I am certain that I want to change my major but not sure of what to do next.

Hello everyone,

I have decided to change out of engineering. I have been giving it a lot of thought and it is just not for me regardless of the amount of time I have put in it already. I have spoken to a counselor before but it went more like just follow my heart and later I decided to just stick it out just because the amount of time spent. But I really want to switch now.

I know I should probably stick it out and that I don’t have to have a career in it despite the degree and classes don’t reflect the career but I don’t see myself dedicating anymore time for it.

At this point I am viewing my options as someone who is trying to get a whole new college experience and ready to make a complete switch but is lost.

Looking at my college’s major list. I have narrowed down the following:

Accounting
Communications
Early Childhood Education
Economics
Finance
Health Services Administration
Hospitality
Management
Marketing
Nursing

I have a lot of research to do but wanted some experiences people have with these majors and what the careers are like.

I have crossed off any medical things before because of lack of confidence in my abilities but I am willing to reconsider. But how much time is dedicated to more schooling? Or does it depend on what I want to do with the degree like nursing?

For education, how does choosing a subject work? I’m also not sure what I’d pick as I don’t enjoy math, I am not the best writer, I don’t read much, and I am bad at science. So this already doesn’t look good.

The others are just different choices I just picked out but I don’t really understand much of exactly what they do. Like, I’m still confused about the differences of finance and accounting. Some googling made it seem like they still would be options to consider.

I don’t have much hobbies aside from simple sketching/drawing but not skilled enough for a career. I play video games but I don’t enjoy programming. I watch cartoons a lot but I don’t think animation or anything similar would be good. Or I browse the internet a lot. Aside from these things I don’t have anything as a passion that I could think of doing.

I appreciate any advice.

Question: what was it about engineering that originally intrigued you??

You mention early childhood education-- why not teach High School Physics?

Your science credits would go towards your new major. You say you’re not good in science, but are currently enrolled in an Engineering major; I bet you already have a lot of the requirements fulfilled.

Go to your State Ed Department site, and look at secondary education certification requirements; they vary from one state to the next. (Note: I meant the site of the state where you would eventually teach, not the one where your school is located.)

I’ve been teaching HS math for 30+ years, and absolutely love what I do!!! The kids make it the world’s most amazing job! (and, for what it’s worth, it’s usually hard to find qualified Physics teachers, so the job situation would probably be OK.)

Take an intro to accounting course & take an intro to finance course to gauge your interest & abilities in those areas.

@bkjmom
What intrigued me about engineering originally was because I liked the idea of building things because I thought it seemed like fun. I’m computer engineering. My parents also put it into my head because I was good at using a computer, that engineering was the future and the pay. So after taking courses, I am not only uninterested but also I haven’t learned any valuable skills aside from basic knowledge about circuits and logic design.

I have taken physics 1 and physics 2 and I may have gotten A’s and B’s in them I am not too sure that I walked out with a good understanding of the material. It was mainly cramming just to pass. I did however enjoy chemistry 1 but that was a while ago. Also, would I have to major in physics and then look into being a teacher? Or do I major in childhood education and find a concentration?
I will also look into the State Ed option.

@Publisher

I thought of doing that but I don’t have too many credits I could use searching because my state has a “excess credit surcharge” and if I go over the limit for a major then I would have to pay extra in tuition. So I kind of need an absolute answer which would be hard at my point now without doing what you mentioned. Classes also fill up fast so deciding too late is bad because taking those courses would be a good choice for the summer but I need a full schedule for fall.
I have also completed all of my general requirements so I can’t do that without not being a full time and losing more time by being part time.

It sounds like you’ve never really done any career exploring before, and the councillor you met with is right to say follow your heart, but it’s hard to have a passion when you haven’t seen what’s out there to be passionate about.

Ask your college’s career center if they have any career aptitude tests or search for some online ones. Don’t put too much stock into following exactly what they say you should do, but use them as an exercise to think earnestly about what you enjoy/dislike/value in a career. Then do more research into the fields you like to study. It’s so easy to fall into the trap of thinking there are only a handful of careers in the world and that there’s a defined path of classes you take to get that job. Even in a career like nursing, the kind of work you would do as a hospital nurse, home care nurse, school/community health nurse, nurse manager, etc are so different, but start from the same nursing degree.

Figure out what’s important to you. Otherwise, after you switch majors now, you might find yourself wanting to switch again after one semester. And it’s totally okay to not feel like there’s some job that’s 100% your calling. Your career is what you make of it. And while some people live to work, others work to live. But it should at least bring you happiness in some way.

The rules for teacher certification vary widely from one state to the next, so we can’t advise you without knowing where you are. The State Ed site should help answer your questions.

