Don't know what to do

<p>I'm a high school senior and I'm about to attend a college for a liberal arts based education. I'm most likely going to attend Rutgers, Marist, or UDel. My major will be philosophy, and my choice of this major has nothing to do with law school (I know philosophy and law school make sense together). I think majoring in something I'm interested in is the point of college and it's something my parents have always encouraged me to do. The thing is, I really think I should go to law school. My brother may go, my cousins went, and my uncle runs one of the biggest law firms in the state of New Jersey. I know I can have an automatic job straight out of college and that this connection is one of the most fortunate things in my life, but if I decided not to pursue law, I know I would regret studying a risky major. Sounds ridiculous, but I'm lost. </p>

<p>Really, it has nothing to do with your major if you can make a lot of money. It has to do with you. If your willing to put in twice the amount of work a business student is, guess who is getting the promotion. Although choice of major will lock you out of (or give you a ticket to) certain jobs.</p>

<p>I think it’s healthy to question your choices and how they will impact your future. It may be that so many of your family members are taking the law path, you may feel that it is what you SHOULD do. Question what it is you WANT to do. Yes, it helps if what you want to do also has a good chance of supporting you and allowing you to pay your bills. But to follow in family footsteps just because it is assumed or expected of you can lead to a life of misery.</p>

<p>If philosophy interests you, I wouldn’t just drop it because you don’t see a future career besides law school. As you take classes, meet professors and other philosophy majors, you might discover alternate career paths. Also take other random general education requirement classes, and you might discover another interesting path as well.</p>

<p>College is a great place to discover who you are, what interests you, and how to stand up for what you value apart from what your family expects of you. You don’t have to know all the answers now. Pick a college that would offer a number of majors you could switch into (or double major) and allow yourself time.</p>

<p>BTW, Rutgers is well-known for having a very strong philosophy department.</p>

<p>Major in whatever you want to; it makes little if any difference for law school (as long as the major will require lots of reading and writing and as long as you can get good grades in it).</p>

<p>I don’t understand your post; are you saying that you might major in something just so it will “mesh” with law school? If that’s what you’re planning, don’t; major in whatever you want to, subject to my first sentence above.</p>