How did you decide on your major?

<p>I've already applied to two of the six schools I hope to get into. I got the green light from the 'What Are My Chances' section that I'll probably be accepted to all my choices. So I'm hopeful.</p>

<p>But I've been thinking about what I should major in once I get to college. I don't know what field I should go into. I'm one of those weird people who never really had to study to make good grades (not to brag or anything). I've never really been invested in my schoolwork beyond wanting to make good grades. For the most part, I have.</p>

<p>I haven't taken the time to see what I like, or what I could go into. Like, should I pursue a liberal arts degree or a business degree? Should I go into a science and math field? I'm just confused. I don't even have a real idea about what I'd want to do as a career. </p>

<p>I'm asking now so I can go off to college with some type of focus. I mean, all I've really wanted to do in high school is hang out with my friends, play soccer, and have a good time. I'm a laid back guy. I don't want to be too laid back in college and drink and party too much and not have any goals. But I need help.</p>

<p>Why did you guys pick your major? Did the school help your decision? What should I do to come up with some idea about what I should do?</p>

<p>Go to Barnes & Noble. See what books interest you. Make note of what you watch on TV. If you're sitting on the couch watching Boston Legal every week, maybe law is your calling, and if you're sitting on the couch watching CNBC all day long, maybe you should go into business/finance.</p>

<p>Do what you're good at and what you enjoy. :confused:</p>

<p>I knew years before I even applied to college what I wanted to major in. When I went into college, I planned on majoring in international relations and Latin American studies. Sophomore year and I still am, plus added another major and minor. </p>

<p>For me, I just knew. It was inconceivable that I'd major in anything else. But I have a great deal of passion in my fields. You need to find your passion.</p>

<p>Let your parents decide.</p>

<p>This is how I decided my major:</p>

<p>While applying for schools, I applied as a chemistry major. I took regular chem my sophomore year in high school & I was taking AP chem my senior year. My regular chem class was easy so I figured why not major in it? I can always change it later.</p>

<p>After AP chem I was fairly burned out on chemistry so I wasn't too keen with the idea of majoring in it anymore, but I knew I wanted something sciencey, so I just took the lower-devision math & chem courses that were a pre-req for everything else. I'd tell people I was a chem major "but that may change". Then sophomore year I needed to decided what classes to take. I just decided to go with the ochem series that was for chem majors. I think it really helped to be surrounded by fellow nerds. After that, I just sorta stuck with it for lack of anything better to do. Chem was the subject that was brining up my GPA. And voila - four years later & I got a B.S. in chemistry & now am in grad school for inorganic chem.</p>

<p>Don't worry about it for now. When you get to school, there will likely be a career center that will have resources to help you, a "major fair" or something of that nature, and academic advisors who can talk to you.</p>

<p>Start out by fulfilling GEs. It's a big part of what they're there for. You'll get a better idea of what your options are, what type of classes you enjoy, what kind of work you prefer to spend your college years doing (problem sets, essay writing?), and so forth. Half of the things available to you in college will be completely new to you, so you can safely assume that most people in such fields only discovered their interests after arriving at school. Peace & Conflict Studies, Medieval Studies, Scandinavian Studies, Astronomy, Irish Literature, Arabic, Underwater Basket-Weaving...it's a safe bet that you should just keep an open mind and wait until you have a course catalog in front of you! </p>

<p>Personally, I got stressed out when everyone left it at "Find your passion!" I loved school, but my interests were very widespread and I didn't have a clear 'calling'. Still don't, although I loved pursuing both of my degrees (Philosophy & Math). There are a great number of other fields I would also have loved to study (Marine Biology, Graphic Design, English, Neuroscience, Journalism, Architecture, Psychology, Engineering, Creative Writing, German, Religious Studies...I told you that I was all over the board!). As it was, I took math courses every semester because I enjoyed them and I liked the break from the otherwise reading/writing-intensive courseload of my LAC. Before long, I'd racked up enough credits that it just made sense to keep going. As for Philosophy, well...I don't even know. Knew from high school that I had interest in the topic. Took an intro course. Enjoyed it. Was good at it. Took another course. Enjoyed it, too. Was good at it, too. Kept on going, encouraged by my own enjoyment as well as comments from professors. It just...became clear. One of my GEs (a required course in my first semester) really helped me out.</p>

<p>It also helped me to go through the course catalog, just browsing for interesting courses and seeing how I felt about various courses of study. As much as I was interested in English, I had no desire to take British Literature or Literary Criticism. And as much as I loved studying Psychology on my own, Psych Stats or Research Methods sounded excruciatingly dull to me. I still think that if I actually have a 'calling', it probably lies in Marine Bio, but I'm very happy to have steered clear of all those lab courses. When it came to Philosophy, I just had zero complaints. I didn't realize it when I started out, but I could fulfill every requirement with something that really did sound good to me. When I went through each major's offerings, I said "Ooh!" more frequently in Philosophy than in other departments. Talk about a scientific selectionprocess...</p>

<p>My little sister has known her 'calling' since she was about four years old. Some people enter college knowing exactly what they do. More often, people enter college *thinking[/it] that they know exactly what they want to do, only to realize how many previously unrealized options are suddenly available to them. I know an Engineering turned Dance major, an Engineering turned Theatre major, a Psych turned Nutrition turned Anthropology turned dual Anthro/Sociology major, an Architecture turned Nutrition turned Psychology major, an Undecided turned Poli-Sci turned Business turned Sports Management turned back to Poli-Sci major (and this one involved a school transfer with every switch, until she'd come full circle), a Chem turned Dance turned Criminal Justice turned Poli-Sci major...you get the idea. And with only three exceptions, all of the above graduated or will graduate in 4 years (it's worth noting that of the exceptions, all three went to large public schools and two took time off to work). You'll work it out once you get there.</p>

