<p>This might be a strange question, but searched for other people with problems deciding on a major, clicked on a lot of links, and didn't find that many stories like mine and languagegirl's.</p>
<p>I imagine that this is in part due to the fact that this website is more focused on getting <em>into</em> college, and that colleges have entire departments devoted to advising, but I still imagine that there are more than a few of us who have a broad range of interests and are having trouble fitting them into the college paradigm. </p>
<p>What about other first-generation college students? What about people who have a career goal (such as law or entrepreneurship) that doesn't require a particular major? </p>
<p>What about you parents, back in the day? ;)</p>
<p>So, I'm wondering if you guys can share your stories of how you got to where you are? How did you choose your major? Were you happy at the time? Are you happy with it now, considering how it all turned out (whether or not it was relevant to your eventual career)?</p>
<p>At the orientation session at UCLA they told us the average student will change their major 2.2 times. The lesson from this is that many people at the age of 17 or 18 don't really know what they really want and those that think they do could change their minds once they're exposed to more subjects, ideas, places, and people. Unless you're planning an engineering major, you generally have time to take a variety of courses in your first year or two to see what lights your fire. If one's an engineering major they can still change majors or disciplines but they generally have to start taking some of the engineering courses right away since it's generally a rigorous curriculum.</p>
<p>If you have a particular end goal (law, med school, etc.), the college can help you with what major feed into that field well and what the caveats of GPA, etc. will be. If you haven't determined the end goal, you can always go in as undeclared and try out the different areas.</p>
<p>Your major should be in a subject that you would voluntarily want to read about, talk about and explore just for the pleasure it brings you--a field that you are curious about and in which you have some aptitude or insights.</p>
<p>Does anyone have any personal stories about this? </p>
<p>As in: "I was an English major, then switched to Political Science, fell in love with Linguistics and now I'm a homemaker who speaks five languages"?</p>
<p>I was going to be a secretary-Medical or legal, I went to the local CC because I wanted to be a great secretary. I worked for a large medical group. I was 17 and thought I was much brighter than my bosses, transferred to USC (CA) and now I am a pharmacist. I'm happy, but I honestly think I would be happy as a secretary also. I loved undergrad because I was able to explore.</p>
<p>I don't know how helpful my story is, but here it is...</p>
<p>In high school I loved history, art, math and liked reading though not necessarily English. I thought I might be a history and lit major. I especially liked the idea of exploring history by reading contemporary literature. I went to college and hated the history courses I took. In fact the only course I really enjoyed was a freshman seminar in printmaking. I stewed a bit about going to Harvard and majoring in art, which seemed like a dreadful waste, but I thought eventually going to architecture school might be a good combination of my interests. It turned out I loved architectural history (which is part of the Visual and Environmental Studies major), taking a studio art course each term kept me sane, and the math and physics requirements were not onerous.</p>
<p>I think many of my friends ended up in majors in much the same way - they took a class that sparked an interest.</p>
<p>For two summers before college, I was a counselor at a camp for "emotionally disturbed" children. I entered college with thoughts of becoming a psychology major. But for my entire life I have been a bookworm and many of my best experiences have involved losing myself in a book (usually fiction). I also received most recognition at school from being a a good writer. My father was a journalist and my mother was also a book lover--so my childhood home was all about using words effectively and loving the power of language. I inevitably became an English major and now I am a university teacher of English as a foreign language and American culture. My husband is a linguist and my daughter is considering journalism as a career. In my free time, my nose is usually in a book.</p>