I don’t want to get deep in this subject and I’ve been thinking in it and struggling for year! What to study.
On one side, I adore arts and humanities. I loved History and English literature in my school and I was constantly ranking the first on my class. I spent most of my time outside school reading through history and arts books and I imagined myself as a renowned historian or Archaeologist. However in my 10th grade I’ve come to realize that these careers are almost useless in our today world and the fees I’ll pay aren’t worth it.
On the other side, there are the science subjects; Biology and Chemistry. I would say that aside from my interest in arts subject I liked reading through my high school books in summer vocation and was a lot delighted in doing it. National Geographic is my favorite channel and I had a special interest in Environmental and wildlife issues. I also liked calculus, but not as much as Bio and Chemi. My grades were also the top 5% on class in Bio.
While coming to decide about a major, I realized the following interest me and damn I have to decide now.
Architecture: Pros ( Combines Art and Science) Cons (Low Employment, high competition, stressful days, and clients want their own designs)
Anthropology: Pros ( Just what I dream to be. Pure Art, culture, and history) Cons (pretty damn high unemployment and low payment. A useless major)
Political Science: Pros (International relation=Diplomacy, negotiations, and meeting people around the world) Cons(Low employment, and my home country considers legacy more to be a diplomat; also not sure if I'll be paid well. Parents say you don't have to be a diplomat by studying political science.)
Environmental Engineering: Pros (The thrill of working on environmental issues and field work. Making the world better. and grounded in my two favorite STEM subjects; Bio and Chemi. Highest paying and highest employment) Cons (Giving up the arts and I think that engineers have rigid intellectual boundaries.)
Depending on what type of college you apply to, you might not need to pick a major when you apply. If you apply to a state flagship public university it’s very common that you apply to a particular college but even then it would probably the college of engineering not as specific as an environmental engineering program. While some students as high school seniors know what they want to major in, it’s very common for students to have many interests and not a clear idea of what they want to major in. There are some books that might help you decide what major is right for you. This is something you should think about as it can be very expensive and time consuming if you change your major later
Even your possible major with the most specific requirements- architecture- only asks for:
4 English (including at least 3 years literature and composition)
3 Math (college prep courses at or above algebra level)
3 Science (including at least 1 year lab science)
3 History/Social Science
2 Additional academic courses (at least 2 years of a foreign language strongly recommended)
2 Other (from above, computer science, fine arts or other appropriate courses)
Which is pretty much what most colleges want anyway.
Fall of senior year you need to decide if you want to apply to architecture school, engineering school, or a general college/university (Arts & Sciences). If you decide not to go straight to architecture school you can do a masters in architecture from pretty much any major, and still be an architect. If you decide not to go straight to engineering school, you can do an undergraduate degree in environmental science and then do a masters in enviro eng.
So, you don’t have to make any decisions for a year and a half- and you will (or should!) do a lot of growing and evolving in that time. You need to allow yourself to grow even from spring of grade 11 to autumn of grade 12!
If you decide to go to a general university, you typically don’t have to declare a major until the second year. There are very good reasons for this. First, you have course options that you have never had before, and taking classes is part of discerning the difference between things that are interesting to you and the things that will be core to you in college and beyond. Second, what you are most interested in at 16 or 17 may change or evolve by the time you are 18 or 19. Allowing you to declare your major after a year of college is giving you the gift of time to learn more about yourself and the subject.
From this and other threads, you seem to be somebody who could benefit from that gift. Get into the best overall university that you can and take classes in the areas you are interested in. Talk to your professors, talk to the career center at your university and explore your options. You have time: don’t throw it away by trying to decide things too soon.
@collegemom3717 , does it apply to Canada to? You said that I can decide up to the second year, if I decide in it, will other 4 years be added to my study?
Canada is a bit different than the US and there are other posters who are better informed, so I will leave it to them to jump in!
For the US, if you decide on your major in your second year you should be able to still finish within the original 4 years. Remember also, that you are not on your own: every university has some sort of advising system to help you navigate the requirements- just make sure that you watch out for yourself, as some colleges expect you to take the lead.
