How do you decide on a major?

College Majors
1

Hi! So, I’m about to begin my senior year of high school. I’ve been spending a lot of time researching colleges, but it’s difficult to know where I want to apply when I don’t yet know what I want to major in…

For the past three years, I’ve repeatedly gone back and forth between possible majors and career interests. At this point in time, I’m interested in:

  • computer science
  • political science & government
  • education (perhaps for becoming a high school teacher for either literature, history, or geography)
  • writing (particularly as a lead-in for scriptwriting)
  • premed

But a lot of questions haunt me whenever I decide that I’m interested in a major:

  • What if I don’t have enough experience/knowledge? What if I’m behind from other students who are interested in the same major? (This comes up when I’m thinking of colleges with good computer science programs, as the only experience I’ve had consists of my small attempts at coding outside of school. I understand that the best programs are highly impacted, too, meaning that I’m less likely to get in without “official” experience.)
  • What if I make my final decision too late? (This comes up with premed, as I’m interested in becoming a doctor, but I know that it takes extreme amounts of time and dedication.)
  • What if I’m not good enough? (This comes up with writing. I used to always write when I was younger, but in the past few years?.. not so much.)

Anyway, now I’m just rambling so moving on–
I guess I’m just looking for a little guidance in the right direction. How do I narrow down the list? And how do I decide which majors will be most important to me when I’m deciding which colleges to apply to? Is it safe to consider colleges that are highly specialized in only a few majors, or should I be looking more to colleges that are decent across the board?

– PSA: This is my first post here, so my apologies if it shows. (:
Anyway, thank you in advance for your responses. ANY help is very much appreciated.

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  1. College majors don't expect or require any previous exposure to a field before you major in it. At some colleges (particularly ones well-known for CS majors), it's more common for computer science majors to have at least some knowledge before they come. But it's certainly not required! So even if you know a little less than your classmates when you start - that's not a big deal. Every major has some people who learn a bit more quickly or become more advanced through a variety of methods. The important part is whether or not you enjoy it and can successfully do the work.

(However, you are right that - unfortunately - at the top programs where you have to apply for admission, you may be less likely to gain admission without prior experience. You can mitigate this in two main ways: one, use your senior year to investigate more about computer science and programming; and two, apply to a wide range of colleges, including some that don’t require you to apply to their CS program.

  1. There's really not such a thing as "too late." If you decide on pre-med later on in your college career, you can do a post-baccalaureate pre-medical prep program or take the prerequisites as a non-degree student after college, before applying to medical school. You could also pursue one of many other careers in healthcare that don't require the long lead times of medicine. Don't rush into a decision, especially not about something as time-consuming and expensive as medicine!
  2. You'll never know whether you have the skill and aptitude for something unless you try. If you find that you are struggling in a particular major or course, you can talk with your professors and advisors to see if they can help you move into something that you enjoy more and can be successful at. But you shouldn't avoid trying something out of fear :)

Based upon your interests, I wouldn’t recommend you looking at colleges that are highly specialized and narrow. You should go somewhere with a wide range of majors (particularly these four fields) so you can experiment and try things out and see what you like - and also, so even if you decide to major in political science, you could still take classes in computer science and/or health and/or writing.

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I agree that you want a college that has both breadth and flexibility. Not someplace with limited choices, and not someplace that has lots of choices but makes it super hard to change your path.

It does happen sometimes that students with little prior CS experience fall in love with the field. But I think it is more often the case that people who are in the “Hmmm… maybe CS?” category like you do not end up falling in love with the kind of serious nuts-and-bolts CS that deals with the “guts” of computers and software. It strikes me that you might find it more rewarding to look at fields where computing meets your other areas of interest - in particular, where “big data” and modeling are applied to the fields of political science and public policy.

Look at programs in the “Public Policy Analysis” area like these:
https://spea.indiana.edu/undergraduate/degrees-majors/policy-analysis.html
http://quantitative.emory.edu/for-undergraduate/degree-options/major-ppa/index.html

There are also “Data Analytics” majors like this one at Denison, which requires each student to choose a concentration, with poli sci as one of the options. https://denison.edu/academics/data-analytics
And here’s another: http://soda.la.psu.edu/

I feel as if this is the direction I’d consider if I were you. Most likely you will have to take (or at least have the option to take) a writing course or two, as well as a science course or two, as core/GE requirements… and if those classes lure you toward a writing program or toward completing the whole canon of premed sciences, wonderful. (And as @juillet says above, you could always finish those sciences up in a postbac program if you came around to premed later in your undergrad career.) But in the meantime, you’d get a start on a social sciences foundation as well as getting a foot in the door on the math/stats/computing/data science side of things. (Note that Big Data is a valuable skillset in the world of medicine and public health, too.)

There are also options like Northeastern CCIS’ combined majors https://www.ccis.northeastern.edu/program/bs-computer-science-political-science/ , where you could blend CS+poli sci and have total flexibility to shift to a pure CS major, or a poli sci major with a CS minor, or a poli sci + something else (journalism, econ, business, communications, etc. https://cssh.northeastern.edu/polisci/undergraduate/majors-and-minors/ ) or wherever your passions take you.

You haven’t posted any stats, so it’s hard to point to specific schools/programs, but the examples above vary in competitiveness so hopefully they give you an idea of the possibilities.

If you really feel strongly that you want to go all-in as a “code warrior” type CS major, go for it; I just don’t get that vibe from your post. And as with the premed thing, if you get your feet wet in CS as an undergrad and want to pursue it more in grad school, the ship won’t have sailed - there are ways to do that too. Choose an undergrad environment where you can explore, because there’s simply no way to project, from your experiences in high school, where you will really want to end up.

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@juillet @aquapt
Oh, wow! Thank you both so so SO much!! This is so much more information than I expected, and just… wow. Reading your responses makes me feel a lot more reassured and confident about the decision.

Alright, I will start looking into these options right now… Looks like I have a lot of work to do. Thank you again! I appreciate you both taking the time and effort to give such thoughtful responses. I hope you two have a wonderful day :slight_smile: