Having trouble picking my major (aren't we all)

College Majors
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Hi, I’m new to College Confidential in general, so sorry if I get things wrong!

I’m a high school senior who doesn’t really know what to major in for college. I feel like I should go in the STEM field (CompSci, Electrical Engineering, Information Technology) because I want a job with potentially solid benefits, although I don’t have much of a genuine interest in much computer-related subjects. I have an interest in film, but I don’t feel like I have enough for it to be a main major, so I’m thinking about a minor for now.

I generally like writing more than math, but I don’t feel like I can make a full career out of it. There aren’t any non-STEM majors that I feel like I can genuinely get something out of. The problem is what STEM major I should choose (or if I should choose one at all). I don’t feel like I can actually make it into a good college (or the job market at all) by taking a more popular major like Computer Science. Of course, I get that I’ll have to work hard no matter what STEM major I choose, but I don’t want something as horrifically competitive as the CompSci market seems right now.

If anybody needs more information, please feel free to let me know. I’m late, confused, and at this point ready to throw in the towel. Please help!

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That suggests that you may not be that successful in a job in computing if you go into that direction. Or would computer animation and the like (commonly used in movie/video production) be of interest to you?

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Combine your interests and start looking them up. Then go to Indeed and see if anything excites you.

https://www.indeed.com/m/jobs?q=Film+Writer

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Something that you should know - engineering companies are always desperately in need of people who can write. Knowing how to write well is a much less common skill and talent than knowing how to do math well.

Another thing that you should know - you don’t have to work in your major, Moreover, writing skills are needed everywhere. So having a creative writing major with an information technology minor, or any minor which will allow you to become familiar with the terminology of software and hardware engineering can prepare you for many jobs which are in high demand.

There is always a need for people who are skilled in technical writing, editing, creating content for websites, writing stories for computer games, writing for magazines, etc.

In the tech world there are hundreds of jobs for creative writers, and creative writers are fewer and further between that engineers.

CS is an extremely difficult major. My wife is a Computer Science professor, and she sees just haw much students struggle with the math. Computer science is not coding, but a level above, and it requires high levels of math - far beyond Calc BS or any other high school course - those are the intro courses.

SO CS is not something that you will be able to do unless you really want to do it, and, moreover, you also b=need to be accepted to a CS program, and those are increasingly competitive.

So, is response to your question - if you love creative writing, that should be your major. Take a tech minor, one which will allow you to become familiar with the field, so that you can translate engineer to something that a normal person will enjoy reading.

Actually take a minor in any field which interests you.

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