Literally have no idea what to even consider majoring in.

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

<p>My favorite "activity" is being creative, but I do not want to get a job in that. I like painting, designing, crafting, but it's not something I'd like to take classes in for a major. It isn't in demand and I don't think I'd like it as a job, so I'll keep it as a hobby.</p>

<p>My dilemma is that I literally have no idea what to consider majoring. When I take career tests, majority of the time my choices will always be art-related, but I really want that to only be a hobby.</p>

<p>I personally don't mind if I'm not passionate about my career. I'd want something that I found slightly intriguing, but I don't mind if it's not fun. I don't think any of the best jobs would actually be that fun.</p>

<p>That being said, I might get a lot of hate for this, but my primary concern is money, as long as the career is something that interests me at least a little. I want to be able to travel the world and put money towards my hobbies.</p>

<p>I'm well-rounded academically, as well, so I think I have a lot of options. I don't really have a strong subject, and I put a lot of time towards school so I get good grades. (Don't want to sound like I'm bragging, just trying to paint a more realistic picture here)</p>

<p>Anyways, I have no idea where I want to start looking. Being a doctor or a lawyer or something might be an obvious choice, but if I were a docter, I don't want to do surgeries at all. I really wouldn't be interested in general care, either. I like working with people, but not in that sense.</p>

<p>Any insight or resources would really help me- thanks for reading :) It's so stressful trying to figure out the future as just a highschool student!</p>

2

<p>Mining engineering? - great money, you can work in many different parts of the world and travel, you work with others to solve problems</p>

3

<p>Maybe psychology? It’s interesting and pays well if you get a job, but you need a lot of school and the unemployment rate is high. There is always architecture if you are more interested in creative pursuits, but that also has a high unemployment rate. Ae you a good writer? If you are, that opens many doors that will allow you to use your creativity.</p>

4

<p>[Internships</a>, Careers, and Employment](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/internships-careers-employment/]Internships”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/internships-careers-employment/) might be a better forum for this question.
[url=&lt;a href=“http://www.careercornerstone.org/]Here[/url”&gt;http://www.careercornerstone.org/]Here[/url</a>] is a website with information about STEM careers. Some of them are high paying. </p>

<p>I’ve heard that becoming a lawyer isn’t such a great idea anymore (there are too many), but I’m not sure. There are a lot of medical specialties you could look into. Or how about computer science?</p>

<p>Most people don’t need to decide on their specific major while they’re in high school, but some universities require you to apply to a specific college (like LAS, engineering, etc.).</p>

5

<p>Get a copy of the Book of Majors from CollegeBoard (maybe from library or your guidance counselor if they have one). Go through with post-its and mark “green” for ones that really interest you and “yellow” with the ‘maybe’ ones. You may see some clustering and ideas from that process.</p>

<p>Then choose colleges to apply to that offer the top few choices that most interest you. When you get to college, try to take two classes in each of your top three choices in the first few semesters. Also spend time in the college career office discussing job prospects and internships for your top choice majors.</p>

<p>That should position you well to pick a major by end of sophomore year.</p>

6

<p>I feel for you! Career assessments didn’t help me either - they told me everything from garbage collector to social worker to nuclear engineer. None of those are anywhere close to fitting me. I too was academically well rounded, able to go into just about whatever I wanted.</p>

<p>I looked through lists of college majors and researched any that sounded even remotely interesting. My major search was probably different that yours will be - mine was more passion than salary driven. In a way, though yours is passion driven, too - you want to travel the world, and you need money to do that!</p>

<p>Some slightly random suggestions:
petroleum engineering
anesthesiology
aerospace engineering
actuarial science
biochemical engineering</p>

<p>I wish you luck in your search!</p>

7

<p>Petroleum is going to have a glut of graduates sometime in the next 3-4 yrs. It’s a small specialty field, that employs only about 30,000 engineers, and schools in the US alone are now graduating upwards of 2,000 students per year into the field.</p>

<p>Aerospace hiring has been on the decline for awhile. I believe biomedical has the second highest unemployment rate among all the engineering professions - you either make some big discovery as a grad assistant at a major university or you’ll never find work, as an actual engineer, after graduation. Most grads in that profession end up as salesmen (which can be lucrative, but very stressful). In fact, engineering jobs in the US as a whole have been in a steep decline over the last 10 years.</p>

<p>If you really want a dead-solid lock on landing a job when you graduate, I’d plan on going into medicine. Actuarial science is also a growing profession with good working conditions. </p>