Need Help Regarding Major Selection -- Long Post Alert

College Majors
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(Long post alert. It’s so long that I have to separate this into two posts. TL;DR, I want to create something and I don’t want to be in a soul-wrenching career. High school was enough. I know I have time to decide; I just want to narrow down some options. This should, hopefully, be coherent enough to be readable.)

Hello, everyone.

I’ve been able to manage my school search and applications pretty well on my own, but I think it’s about time that I ask for some help. On the table today is the dreaded question that every college student has to answer at one point or another: “What are you going to major in?” At the end of the day, I’m stuck between passion and practicality, but even then, I’ve got a thousand different paths. Point is, I’m trying to at least narrow down my options so I’m not that guy who changes his major every week. Everyone I talk to – parents, neighbors, friends – give me the same run around. Either “You’ll figure it out” or “Follow your passion.” When I ask for their advice, I want something to chew on, not the same garbage I’ve been fed from day one.

I had a rather lengthy discussion of individual majors that I was going to post, but I decided that that didn’t really capture what I’m really looking for in one. I do still have the post saved, though, so if anyone wants to email with me – I would genuinely appreciate the help. Anyway, I’ll start in what I figured to be the logical place when I first started my major/career considerations and work off of that.

For the longest time, I had thought I was going to go to med school and be a doctor. If I had to, I’d probably go forensics, neurology, or gastroenterology. After anatomy, though, I decided that such things just weren’t for me. I was more partial to the anatomy (Namely, slicing stuff up) than I was to the physiology, so I think that it’s best that I avoid med school. As of right now, I’m sitting at becoming a professor (Either community college or real university would be fine – I’m not too concerned about tenure). I like teaching, I’d appreciate the scholarly environment, and I really fancy being able to call myself “Doctor.” I did briefly consider going into the fashion industry, as well, even if it is a bit of an uncommon choice for a man. I’m notorious for being a rather well-dressed fellow and coupled with my interest in clothing, it seemed like a good choice. I’m not the handiest person when it comes to operating machinery, so working with sewing machines might not be a great fit

I’ve had a problem which I’ve started to take notice off in the recent months – I feel no connection to my work. All it is is meaningless facts and figures regurgitated onto a page to appease some faceless government bureaucrat who decides that since I’m doing so well, my school needs more funding. The projects I’ve managed to stick with most in school are those that I’ve been able to inject some of my personality into; there’s actually a level of personal investment there.

I’m an artist and a storyteller without a medium, I suppose, in some strange manner of speaking. I can express myself pretty well when I write school papers, but I hate having to cite other sources. (I don’t mind researching, per se, but I do a bit better by osmosis than by writing everything down. This also adds in to my reservations about becoming a professor – not only would I have to read research, I’d also have to produce it!) That led me to turn to creative writing. My rhyme is okay, though I still feel discouraged, while my prose is passable, if sparse. (An artist is his worst critic, though.) That led me to think that filmmaking might be a better choice, but as I looked into it, I kind of got overwhelmed by the whole process of making a film and, based on my experience with group projects in the past, I don’t think I’d be very comfortable risking my grades by relying on my group in college. It’s a place full of distractions and I don’t have much luck finding good groups in large classes where I know few people, seeing that I tend to be on the reserved side. I do have a background in theatre – I worked on several school and independent musicals, since I was, unfortunately, cast to the side for lack of singing ability. For the brief spot that I did do some acting, I enjoyed becoming the character. I’m told I do accents well. Regardless, I’m not content to just consume. I want to create. My big fear with taking the theatre or film route, though, is that I’m going to be stuck making commercials for some fortune 500 company.

I’ve got a knack for pointing out problems, so that’s something. One of my college essays had me discuss a problem in our world. As I was looking over it again, though, I noticed that my evaluation did not take a clear side on the issue: I presented the issue from both perspectives and threw in the insinuation that I neither took one particular position nor did I say that one side was correct. I left the admissions committee to make that call. If I had to generalize my style, I’d probably say “food for thought.”

Will I need to pick a major to go that way? Perhaps not – we have off-hours for a reason. The main logic that I’ve been following for some time is to get a high-paying job with nice stock options so I can afford to do what I wanted. Of course, that job would probably be something I hated and I’d wind up back at square one – no connection with my work. And there lies the problem. I’m no daydreamer – I know that my chances of making it in the literature/film world are pretty slim and that’s not a risk I’m willing to take, unless I’m absolutely certain. Thus, we’ve come full circle. Either pick a career for your major or pick a major for your career. Seeing that I don’t really have an idea of what I want to major in, the first method isn’t going to work, so I’ll have to pick a career and work off of that. As I mentioned, professor is my end-all goal, but there are a thousand ways to get there and I want to do something else before I settle down and start teaching. Let me point out one thing, first: I do not want to major in something that I consider to be a hobby (namely, writing, as I hinted at above), for fear of making it into a chore. By the same token, I would consider film, though I am put off by the more technical aspects of the filmmaking process.

