Majors & Skill Set

<p>Do any of you want to major in something that you're not naturally skilled at?</p>

<p>I love science; it's easy for me, I think it's super interesting, and there's so much to learn. On the other hand, I suck at math, which is obviously a huge component of upper-level science. Part of it is that I'm a big picture learner through and through, meaning I'll understand the concepts (eventually) and then completely screw up/ignore the small details without meaning to, and part of it is that I've had a strong mental block toward math since 5th grade.</p>

<p>Naturally, I'm a humanities person. I was reading chapter books before I entered Kindergarten, and I wanted to be a writer... until I fell in love with science.</p>

<p>Obviously, it would make more sense for me to go into the field of humanities, but I have no desire to. </p>

<p>I'm assuming I'm not alone here?</p>

<p>YASSS! I’m not really naturally skilled in any subject, but I love science and plan to major in neuroscience or pharmacology & toxicology. I’m not the best at it, but I can’t really see myself doing anything else.</p>

<p>My natural skill sets are writing, language, verbal acuity, and logical reasoning. I consider myself quite solid in mathematics and hard sciences, but it’s a skill that’s been developed and has not come so naturally to me like the aforementioned areas had. TBH, I think I would have been much better in these areas early on if it weren’t for the teachers I’d had. Like you, I’m more of a “big picture” sort of thinker and strongly prefer to understand the abstract concepts behind the material rather than memorizing definitions and steps.</p>

<p>For the most part my problem is laziness and not lack of talent. (I mean, I lack talent in most things, but if I weren’t so goddamn lazy I’d be able to overcome that.)</p>

<p>so basically i’ve always been a humanities person. i’m pretty sure that i’m in gifted because of my reading scores, etc., since i’ve always been behind all the other “gifted” students in our math classes. i can keep up with science classes (usually), but i don’t have to put effort into keeping pace with the material in any humanities class. at the same time, i feel like english classes are just really easy for everybody; being an actual writer is difficult, but english CLASS is always kind of a joke…either way, i want to major in a stem field. i’m okay at biology, and i forced myself to do cancer research as an EC (the most difficult thing i’ve ever done), but it FEELS like work. i’m good at humanities, and i like the humanities better than the maths/sciences, but with the world being as it is, i’m probably gonna have to settle on a bio career. at the same time, i wouldn’t mind caring for other people, and majoring in a field in the health sciences could be more than just hard science. ideally, i would like a career in journalism or in something that involves creative writing, but yeah life’s unfair…
at the same time, though cancer research isn’t always interesting for me, i feel that it’s one of the most worthwhile things a person can do, and i imagine myself being very happy in a bio career, if i could improve people’s lives.</p>

<p>I don’t know. I feel like I’m just bad at everything. </p>

<p>My transcript and possibly SAT scores will make it seem like I’m a humanities student. That said, science and math are really hard at my school, but after taking them, even with bad grades, the AP test yields good results. Except for me in physics – I really flopped there. </p>

<p>I have always loved reading and writing. I learned how to read from a very young age, and started chapter books in kindergarten. But… I haven’t done either of those for at least a year now. Unfortunately. </p>

<p>I have recently come to the conclusion I can’t be a humanities major though. Too much of the stuff I do in history/english is pure BS. Sometimes I can do good BS but other times it is horrible. I can’t do a kind of quality check on myself. Plus, in English we’re going to have a poetry test and I can’t do poetry to save my life. I can’t analyze it. </p>

<p>I keep getting caught up in technicalities, and have a hard time grasping the big idea.</p>

<p>The “math” taught in K-12 + some college shouldn’t be a major deterrent for going into the sciences… As far as “memorizing definitions and steps” that ThatOneWeirdGuy mentioned is the dry results of math that gets standardized / is easy for teachers to teach / boring / … Math, complicated as it is to explain what it is involves finding patterns, using logic, creating problems and solving them, etc, rather than the misplaced stereotype of number crunching. These skills even work much better for engineers and scientists rather than here is a differential equation, and here is the two page process in which we will find the solution or here is an angle of elevation and a building, find the height (memorized problem)~we have Wolframalpha and computer programs to do this for us!</p>

<p>My main problem is time management. I suck at it, so I can only do a few things when I’m interested in honing my skills in many things. Anyways, back to your original question-yes, I do want to major in physics and take quantum physics classes, but I’m more of a biochem guy. I’d also love to do something in higher level maths, but I"m not good enough at it, and it’s kind of already too late to start. By “math” I mean higher level mathematics, not the crap they make you do in HS. I’m the top in my class in HS math classes.</p>