If I were you, I would go with architecture, because it combines the two things you love. Also, if you are good at design, you could land a really good job.
First of all, I wouldn’t put the humanities and social sciences on one side and the life sciences on the other. Fields are all connected.
Second of all, being a historian or an archaeologist is not useless in our modern world. For one thing, archaeology is how we find clues and keys to our human evolution, which can unlock useful knowledge about our future evolution and genetic/biological code. History also teaches us not to repeat our mistakes.
Here are some suggestions for you:
Environmental studies or sciences. A lot of environmental studies programs allow you to combine life/natural/physical sciences coursework in the environment with social sciences coursework in how people interact with the environment. Examples:
Geography, for the same reasons as above, only with earth sciences. I’m including some earth sciences programs as a subset but not all earth sciences programs have any emphasis on social science. Similarly, many geography programs concentrate primarily on the geosciences or geology.
Ecology & evolutionary biology. Usually very life sciences heavy - chemistry and biology, especially - but will probably also have some anthropology or at least anthropologically-flavored classes in there, and you can add some coursework in human interaction with the environment and ecology.
Public health/health and society/community health, some kind of health-ish major that combines elements of life sciences with social sciences in the study of human health.
Awesome feedback @juillet ! I was thinking also if an Environmental Science/ Engineering majors be more broad? While I could specialise or prepare further studies in the fields you suggested? I liked the first and fourth choices particularly…
I like wildlife and ecosystems a lot. How will those fields help?
If you like wildlife and ecosystems, either environmental studies/sciences or ecology & evolutionary biology could be a really good choice.
I’m not sure what you mean by more broad. It really depends on the university in question: some college programs view environmental science as a primarily life sciences interdisciplinary program in which you take chemistry and biology courses focused on the environment. And some see it as an even broader-based major in which you also learn about physical sciences and social sciences related to the environment, particularly humans’ interactions with it. Those programs are sometimes called “environmental STUDIES” instead of sciences, but not always. You’d have to check with the curriculum at each college to see.
Both programs can examine wildlife and ecosystems in different ways. Ecology & Evolutionary Biology are typically focused very squarely on these issues - how an ecosystem works together, how wildlife are influenced by the environment, how environmental factors influence evolution of life. There’s a lot less social science in it, but there might be some touches of anthropology particularly if you are interested in humans or non-human primates.
Environmental Science seems most appealing to me! But if I major in the Engineering side of it, won’t it be better in Job prospects? I mean Someone who’s an Environmental Engineer can work as an Environmental Scientist but the reverse isn’t true right?
The important thing isn’t so much the quantity of jobs you can apply for as it is the quality of fit of the jobs.
For example, with the question you posed above - no, an environmental science major wouldn’t be able to apply for environmental engineering jobs. But that doesn’t matter if you don’t want to do the work of an environmental engineer.
You don’t just want a lot of options - you want options that fit your desires and interests. If you are interested in potentially being an environmental engineer, then by all means major in it! But if you are uninterested in engineering and only considering it because you think it’ll give you more job opportunities, I wouldn’t choose it, because then you’d just be unhappy.
Besides, whether or not an environmental engineering major could work as an environmental scientist would depend on that person’s background and experience. Engineers don’t necessarily get a lot of scientific research experience or necessarily take a lot of the advanced coursework in basic science necessary to do the work of an environmental scientist unless they pursue that on their own.
My brother is a biochemistry major with a double major in anthropology! You mentioned all three things so I just wanted to let you know it is definitely possible to do both the STEM and anthropology. He also says that anthropology helps him to better connect biochemistry to the human body, but he is a pre-Med student so I’m not sure if that’s helpful to you.
I’m not sure beyond that for employment purposes though. Good luck and best wishes for figuring out your path
Of course why haven’t I thought about double majors/ minors?! I could major in Environmental Sci, minor in one of anthrop or politics/IR. Then perhaps a graduate degree in Architecture!