Anyway, let’s get some information out there: 4.0 unweighted GPA, 4.5 (on 5 point scale) weighted GPA, top 5% of a bit more than 600 students. A’s all across the board in high school. (Admittedly, I might break the trend with statistics this year, but oh well.) I particularly enjoyed my English and social science classes (Psychology, sociology, history, government). Couldn’t stand biology, chemistry was all right, anatomy was interesting, but I wouldn’t want to be tested over it. Math is a bit of a love-hate relationship. I can do it; I’m just not too fond of it.
Doing the due diligence, I figured I might be able to find a magic personality test on the Internet, but much to my expectations, I did not. Since I’m a rather frugal person, I just stuck with what was free on the Internet. My Holland Code is ACE and the MBTI scores me as an INTJ (Although I’m borderline S/N). Take it for what it is – it’ll be a guideline, if nothing else. I realize those aren’t the most accurate things.

Here’s what I’ve got so far:

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• Prefer to avoid math as much as possible: I realize I can’t get away from it entirely, but I’d want to limit my exposure.

• That said, I would gladly go into engineering, if there wasn’t so much math involved. I like MacGyvering things.

• Not that interested in hard science or technology. I can operate computers reasonably well and can troubleshoot when something goes wrong, but I’m not too interested in how they work or coding.

• All of the specific “major” aptitude tests I took pointed me towards social science or an applied offshoot, which I could see working. I’m concerned about the employability, depending when I go to grad school, and if I could manage to keep my interest long enough. I’d be looking at psychology, political science, public health (or similar) or anthropology/linguistics. Once again, I’m not entirely sure those would hold my interest, though.

• Consulting: I’ve got a knack for pointing our problems or the potential for problems. Sometimes, I might even find a solution. (But again, how to get there?)

• Foreign Service: Not my best idea. I had a bad experience with foreign language classes, but I still like the idea of being the American abroad.

• Military: Not my best idea, either. I’d enjoy the strategy of it all, though I’m no fan of large, intrusive authorities.

• Politics: The old stand-by. Those who aren’t fit to work are fit to lead. I’ve got morals, all the same, so this could be a little difficult. I did see an advertisement in a piece of college mail I got for an internship in Romania or some eastern European country where you could work for their government to help them build it up. I’d be all right with building a government from scratch, but our current government is a bit too shady for my taste.

• Lawyer: I know I’d make a great lawyer and I’m a bit scared of that.

• Finance: Did consider this as a major at one point. Not sure where I’d take it, though, since there aren’t a lot of choices outside of banking and I wouldn’t want to teach it.

• Business: Hearing my brother’s tales of business school has made this seem like an increasingly bad option.

• Salary: A worthwhile consideration, but I’m not dead set on having to make six figures (though it would be nice.)

• Independence: As you might have noted above, I appreciate having creative license. Long story short, I don’t want to have do everything by the book.

Before I turn you all lose, let me say this: I realize I have time to decide, but it’s never too early to start thinking about the future. I’m always the guy who has a plan and now that I don’t, I’m getting a little worried. The more I read about different careers, the less appealing they seem. And here I am, already worrying about possibly having to go to grad school when I haven’t even graduated high school yet. Ah, the curse of preparation.

Thank you all in advance for your help. At the end of the day, I know that I’ve still got some and taking some classes might help me swing my choice in one way or another. All the same, let me know if there’s anything more information you need or if you have some other questions. If you’re especially daring or if you want to work one-on-one with me, I’d be willing to swap emails.

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No, actually, there are not a thousand ways to get to be a professor. There is pretty much one route to become a tenure-track professor: You have to get a PhD in something, and then you have to apply to tenure-track faculty positions. (There are some full-time non-tenure-track instructor/lecturer positions, but they’re less numerous, and you still need a PhD first). That doesn’t mean that you can’t take time off before getting the PhD. But the trouble with academia is that once you start the PhD program, taking a detour makes it very difficult or impossible to get back in.

It sounds like you are a senior in high school; if that’s the case, then I think you are needlessly agonizing. Number one, you don’t have to select a major right away - you’ve got plenty of time. But number two, your major doesn’t limit your choices in career the way you seem to think it does. All of the careers you’ve listed (consulting, foreign service, military, politics, lawyer, finance, and business) can be done by someone with a social science degree. I majored in psychology and I have a six-figure job that is traditionally filled by psychology majors (albeit with graduate degrees).

The best thing to do is to narrow down to a broad field and then take some classes. It seems like you have already narrowed down to the social sciences, based upon your interests and the career inventory you took. So when you hit college, your next step is going to be to take some classes in college and see what you like and don’t like. Then, at some point, you have to pick something. Nothing will be perfect - there are some things about psychology I don’t like - but you’ll find something that has a good balance of the things you like and the things you don’t.

Additional notes: You can live abroad without being in the foreign service. Not all military jobs involve strategy (they hire accountants and therapists and even band members). You can work in government without being in politics. There are different types of lawyers - corporate law is very different from criminal law, and most attorney spend most of their time reading documents and trying to stay out of court. “Business” is a very broad term with lots of different parts to it and you don’t necessarily have to go to business school.

