I’m a College freshman enrolled in my second semester and I don’t know what to major in. All my life in High School I was only focused on getting good grades, and now that I have entered College it all hit me: what do I want to do with my life? I never once thought about what I wanted to do in High School.
Now I’m in my second semester, and I still don’t really find anything I’m really passionate about. People tell me that I should go in a field that is high in job placement like Nursing and that if I don’t go into it I’d probably be left on the streets. Then I have people tell me “do what you love” and it’s like who do I listen to? I unfortunately just don’t see a path for me. I am not failing any classes, I have all A’s in my classes so far but it gets depressing sometimes where I just don’t find anything I’m truly ‘passionate’ about. I want my parents and I want others to be proud of me, but then I want to be happy with a good job.
I was interested in being a Biology major and hopefully entering a lab field, but I am the worst when it comes to lab. I am always last to finish and if it wasn’t for my lab partner I would be totally lost and my results would probably be skewed. Seeing how incompetent I am in lab really hurt my confidence to succeed in that field, so I started considering other options. I was also interested in Computer Science before, but it got too challenging.
I just feel totally lost, and I feel like I’m there because it’s what is required to succeed nowadays. It’s like what I’m interested in it just doesn’t seem to work out.
My first suggestion would be to visit your advisor or career center ASAP. I’m sure they can sit with you & explore different fields in which you may not only excel at, but also enjoy! Good Luck!
Have you actually taken any of the many free career aptitude tests on offer? I know there is one through Naviance, but I don’t know if college studetns use Naviance. Just look around online. Take a test and see what it says about you. You should get many suggestions, ranked by how closely they match your aptitude. Maybe one of the suggestions will appeal.
Meanwhile, see your advisor at college, and don’t stress too much. Don’t you have unitl halfway,through sophomore year to decide?
It’s okay to be undecided your freshman year. Don’t force it. Do go to your career counseling center at the beginning of your sophomore year. They may have some tests that help you figure out fields you may like.
If you like biology, stick with it. I hear many people are clumsy, or not good in the lab at first. They get better with practice and experience. There is a learning curve.
So you’re not “passionate” about anything – but are there classes you enjoy more than others? Do any of them tweak your interest? Sometimes you discover your strengths in the oddest ways. My niece was like you, and started a psychology major, almost by default, because she didn’t mind psych courses and was doing OK in them. Well, at her school the major required a statistics class, which, much to her shock, she enjoyed. She never liked math much, but she was good at, and ended up enjoying, USING math for analysis. You could have knocked her over with a feather! She took another statistics class but finished college as a psychology major. Today she works in business, for a big consulting company, a job she got in part because she mentioned in an interview that she enjoyed her statistics courses. So you never know… sometimes you stumble upon a skill when you least expect it.
Just know that many people your age have no idea what they want to do with their lives in terms of careers. Also know that many people end up majoring in something but end up in unrelated fields. Besides taking career interest tests and talking to advisors, I would look into majors that can lead to many different possiblities, for example with a business or english degree you can enter many fields. Even consider double majoring to give you even more options. GL
It’s okay not being passionate about anything at this point. So don’t stress. Think instead about what you can see yourself doing in the future that sounds appealing even if you don’t “love” it? What classes seem to capture your interest more? Or work by process of elimination of the things that don’t capture your interest at all or you really can’t see yourself doing.
If all else fails, take a broad major like business, english lit, math, that can lead to many fields (or more specialization in grad school). Or double major if you can, as citymama9 said.
Identify the courses you’ve liked the most so far and what you could envision yourself majoring in. Take at least one of those types of courses in the fall.
Take at least one course that fulfills your general education requirements.
Identify at least one course that seems a little off the wall but could be interesting, and take that.
This strategy gets you three courses out of 4-5 that you’ll need for the semester, and it gives you a diverse courseload. You don’t need to know what you’re going to major in, but you do need to explore. At some point during second semester of next year, it will be time to decide on a major. What is most important is that you recognize a major does not determine your life. Heck, you can be 10 years into your career and still have no idea what you want to do with your life!
I don’t know if anyone else recommended this but, if possible, take all your required courses first? If you get out any English, Language, etc classes first, you’ll have more time to explore options and talk it over with your career counseling services. They can definitely help you narrow down your interests and what careers fit you.