<p>I'm not sure where else to put this so sorry if its in the wrong place. </p>
<p>I'm only a junior and I realize that many people change majors throughout college, but I'd like to have some sense of direction. I love English, Writing, History, Psych, etc, but I realize that those are not exactly careers and I would not want to pay to become an unemployed English major. I absolutely do not like pure math and am terrible at it, so that rules out anything like accounting or engineering. I enjoy science, (especially chemistry) but I'm not that good at it and by no means does it come naturally to me like English/writing type subjects do. I also have no desire to do med school. </p>
<p>So I'm thinking going the prelaw or business route, but I have no idea what to do for a specific major. I'm not sure that I'd like to do poli-sci either because I'd like to have a major I can be employed with in the case that graduate plans fall through. So does anyone have any suggestions?</p>
<p>Try to choose a career first, then a major. If you’re interested in going to law or business school, it doesn’t matter what you major in. </p>
<p>If you love English, you can certainly major in it without becoming an “unemployed English major”. Maybe that would happen if you wanted to be a poet or something, but you would have plenty of other options. Journalism is an obvious answer, as is publishing, but really, an English major could prepare you for almost any career (most don’t require a preprofessional degree). </p>
<p>You could become extremely wealthy at any career. You could also fail horribly at business and end up in poverty. The ones who do succeed in any given field are those who are genuinely passionate about what they do. So you might as well do what you love and aim to be as successful as possible at that. Of course, you have plenty of time to decide what you love!</p>
<p>I know how you feel! I struggled with my major too! But there is plenty you could do with what you love! If you like psych you could major in psychology and become a psychologist. They make good money and there are a lot of job opportunities in that field right now. Also have you considered teaching? You mentioned that you like chemistry. Good chemistry teachers are hard to come by and schools are always looking for them! If you like english/writing you could be and english teacher too. You have plenty of time to think about it and you can always change your major when you’re in college (like you said). You could even go in undecided if you want and choose later. I hope I helped! Good luck!</p>
<p>Note that most of the majors that have good major-specific job prospects require decent math skills.</p>
<p>As far as the sciences go, chemistry does require decent math skills, but has weak major-specific job prospects. Biology requires less math, but also has weak major-specific job prospects.</p>
<p>Regarding law, note that the LSAT requires logical thinking skills – it is not too surprising that math and philosophy majors do relatively well on it.</p>
<p>If you have no idea what you want to do, choosing a major will be difficult. Focus on finishing high school and gaining admission to a good solid school that has a variety of majors to choose from. You know where your interests lie, so when you get to college, take the introductory major courses in English, history, and psychology. See which one you love, and pursue that as a major. Most careers are not major-specific, and you can have a lucrative business career with an English or history or psychology major. Psychology especially lends itself to industrial/organizational psychology, which has a high median salary.</p>
<p>Consider that if you go prelaw, the law market right now is horrible and doesn’t show any signs of getting better. The market is saturated, so newly minted JDs have trouble finding a job and often leave with $150K of debt, but a $50K salary. The most lucrative law careers are actually predicated on keeping clients <em>out</em> of court - document review, contracts, taxation law, that kind of thing. If you are interested in business and have an analytical, logical mind then this may interest you, but it’s not exactly the Law & Order lifestyle most people imagine when they think of law.</p>
<p>It’s also a pretty good liberal arts degree that grad schools for business, law school, etc will consider if you want to get into those later in life</p>
<p>You don’t need to pick a major now. You don’t need to decide what you want to do now. Ignore any posts that suggest majors or careers since they’re just tossing darts at the wall and hoping something sticks. What you need is a plan on how to decide.</p>
<p>First off, you need to be aware the difference between “vocational” majors such as engineering, nursing, accounting, etc. and other majors. The former are designed to give you a specific set of skills and lead directly to a career field. Other majors are a chance to explore an area of knowledge in depth (undergrad depth, anyway) but don’t specifically train you although getting a degree shows you know how to study, have mastered the basics of writing, etc. My take is you already understand this, but none of the “vocational” ones sound right to you.</p>
<p>So if you aren’t picking a “vocational” major (which often require you to enter near the start of your college career) then you don’t need to pick a major now. Its fine to have some ideas of what you might want, but give yourself the freedom in college to explore and pick one thats right for you. </p>
<p>Next comes a job. Like many HS kids I’ll bet you have no real idea of the breadth of jobs out there. That’s where your plan to plan comes in. Say to yourself “I’m going to graduate with a college degree, and this is a base requirement for many employers. But in addition to that, what steps do I need to take to identify a potential career and make myself an attractive hire to prospective employers in that field?” </p>
<p>To do this, in addition to your academic major you need to devote enough time to exploring the career world. From the time you enroll in college you need to be visiting the career center to explore careers using their books and career interest tests, hear speakers talk about various fields, take part in workshops, talk with alums working in different areas, and so on. Do it regularly and steadily and you’ll come to an understanding of what you might do in the workforce and how to prepare for it. One major part of that preparation is going to be internships; strong candidates always have this (in the sciences it often takes the form of research experience instead of work experience).</p>
<p>You can even start now by reading books about career search. There are several written for college students, a level that would be appropriate for you. One I strongly recommend “Major in Success” since its about college students who teamed their activities in college with what they loved doing to put together a career.</p>
<p>Because there are no specific major or course requirements for admission to law school, you need not commit to any decision on whether to try to go to law school until later (when it comes time to take the LSAT and apply to law schools). By then, you may have a better idea of whether you are interested, what the lawyer job market is like, and whether your college grades make getting into a top law school a realistic possibility (and what kind of LSAT score you need to target in conjunction with your college GPA – see [Welcome</a> to LawSchoolNumbers.com | Law School Numbers](<a href=“http://www.lawschoolnumbers.com%5DWelcome”>http://www.lawschoolnumbers.com) ).</p>
<p>Be aware that some majors in college do have sequenced prerequisites, so you may need to plan your first few semesters carefully to ensure that you can graduate on time in any of your possible majors.</p>