that to be a college professor, one is generally required to have a PhD. I like your suggestion about looking at the jobs specifically and then backtracking, that is something I never thought of. Thanks for your input!</p>