<p>For now, enjoy this brief period of time between "So, where do you want to go to college?" and "So, what are you majoring in?" In very, very few cases is it important to know yet :)</p>

<p>My academic counselor put it best, in my opinion. He basically said to not stress about it, and wait for that one class, professor, course reading, whatever, to really connect with me and then go from there. That's how I arrived at my current path, anyway. </p>

<p>It's not necessarily a bad thing to enter college knowing exactly what you want to do, but a great deal of those kids change majors after a year. Around here everybody wants to major in economics - until they start taking the actual econ sequences, that is.</p>

<p>Regardless, you shouldn't be worried about a major before you even start going. Taking some actual classes will be a lot more helpful than broad conjectures/fantasies about career paths.</p>

<p>NEVER let your parents decide. If your parents decided, you'd all be engineering/science/business majors.</p>

<p>I did really well in AP econ in high school and I was interested in the area, so my natural choice was econ, obviously.</p>

<p>I had an online test that helped me figure out what I should major in based on my interests in high school. I did further research on the major that seemed interesting and that is what lured me into chemical engineering.</p>

<p>I picked my major (bioengineering) based on it's versatility. I had no idea what I wanted to do after college (I'm still unsure), but I figured that BioE could lead me to business school, med school, law school, or just plain old engineering.</p>

<p>Figure out something that will SATISFY you. and by that, I mean something you will feel proud of going to college for. </p>

<p>College is mainly about learning, but if you're more interested in just finding a job and making money after college, maybe you should consider business. </p>

<p>If you haven't even considered engineering, then maybe you shouldn't go into it. It's hard, and it will burn you out if you're not ready. </p>

<p>If you just want to spend your college life happy and studying what you love, then pick a subject you like a lot. For example, which subjects in high school jumped out to you most? Even if you didn't care much for them, there surely must be some class you felt happier going to than your other classes. </p>

<p>Whatever you do, DON'T do something just because your friends are doing it. Read course descriptions and take the courses that sound interesting to you.</p>

<p>Check out <a href="http://www.mymajors.com%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.mymajors.com&lt;/a>. They have a survey there you could take, and they'll lay out 5 majors they think you would like. Read up on those majors on their site. Good stuff.</p>

<p>
[quote]
Let your parents decide.

[/quote]

xoxo. /<em>dfgdfdf</em>/</p>

<p>I originally wanted to go to law school, and well... you all know how many people major in poli sci for that...</p>

<p>SIGH.</p>

<p>Hey, that website actually wasn't a bad start at all. I was skeptical, but I took it as if I were a freshman in college and it spit out my actual major, a major that I'd very seriously considered, a major that I would've really been interested in but never actually pursued, a major that I'd love to do as a career someday but didn't want to study in school, and one major in a subject that I hated. And I consider myself a fairly tough case to match that well since my answers pointed in absolutely no clear direction (or maybe I'm an easy case, since I was basically interested in everything). Still. Cool.</p>

<p>Just check out the course catelogue and sign up for whatever classes look interesting. Hopefully you'll like one of those classes so much that you'll continue to sign up for similar classes. Before you'll know it, you'll have a major.</p>

<p>Mymajor.com is pretty accurate. It spit out econ, finance, international business, public admin and regional/urban planning. Not really sure on the last two, but the first three sound good. That, and I'm an econ major.</p>

<p>I wanted to be a bio chem major until the summer before my senior year of high school. I ended up majoring in...Film.</p>

<p>I really don't know how I got into Emerson College.</p>

<p>But when you really analyze what you like to do and what makes you feel alive you find your major.</p>

<p>I made mini novels in xanga for my friends because I was bored. Then I'd make mini storyboard on my notebook when I doodled. It never occurred to me film could be IT.
Then during fall of junior year my father got me a video camera for my 16th birthday because I wanted to join the youtube fad.
Next thing you know I'm writing screenplays and joining film clubs.</p>

<p>Your major should be something you will not get sick of. Also when you choose your major "What difference can I make in this field? Do I love working with others in this field of study? When people talk about my major do I dive in and join the conversation? Do I know what I'm talking about? If I don't know, am I still listening to the conversation and absorbing the information fairly quickly?"</p>

<p>Thats my two cents.</p>

<p>Mymajors.com was pretty accurate for me too. It gave me architecture, civil engineering, computer engineering, computer science, and manufacturing engineering. I'm a civil engineering major, but I had seriously considered architecture too. I was 99% sure I'd be want to go into one of those two fields. Early in high school I had considered comp eng and comp sci as well, but wasn't serious about it. Manufacturing engineering wasn't really something I considered either.</p>

<p>If I knew there was such a thing at the time, I would've considered urban planning as well. I'm surprised that didn't come up, since it's closely related to architecture.</p>

<p>
[quote]
Mymajor.com is pretty accurate.

[/quote]

It suggested Animal Sciences, Environmental Studies, Forest and Rangeland, Geology, and Oceanography for me. One of my majors/concentrations is oceanography, so it pretty much nailed it (my other major wasn't suggested :(). </p>

<p>putt1- Here's a site that I found helpful in high school.
<a href="http://www.acinet.org/acinet/videos_by_occupation.asp?id=27,&nodeid=28%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.acinet.org/acinet/videos_by_occupation.asp?id=27,&nodeid=28&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>