Likewise, why not make an appointment with your guidance counselor to talk this out? He or she is likely to have a better idea than us.

Have you ever taken any classes outside of engineering? What do you enjoy learning about? That’s one way to help choose a major - think about what kinds of classes and tasks you enjoy.

If you don’t enjoy math, accounting and finance seem like not-great choices, and economics may not be a good one either (economics can be math-heavy depending on the design of the curriculum). If you’re bad at science, nursing doesn’t seem like a great choice, either.

If you’re not the best writer, communications could go either way - it depends on how willing you are to work to become a better writer.

Hello @juillet

I have taken other classes outside that were general requirements my first 3 semesters. Like math,science, writing. I haven’t taken other courses because I was sure I wanted to do engineering and also wouldn’t have wanted to waste money to find out if I would like another major after my initial doubt a couple years ago.
When it comes to math I am fine with high school level but my hate stems from the calculus courses mainly. I also took an engineering economics class and found the level of math decent. But I guess the actual major would be harder.

I can elaborate a lot in writing but I am not good with punctuation or being able to spend a lot of time researching a topic and properly talking about it especially if I need to write 3+ pages.
Honestly I would like to do something that isn’t so technical but at the same time not heading into a major that I don’t have much of a plan for.

I was good at chemistry but haven’t taken a biology course since high school, freshman year, which I wasn’t too good in but to be fair I didn’t care about school work until my sophomore year. So my bad feelings about it, and science in general, just lingered on.

I can’t say that there is much that I enjoy learning about because I haven’t looked into things much. I do get interested in things that allow me to be creative like drawing, using Photoshop, animation, and I considered learning about css programming but only in order to design one web page for fun but lost interest. I have an issue quitting things I would actually like once it feels like a chore to learn.

Hi @bkjmom

I have to set up a meeting with another counselor for sure. It is just that the few I spoken to before gave me some advice but without a plan of what exactly I wanted to do they couldn’t really help me out too much. So I wanted to find more information before I considered going again without a plan.

Early childhood education is not classroom teaching, it’s daycare/preschool.

Is there an academic advisor you can talk to at your school?

@geraniol

Thanks for the aptitude test idea I will try that out and see where it can lead me.

@AroundHere

I would have to wait until Tuesday when I head back and see if I can. For some reason now my school doesn’t allow students to meet department advisers outside of their chosen major and I need to see my assigned one. Only problem is that my assigned adviser is engineering. I need to see how I check with the other departments.

Then communications and probably economics won’t appeal too much for. Communications - both the major and the field itself - involve a lot of researching a topic and properly discussing it. Communications majors may not write more than 3 pages very often, but they will write a lot of shorter papers. Economics majors often do write very long papers for their classes’ final projects. It’s a social science field, and social science majors write.

A friend of mine is an accountant, and she says all the math you need is really basic - adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing. She says it’s other things that make accounting more rigorous - like standards, policies, legal - but that math shouldn’t be a barrier for people wanting to enter the field. So that’s something to think about.

Finance is going to be more math heavy and calculus will be a must, so if you struggle in math and don’t like it enough to try hard to get better, maybe don’t do that one.

The other professional majors - health services administration, hospitality, management, and nursing - will require fewer papers and writing and more hands-on, practical knowledge and coursework. (Although there will be some - my cousin is getting her degree in nursing now and she’s had to write quite a few papers.)

Then I guess communications is out. Thinking about it now, I have been throwing out ideas without knowing what I’m really involving myself in just for the heck of picking something different but no real plan for it or what people with a career in it really do which is my issue. A friend of mine is majoring in it and that gave me the idea and he said it’s just a few essays every now he has to do and it’s supposed to pay well. But I literally know nothing about the field so this was a bad idea from the start.

I have a bit of an idea of economics from high school so thinking about it now I am realizing it is not for me either.

If finance really does rely on calculus heavily then I really can’t do that as I have truly hated my calculus courses with a passion.

I will try taking a good look at accounting. What does your friend do day to day as one? I have been looking at it before but couldn’t really pinpoint what exactly does a person do in the field as everyone on the internet has a different description. The most I know is that it relies on math but as you said isn’t too heavy on it as you said. I also heard it is a bit repetitive?

I guess what I’m looking for is something that allows me to have a good range of responsibilities each day and allows me to be hand on without need to worry about formulas and equations too much.

My college doesn’t also seem to have a big range of majors to give me a good idea of what I could consider. But maybe I just lack the creativity to know what I could possibly with those available. So far I am leaning more towards management or something with health like nursing, doctor, or veterinarian but vet isn’t offered.

Veterinary school is graduate study. You would first have to do an undergraduate degree than apply to vet school.