I’m going to be a senior in high school and am looking at what to major in. I’ve narrowed it down to something in math or science, but can’t seem to pinpoint exactly what I want right now.
I love science and math. I’ve taken AP Biology and AP Chemistry, going to take AP Physics this year. I liked chemistry better than biology, but I’m holding out hope that I’ll like physics more than either. I like the mathematical aspect of chemistry over the memorizing facts of biology. Is physics more math based?
I’ve also been considering going to medical school to become a doctor. Really the only thing holding me back is the intimidating factor of schooling + residency for the next 8-12 years. I’d also prefer to have some free time and a life outside of my profession. Other careers that interest me in the healthcare field include nursing (eventually CRNA), medical physics, biomedical engineering, etc.
Which brings me to engineering. I don’t know if this would be a good field for me because I’m not so much interested in putting things together and using innovative thinking to design structures, but rather the mathematical side to it.
A third option would be to do something like statistics or biostatistics. I’ve been interested in numbers my whole life and I think becoming something like an actuary would be cool.
And for the money… I’m not choosing a career based on the salary but would still want a relatively high paying job so I can live comfortably later in life with a family.
So here are my questions…
- What major would be best for me?
- Is it worth it to choose nursing (as a male) over the other options I've presented?
- Biostatistician vs actuary, what is the better career choice?
- What engineering fields deal with mathematics more than anything else?
- Any other careers/majors that I should consider?
Physics is definitely more math-based. AP Physics C is basically applied calculus, lol. (FWIW, I love calc and I loved physics.)
- Any and all of them! It really just depends on your preferences. Honestly, engineering doesn't really sound like a great fit - the other majors you cited sound better for you. It's not the major itself; it's the application - if you don't want to put things together and design structures, you won't enjoy the work of an engineer.
- Potentially, yes. A lot of men are choosing nursing as careers now - I have two male friends who are changing careers to nursing. Nursing has a lot of potential these days - it's not just hospital floor nursing. You could get an MSN and give primary care as a nurse practitioner or lead teams as a clinical nurse specialist. You could go into nursing administration, management, and/or consulting. You could do research nursing, or teach as a nursing professor. You could go into community health and nursing education. It's a very flexible field.
In fact, what I think would be a dynamic combination would be a nursing undergrad with an MSN/MPH in biostatistics…there’d be lots of opportunities for that kind of education.
- Neither is necessarily better. It depends on your career goals. Actuaries make more money ($94K on average, vs. $76K). Both are lucrative, in-demand career fields. Actuaries, I think, tend to work longer hours. Also, actuaries have to pass a series of exams to practice, and so actuaries earlier in their career spend many hours studying for those exams - although many employers give them time on the job to study. Also, most statistician positions require a master's degree, whereas I think there are more entry-level positions for actuaries with a bachelor's. I think that's changing a bit, though - it's just that a lot of entry-level jobs in statistics for BS-level people are called something other than 'statistician' (like data analyst, research analyst, or just analyst).
- I'm not sure about the answer to this one - an engineer could answer it better.
- Economics, potentially - the application of math/statistics to economic and social science issues. Some undergrads have a major in epidemiology (University of Rochester is one of them), and that's a related field - the application of math/statistics to tracking diseases. It's a bit less math-y than biostatistics. Another option is applied math - which often has a lot of statistics but also other mathematical fields that can be applied to a wide range of fields. If you like the idea of engineering, but are more interested in the theoretical and not really putting stuff together, computer science may interest you too.
As a note, most undergrads don’t have a biostatistics major - you’d just major in statistics, maybe taking a few biology and/or health classes.
And…because you are a senior in HS, I would suggest not worrying about a formal major. For the majority of colleges you will be applying into a general pool (that doesn’t apply to engineering, obviously), and colleges expect some changes in the first year or two. Get to college, try college level math / physics / whatever- and then choose. I know a student who came in all set to major in chem and minor in math- but loved the math so much that he dropped the chem: “there are just too many exciting math classes to take”! Have interests, explore, but don’t feel that you need to have a ‘final’ answer yet.