<p>I am currently double-majoring in Finance and Economics. I am a senior with 102 credits. I only have one semester left until I receive my Bachelor's degree. After taking these major courses I realized I absolutely hate my majors. I have a 3.506 cumulative GPA somehow, but I have completely checked out of college. I hate the stock market and the economy. I hate learning about it and anything to do with the two of them. I have had no luck finding internships and feel like my degree will be worthless anyway when I graduate due to this. I have changed my major like 8 or 9 times (I lost count). It went something like this: Actuarial science (at Penn State)>math>accounting>biology>geology (took a course and loved it)>petroleum engineer>pharmacy>nursing>teaching>finance. I entered my school as a finance major and they said if I take 3 more classes I can have the second economics major so I said fine. I honestly don't even know what I want to do with my life anymore. Has anyone else ever gone through this? What was the outcome? Thanks ahead of time.</p>
<p>What do you do? You finish your degree. It’s too late to turn back now. It’s time to get into the real world. </p>
<p>A lot of people go through a period of not knowing what to do with their life in their 20’s. Doesn’t mean you should just drop what you’re doing your last semester and try something new. I hope you’re not on loans. As someone on loans, I cannot afford to do that. You’ve already switched your major so many times it tells me you’re indecisive. Plenty of people end up doing something unrelated to their degree. The important thing is you have one (well, two).</p>
<p>I’d suggest you do your research on google, see a career you can really see yourself doing, and find out how to pursue that. But extending your time getting another bachelor’s…no. Maybe see a career counselor.</p>
<p>I couldn’t decide for the life of me what I wanted to do my first year at Cal Poly Pomona after I transferred from community college. Do I want to be a physicist? A mathematical physicist? Biostatistician? Lawyer? Actuary? </p>
<p>I’m going for a master’s in mechanical and aerospace engineering. I hope to be an “engineering mathematician”.</p>
<p>Go ahead with your degree and spend your next semester at career center to figure out what your true interests are…lots of people end up working in fields that have nothing to do with actual major but you do need a strategy to get there. </p>
<p>You’ve told us all the things you didn’t like.
What do you like? Your background in economics and finance prepared you for a lot of careers that don’t involve the stock market.</p>
<p>You do not have to work in econ/finance just because that is your major. My major was econ. But I never worked in a career that was directly that. I had an industry I was interested in and I went for it after college. Simply having a degree can get you in the door for so much. Just finish your degree, as it is. You do not need to add in the 2nd major. Take classes you enjoy for electives in the last semester. And then just graduate and seek out a career in a field you like. What do you think would interest you?</p>
<p>I’ll use one person I know as an example, an economics graduate from about 15 years ago.</p>
<p>Her career trajectory: insurance sales/math teacher/stockbroker/mutual fund adviser/math teacher/pharmaceutical sales/event planner/highly paid project manager for a large tech company. I’m sure I missed a couple in there somewhere. As you can see, it is a very versatile degree and the jobs have little resemblance to the coursework you dislike.</p>
<p>Finish your degree reqs. Start working in an office now (internship or otherwise). You’ll wind up somewhere and it’ll be OK. </p>
<p>Many people end up working in fields completely different from their college majors. Finish your degree. It doesn’t mean you HAVE to work in finance, but you will be a college graduate, and with that accomplished, you will have many more options. Put that nose to the grindstone and finish!!</p>
<p>Sounds like you are burned out - pretty normal. All the other posters are right - buckle down, get it finished. Take a week or two (or a month) to relax on a beach (or whatever you’d like to do). The real world usually takes us places far different from our college majors. Your majors will give you a background to do a LOT of different things. Relax. Your future’s bright!</p>
<p>Don’t make the mistake of thinking “I majored in X so I have to work in X and I hate it”. I have seen people drop out of college where you are at because they didn’t like their major. Then what do they get? No diploma!
Go to the Career office and start talking to them. That is what they are there for. And finish your degree!!!</p>
<p>Finish the degree, remember it is a waypoint on a journey NOT your destination. Totally in agreement with other respondents, start looking for jobs maybe focusing on life after college can motivate you.</p>
To answer this question, I’m going to post another story and the answer to that question from someone in that same situation.
