<p>D1 told me an interesting approach her friend took to deciding on a major in college. Well... maybe not interesting, but systematic. D2 is undecided (hs junior), and liked the sound of this. Must add that D2 never takes anyone's advice about anything, so this is a milestone. Anyway, here is what this guy did:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>He had a few possible majors in mind. In his first 3 semesters he tried to take two classes in each of the major areas he was interested in. He figured that one class was not enough to tell for sure whether he liked it or not.</p></li>
<li><p>He looked for an internship in one of the areas summer after his freshman year to check it out further.</p></li>
<li><p>During his sophomore year he spent quite a bit of time in the college career placement office. He asked about what kind of jobs were available for each major and specifically about placements of alumni in each major over the previous few years.</p></li>
<li><p>He met with professors in each department to talk to them about the major and possible career options.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>He still agonized... but he made a decision, graduated near the top of his class, and has a very good job lined up in his field. </p>
<p>So... since D2 (the one who does not like to take advice) actually seems to be in a bit of a listening mode on this topic right now, I wonder if anyone else has any stories or suggestions to add to this approach.</p>
<p>All of the above make sense if an initially undecided student wants to make the most informed decision on choice of major.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Taking the prerequisites for each possible major allows checking interest in the major, as well as avoiding falling behind in prerequisite sequences.</p></li>
<li><p>Doing internships in the subject (if successful in getting them) also helps check interest in the major.</p></li>
<li><p>Checking career paths for graduates in the major makes sense, even if job and career are not the primary motivation for choosing the major – knowing beforehand may help the student make earlier and better preparation for future job and career paths instead of being surprised at graduation by lack of job.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>My kids figured it out when I asked them which classes they looked “forward” to attending. The lightbulb went off. Not as well thought out as your example, but it worked. My oldest son was an English major but really “liked” going to a couple business classes he took and he ended up double majoring. S2 struggles more in his major academically but he finds every single class interesting. He’s also thinking of double majoring with his second major in his hobby (art)…it’s killing him because art is so time consuming so now I’m suggesting a minor and not a double major or simply using up all his ‘free’ but necessary electives in art.</p>
<p>Not a bad idea! One class may have a particularly good or particularly bad professor, but two classes with different profs could open different doors.</p>
<p>The internship/career services part is also a good idea. I have heard statistics (from our university career services rep, so take it with a grain) that the amount of time spent at career services correlates with speed of getting a job post-graduation. (Or it may just measure student interest in getting a job…)</p>
<p>momofthreeboys that was a good approach. I struggled in my major classes but eventually made it. If you are interested and enjoy the classes that provides the motivation to keep going even when the work is hard.</p>
<p>momof - it’s amazing how much time Art classes take… sometimes people look down on them as they are a different type of course then say… engineering physics… but they take just as much time if not more. My first semester of senior year i had three 400 level capstone courses for my major and three 300/400 level art courses for my minors and it was insane how much work I had that semester. I somehow pulled out my best GPA out of any semester too.</p>
<p>You pick a major that satisfies your inner curiosity. That simple.</p>
<p>Thirty five years ago I bought a stopwatch with 1/100 sec accuracy. So, needless to say, I set out to find how quickly I could double tap it. I came out about 8/100ths, pretty consistently. Asked friends to try. All the same, from 7 to 12 or so hundreds of a second. Using two hands was a LOT faster (one tap from each finger) than tap tap. I could not figure out why this was so.</p>
<p>Fast forward to graduate school and we’re deep into neural pathways with the prof. who is the world’s authority in tapping (experimental psychology). I got my answers…</p>
<p>To pick a major one must first find what they’re good at, what they are not so good at, and find ways to go from A to B.</p>
<p>Good ideas. So far, my D printed out a list of every major at her school (about 200) and crossed through every major she would never consider. That left her with about 15 and most are clustered within one area. Most on the list do not come as a suprise, but a few do. It will be interesting to see how the narrowing process goes after she has a few classes under her belt.</p>
<p>I was an Art major, very briefly. I loved drawing and painting but was not willing to throw pots and weave. I loved the classes I had but they definitely took up a lot of time. Creativity and then perfection to your own standards is very time consuming.</p>