I need advice on picking my majors, please!

College Majors
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<p>Hello,</p>

<p>I want to apologize in advance for the long post. If you stick around to read and comment, you're seriously awesome.</p>

<p>I'm finishing up my first year of college and trying to figure out my classes for next semester, as well as my four year plan. This is really hard, though, since I'm not entirely sure what I want major in. I know I've still got a little bit of time before I have to declare, but the sooner I can figure it out, the better.</p>

<p>I know that I definitely want to double major with a concentration (my school doesn't do minors). For the longest time I thought I would do music and English, but now I'm not so sure. I'm currently on track to be a music major, as by the end of this semester, I'll have completed 13 of the 32 credits necessary for the major. For English, I'm taking the first of the core courses this semester (4/36 credits). </p>

<p>Although I'm not entirely solid on music yet, I'm planning as if it were. I'm struggling to decide on my second major. I really love English, especially when it comes to lit analysis and editing. I'm really interested in taking the poetry classes here, as well as some of the ethnic lit classes. However, I'm also considering maybe bio, anthro, or sociology, as I like learning about cultures and people. I'm considering bio because I really like learning about genetics. However, there's a lot of pre-reqs needed to get to the genetics courses in bio that I'm not particularly interested in, whereas with anthro and soc, I'm interested in taking pretty much everything. I haven't taken the intro courses for anthro, soc, or bio yet, but I'm planning on taking intro to soc and intro to anthro over the summer at one of the local colleges. </p>

<p>When it comes to concentrations, I'm confused, as well. I'm looking at either linguistics, technology studies, or neuroscience. I love languages - my freshman tutorial was a course on "bad words," and I've been studying Spanish for about 7 years now. Technology studies would help me be more marketable. I think learning about the brain is really neat, too. I took an intro to psych course first semester that mostly killed my interest in the subject, but really piqued my interest when we were learning about the physical brain and what parts are responsible for what. </p>

<p>What do you think? I went to the career center for help, and they had me take the MBTI. I'm INTJ, "the scientist." All they did was suggest STEM jobs and majors for me, but I'm mostly not interested in STEM, largely because I'm terrible at math - English has always been my best/favorite (aside from music) subject. I did really well in bio in HS, and I remember enjoying it (I took it my freshman year), though, so I've no idea what to do... </p>

<p>Thank you for any advice you can give me! :)</p>

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<p>When do you have to declare your major, if at all? </p>

<p>I was an anthropology & arts and humanities dual-degree and am now a Public Health grad student who is taking a lot of sociology classes so I understand the desire to take a lot of different areas lol. </p>

<p>First off, you should remember that you do not need to declare a double major to take a wide variety of classes. chances are probably high too that you will not go in to the field that you major in if you major in a non-specific field (as in, you’re not an engineer or something very specific like that). </p>

<p>If you are interested in genetics but not necessarily from a very biological standpoint, you might want to consider taking some evolutionary anthropology classes if school offers them. If not, Bioanthro classes would also be a good bet to get your feet wet so to speak. </p>

<p>Both anthropology and sociology will require a LOT of writing and analysis so I’d hone your skills in those classes rather than specific English classes to lighten up your schedule. </p>

<p>Is the linguistics field at your college more centered on the cultural or physical component of linguistics? I loved linguistic anthropology but my undergrad’s linguistics department focused more on the technical aspects of language rather than cultural implications of language (if that makes sense). </p>

<p>Given your interests, I do believe that anthro would be the best way for you to go. Anthro broadly covers pretty much every single one of your interests- even technology. </p>

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<p>Also, I’m going to take a stab and say that you’re at Grinnell? (Based on previous posts- I could be wrong). If so, I’m going to double down and absolutely recommend you pursue anthro. Their anthro course offerings look EXACTLY in line with what you want to do. I did not go there, but if you want recommendations on what would probably fit your passions best, let me know! </p>

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<p>Thank you for responding!</p>

<p>Yes, I’m at Grinnell. We’ve got a pretty good program here, which is one of the reasons I’m considering anthro.</p>

<p>I am interested in genetics from a biological standpoint, but I’d also like to see how it intersects with human origin, development, and manifestation. This kind of stems from a personal interest in geneology (I’m kind of becoming the family historian haha…) Lots of stories about family heritage + nothing adding up = go to the DNA. But I want to understand how it all works together… I’m trying to see how I can incorporate the genetics courses into the anthro course load, but I’m not sure it’ll work…</p>

<p>With linguistics, I’d say it’s about half and half. Core courses are more focused on the technical aspects, while the electives are generally more culturally oriented.</p>

<p>I really appreciate your insights! Thank you!</p>

<p>If anyone has anything else to input, I’d appreciate it, too.</p>

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<p>You honestly could be a younger version of myself. I have both sides of my family traced back to at least the 1700s through painstaking research over the course of several years (23andMe has been helpful as well…) </p>

<p>I do think you’re looking for a bioanthro/evolutionary anthro path. </p>

<p>Best of luck :slight_smile: </p>

<p>Oh and fwiw, Public Health Genetics is emerging as a HUGE field which would fit in nicely with some of your interests. Perhaps something to look into. </p>

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<p>Haha, I looked into 23andMe, but it’s not legal in my home state. I think we’re going to do FamilyTreeDNA. On one side of my family, we’re into the 1500s, but the other side is a completely different story.</p>

<p>Thank you again! I will definitely look into that as a potential career path :)</p>