"I only have 12hrs left in my major and 36hrs left in my degree. If I stay, I’ll graduate next spring with a BA in sociology. However, I hate my major, and it doesn’t really give you many career options except being a research assitant or a receptionist. Both of which sound like hell on earth.
I know the smart answer would be to cut my losses and switch majors. Except I really have no idea what I want to do or what I would want to major in.
Should I finish my degree in soc and try to find a career, or just take a break from school until I figure out what degree to get? How did you guys figure out what to major in?
Best Answer: As a former sociology major who was in a similar position, I say take some time off and figure out what you want to do, and here’s why: Financial aid! Once you have that diploma in hand, the financial aid door slams shut and it’s goodbye grants and scholarships. You still have the option of loans, but if you’re almost maxed out (like I am), it makes working toward another degree that much more difficult if you eventually settle on a field that requires higher education (and after age 25, you’re considered independent – if you’re working a low paying job at that time, or not at all, you’re pretty much looking at a free-ride to college).
I graduated with a B.A. in sociology in 2007. I worked as a victim advocate for 3 years before being laid off because a majority of social service positions are grant based (and when the grant is gone, so is the position). It was a difficult career with high stress, long hours, and very, very, very low pay ($33,000 a year in NYC which is about $1,500 more than was is considered low-income here – after paying rent, utilities, student loans, and buying groceries, I was left with about $50 a month to myself for incidentals…like cough medicine or Band-Aid’s, not the life I expected as a college graduate). After I was laid off, I was forced to make a career decision to either continue in the social service rat-race (the only field a sociology major is really qualified for) or go back to school for a direct entry career. And, that’s how I ended up in nursing – pretty much by process of elimination.
And you’re right, sociology majors are NOT in high demand. Essentially, the degree is not worth the paper it’s printed on so even with that degree in hand, your job prospects are pretty low. If you KNOW research is not your thing and you’re not completely sure the direction you want to take, then take a semester or 2 off. Focus on internships that will expose you to a variety of fields and hopefully narrow your interests. Try to find a job, any job, and see if that gives you direction. I had a friend who started college for entertainment management, she worked at a dental office and then ended up becoming a dental hygienist. I had a sorority sister who was an English major, took some time off, interned at a small company, caught a mistake on the paperwork that saved the company a large chunk of change and she was offered a full-time position – she ended up finishing in business and obtaining her MBA. I had another friend who started as an education major, he was a cart boy at a grocery store, and ended up entering their management training program and is working his way up the managerial ladder. Yet another friend was a philosophy major, on a whim she took a phlebotomy course, now she’s a phlebotomist.
Also, don’t underestimate the quality of life you hope to obtain one day (meaning do you want to own a home one day, or is renting fine; would you like to buy a car, or is public transportation okay with you; do you want to have money in the bank or is the air in your lungs all you need; are you expecting to support a family, or are you sure you’ll remain child-free, etc.). I say this because when I was an undergrad, helping people and “changing the world” was ALL I cared about and I didn’t think about how I would eventually pay my bills. It wasn’t until I was working full time for low pay that I realized exactly how important money was to my future career plan. That’s another reason why I ended up in nursing because while I DID enjoy helping people, I also enjoyed being able to put food on the table – and with a starting salary of $75,000 in NYC, nursing was the only field that filled my criteria of 1. Affordable education; 2. Maximum pay for minimum education; 3. Ability to help people; 4. Opportunity for advancement.
Bottom line, college will ALWAYS be there when you want to go back – ALWAYS. If I could do it all over again, I would have taken some time off to figure out what it is I really wanted to do before I wasted $70,000 on a useless degree. A lot of people will try to tell you a college degree is absolutely essential, and it pretty much is, but it’s not essential to obtain that degree at age 22 – you still have a lot of time to figure out a life plan. And when you do go back to finish, you’ll be amazed at how much more fulfilling it feels because you’ll actually WANT to be there."
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This thread is two years old, and hopefully the OP has already made their choice. Please use old threads for reference only.