<p>We have a high school senior who doesn't do well with rote memory (bored with any information that cannot be applied to a real life situation), but blew the testing results away when it comes to remembering specific information that she then needs to mentally manipulate. She seems to see pictures of information in her head and knows when a piece is missing, gathers the missing information from an outside source to complete the stream, and then moves the info around and brings other things in and removes unneeded info to reach some amazing conclusions. </p>
<p>No one at school knows she does this because she's a fairly private person so this is not a boast, but IS a plea for help in as anonymous a way as we could think to do it. </p>
<p>She likes every subject except math and has no idea what to major in or what to look at for a future job. (Actually, she wants to do everything and cannot narrow it down.) She is very verbal, somewhat of a perfectionist, thinks she can do anything, and is INTJ.</p>
<p>Please make suggestions for college majors and jobs that would allow her to not be bored; she wants something to keep her brain occupied. If she's bored then she goes stir crazy.</p>
<p>The amount of math required will vary in some of these jobs (very little for an archivist, much more for an economist) but none of these requires engineering level math skills.</p>
<p>For “no memory” people like myself, CS is the best of the best. No memory required. No math requirement either, NONE.
I would not come close to anything medicine related. Huge challenge to memory, no “surgeon”, no anything at all if you cannot remember, you will fall out in a first sememster of UG. I never could remember anything, serves me very well in analysis, if you do not remember, you will question everything and never assume anything, this is a must in performing ananlysis, no assumptions, start with zero and ask and figure out and compare and connect logically…</p>
<p>^As I mentioned, strong challenge to memory in anything medicine related, frankly, I would not try. Also, check out the job market for the last 2 (Entrepreneur, Journalist ). Not sure if these are in demand…</p>
<p>Economics requires advanced math so no. Business is data gathering and problem solving driven but requires being comfortable with basic college math thru basic calculus. </p>
<p>Some fields of law might work for her; a lot of logic but little math, for the most part. Public relations, film and television production ( editing, directing), or teaching at all levels offer challenge and creativity without math. Maybe computer science would be a fit, but I think it takes a specific kind of mind to enjoy it.
I also would suggest that any young person get comfortable with a bit of boredom. While we all want interesting work for our kids, every pursuit has it’s boring aspects. Usually when a subject really interests someone, they are willing to take the good with the bad because their passion pushes them through. </p>
<p>“She likes every subject except math and has no idea what to major in or what to look at for a future job. (Actually, she wants to do everything and cannot narrow it down.” - As shown by other posts, a huge dislike of math will help her narrow it down. If she can endure some math at a college level, there are more options. Good luck! </p>
<p>Hmmm… Maybe Philosophy, but there’s no specific job that goes hand-in-hand with it. Or maybe some Engineering (not any Engineering, but one that might work is Materials Science).</p>
<p>I am an INTJ, have a degree in international relations, and do analytic work.</p>
<p>She could do anything, honestly. What more does she want? Does she like studying other countries? Does she like studying diseases? Does she like computer science?</p>
<p>I will tell you that one of the things I liked about international relations was that it brought together history, economics, culture, politics, and law. A lot of different things to consider in why things are the way they are. “Why is it this way and what does it mean?” is a question I constantly ask in my field.</p>
<p>What test was it that she succeeded on? If she scored extremely well on some test, how is it that no one at school knows about this? Your description of the test and her ability doesn’t resonate with me about any test that I’m aware of.</p>
<p>You don’t have to “like” math, but if you’re not good at it, its very limiting in your academic and career choices. The description of her would suggest to me that she’d be good at math. </p>
<p>" Or maybe some Engineering (not any Engineering, but one that might work is Materials Science). "
-The most math required major is Enfineering, much more than anything out there, pre-med, business, anything at all. For engineering math is a bread and butter and substance of everything that engineering is built on. This is coming from the former engineer who went to engineering specifically because of great passion for math and discovered that passion for math is not enough byr far. I never had problem with academics for engineering because of very strong math background, but the filed of engineering was by far not for me, period. My H. an engineer who loves it though. I swithced to CS and very happy with it (no math, unfortunately, but no memory requirement- fortunatly, and by no means boring). CS is the most exciting of them all (for me), you got to play the game who is to win, you or machine and you get paid for it, what could be better, especilly that you are a winner 100% since if you are not, you are out. </p>
<p>Something like Materials Science should be fairly math light by my understanding. Sure, you have to take the 4 or 5 math classes for an engineering degree but that should be mostly it. There’s less math than something like Economics, CS (theory), Statistics, and of 'course Math.</p>
<p>Physician, chemistry major here. I HATE to memorize. I do best with information I can use. ANY field will work for a college major as all jobs require thinking, not memorization of facts. It is easier to have a good foundation of facts to use in problem solving than to have to look things up. She sounds bored with the intellectual level of her HS classes. She will thrive when at a college that is a good fit for her intellectual abilities, no matter which field she chooses. </p>
<p>Instead of concentrating on majors that work with her learning style she needs to find ways to get through the boring learning to be able to manipulate the material. She seems to need reasons to memorize- sometimes the end goal has to be the reason to learn the field’s “vocabulary”. </p>
<p>I also prefer algebraic math to geometric math- I don’t visualize dimensions well as I remember from long ago calculus classes. You may want to have her rank different math type fields from most to least enjoyable (algebra, logic, trig, geometry, statistics, etc) to help her discover which types she least dislikes. That can give clues to future professions. Math majors deal in very few numbers, they get far beyond most of us in abstract thinking!</p>
<p>Does her HS do periodic testing for interests and aptitudes? Find out. I know some college friends and I did some for free our sophomore year- interesting to see the results. This is also done at area technical colleges- perhaps if your HS does not offer this service you could try that area. </p>
<p>All jobs are more complex than just one preference for learning indicates. All fields have their fun parts and not enjoyable ones. Which part is what depends on the individual in any given field. Coworkers will find they may despise what another loves while both enjoy the same work overall.</p>
<p>Short answer. Get that aptitude/interest testing and see what fields a person of her ability is likely to thrive at.</p>
<p>Seems there’s no way to edit the original posting which should have said, “doesn’t do well with rote memory in Math” instead of just “doesn’t do well with rote memory.” My apologies.
Thanks very much for all the comments and ideas. I asked my daughter to read them tonight and she seemed amazed that people cared to reply. I heard her laugh a couple of times and saw a couple light bulbs turn on so I know this is helping generate some things to consider. She didn’t know I posted this so it caught her by surprise.</p>
<p>Glad the dialog is helping. Do you have examples of what she dislikes? I assumed things like multiplication tables. But a lot of people (like me) dislike geometry proofs. </p>