<p>Ill be a junior next year, and although I think its a couple months too soon to be worrying about this (I was planning to about the start of junior year), my parents are pushing me to start looking at what colleges I want to apply to, visit, etc...
However, I don't know what Im interested in majoring in. I do not mean that Im not sure of what field of engineerring I want. I mean that I don't know if I'd like to go into Law, medicine, computer science, chemical engineering, or whatever. The only fields I despise are arts/writing and history. I know people don't always know their major going into their junior year, not even going into college. How can I start looking at colleges if I don't know whether I'd be better off at georgia tech or hopkins? I like most of the sciences (bio, chem, physics, comp. sci.) and math, but other than that I really don't know anything more specific. Is this normal? If so, how am I supposed to start looking at colleges? 1/2 the colleges in the country play into my interests.</p>
<p>I'll tell you how I decided, I basically boiled it down to what I wanted to get out of my college experience besides academics. Location, size, and social scene dominated.</p>
<p>I, like you, disliked history, english, and art as a potential major, and I ended up with a pretty wide array of colleges. I wanted an urban, small to mid sized school, with at least some potential as a social college, in the northeast. I ended up with a pretty wide variety of schools ranging from NYU to MIT and Harvard. I then figured out a week long trip to the colleges I thought would benefit from an initial visit, which eliminated some more (Amhearst which was too rural, Cooper Union which was too small, etc.). Then I applied to 6 of them, waited for the results, and THEN and only then did I think about my major, because then and only then did I know a little bit about what I wanted to do. If asked at the end of sophmore year what I would major in it would have been pure math or mechanical engineering. At the end of senior year I developed a dislike for math and physics and was interested in chemistry and decided chemEng was the best fit.</p>
<p>And that was how I decided. If people trust your couselors they provide a pretty good initial list based only on academics and whatever other priorities you have if you ask for it, otherwise just figure out what else will make college a good place to be and try and find a wide range of schools that'll cover those specifications. I did not apply to one school outside the northeast, or one that was not directly in a city, and that worked out perfectly.</p>
<p>Career-wise, it's perfectly normal to be undecided. The average college student changes their major 5 times. However, if you dislike history, you'd probably want to remove Law from your list of options (lots of history requirements). Computer Science will be in high demand for the next several decades, especially as the internet continues to evolve and expand, so that's a good one to consider. Pharmacy is another career that's going to be in extremely high demand. Or if you start to lean more towards math, finance would perhaps be a good choice?</p>
<p>Don't worry too much. You'll find what you want to do eventually. No rush. </p>
<p>If you're not sure of what you want in a school, this is a good quiz:
<a href="http://www.fiskeguide.com/belong.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.fiskeguide.com/belong.html</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.collegeboard.com%5B/url%5D">www.collegeboard.com</a></p>
<p>Good resource, that is.</p>
<p>If you aren't sure what kind of college environment you would like - big or small, urban or rural, etc. - I would suggest visiting several nearby schools of varying sizes and locations. You don't have to be interested in any of them, just see what sort of feelings each type of campus gives you and where you think you would be most comfortable.</p>
<p>Also, don't worry about your career or major just yet. Unless you want to major in something that many schools top schools don't offer, like business or biomedical engineering, you will find that there are a ton of schools that each offer very good opportunities in whatever major you desire.</p>
<p>My son was in your situation a year ago - pressure from me to at least narrow down his major so I could plan some visits for this past spring, and no idea what he wanted to do. Luckily, as the year went on he was able to make some decisions because junior year courses became more demanding and he was more clearly able to see his strengths and weaknesses. He at least narrowed it down to computer science, business, or econ over history, English, or science and knew he wanted to avoid taking more foreign language if possible. That enabled me to make a list of schools that were respected in both CS and economics and offered the flexibility to change majors easily or to double major. I also looked for schools that had distribution requirements rather than required core courses and were small and private (while still considering StateU as one of the options). The list turned out to be very small and we visited many of the schools. I also tried to find schools that offered business as well as econ which narrowed the list even further, but doubt he will make his final decision based on that as he can always add an MBA if he is still interested in business after graduation.</p>
<p>It sounds as if fairly large, comprehensive universities (private or public) would be best for you-places that have nearly everything. You could keep your options open that way. Forget about liberal arts colleges. You seem to be interested in somewhat practical career preparation.</p>
<p>Get a map and make circles with the center being your home city. Circle rings that are 140, 210, 280, 350, 420, 470 miles in radius from your home. TLook and see what colleges fall inside each of these rings. Rule out the ones that don't meet your interests. Decide with your parents how far away can you afford to be away from home. Can you afford to fly, will you likely want to come home often or rarely? Once you narrow down these schools and location, take a look at your preparation (SATs, grades, etc) and pick some schools that you have a low, medium and high probabability of getting accepted. Pick 2-3 of each and there's your list.</p>