Also, working in technology doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to learn how to code or know much about hardware. I work at a household name technology company and I don’t do either - I work as a user experience researcher. (Run an Internet search on it!) Again, tech companies need accountants and managers and marketers and an entire infrastructure to make them work aside from engineers.

Most people’s careers are NOT that personally fulfilling. People may enjoy their job, they may like their coworkers, they may even look forward to work. But most people aren’t super passionate about what they do and nobody loves every aspect of their job. That’s why they call it work. You don’t have to find the perfect career; you just need to find something that makes you reasonable content and that allows you to live the lifestyle you want to live.

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Looking back, I probably should been a bit more specific…

Regarding the thousand different paths, I imagine “majors” might have been a better word. As opposed to going med school, where you’d want to study biology or chemistry, grad school’s got a degree for practically everything.

Frankly, that’s a little comforting to hear from someone who has no idea who I am. I’m pretty much on the same page; as you may have noticed, I have a tendency to overthink things.

Anyway, thanks for the input.

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Ohh, I see what you mean.

In that case, you’re right - there are professors in every field. However, given that you have to spend 5-7 years getting a PhD in it, then potentially 2-4 years as a postdoc doing research in it, and then the rest of your career doing research and teaching it…whatever you get a PhD in should be something you really, really love.

But I don’t mean that to induce more anxiety in you. I have a PhD in psychology, and I figured out that I loved it in college - in my second year, actually. So you’ve gone time!

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That’s where I stand. I’m afraid of running out of steam halfway through a doctorate, but then again, I’m not even at the point where I have to commit to a field yet. So yes – I am probably worrying over nothing right now. Thanks, again!

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After reading your posts I can see why they said that. YOU have the attributes to figure it out.

Of the ten possible career paths for the INTJ given at the bottom of the page at https://www.personalitypage.com/html/INTJ_car.html, professor is the most appropriate.

You are obviously artistic, but I think your intellect is too good to be wasted by your JUST being a traditional artist. Your artisticness can be useful in expressing important things you have come to realize, though - a vehicle of important contributions.

I think having a planned-out future doesn’t suit you nearly as much as it does the average person.

Have you taken a course in philosophy and, if so, what did you think of that?

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We’re in agreement there and that’s precisely what I want to do. I never understood art for art’s sake.

Which is what you and Juillet above are helping me find out.

Funny you say that, actually. Philosophy is the one class that I’m really looking forward to trying out when I get to college, but they don’t offer it or anything remotely similar at my school. As far as a philosophy major is concerned, which is where I think you plan on taking this, that had been my plan for a while. When I started my career/college search, I found that philosophy wasn’t a very good path for my career goals at the time. Since I’m on the professor track, I can see philosophy working better and since Juillet informed me that professors don’t often take time off between grad school and professorship, I probably needn’t be too worried about the marketability of a philosophy degree too much.

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I do want to caution you (and others) about putting too much stock in MBTI types. MBTI personality types are created by preferences; they’re not essentialist personality types or some kind of innate state of being. There are only 16 personality types but obviously there are billions of people and many thousands (millions?) of jobs that those people can do. I’m an ENTJ, and university professor is on my profile too as a suggested career. First, that website says this:

  • The following list of professions is built on our impressions of careers which would be especially suitable for an ENTJ. It is meant to be a starting place, rather than an exhaustive list. There are no guarantees that any or all of the careers listed here would be appropriate for you, or that your best career match is among those listed. *

I spent several years in academia and I think I can say pretty confidently that the career of university professor is not for me. I also would be a terrible entrepreneur.

My Holland Codes are always all messed up - I score about equally on Social and Enterprising as the first letter, and then about equally on Investigative and Conventional as the second. I’m probably an ESI with a strong C influence, though.

One additional note, though, re: philosophy professors: Philosophy is one of THE most messed-up academic fields right now. Most people who begin a PhD in philosophy will never become full-time, tenure-track professors of philosophy. You may want to do some Internet searching and reading to find out why.

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Isn’t that true for all fields? A faculty member at a research university supervises a dozen or few graduate students to PhD completion, meaning that s/he produces far more PhDs than will be needed to replace him/her when s/he retires. So most will not become tenure track faculty at research universities. Yes, there are some who become faculty at LACs and other colleges and universities. But probably most will have to find employment elsewhere.

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  1. Yes! Yes it is! BUT I have found that most undergraduates don’t actually realize this. They’ve never thought about it! They just assume that if you get a PhD, and you want a tenure-track job, you can get one.

The math isn’t necessarily the problem; the vast majority of professors are not producing doctoral students or future faculty, so there is a very small percentage that is preparing future faculty not just to replace themselves but for the entire field. For example, there may be 100-150 doctoral programs in your field with an average of 15-20 faculty training doctoral students, but there might be 3,000 or more colleges in the country that need professors in that field to staff their departments.

The problem is really that tenure-track jobs are largely going away in favor of adjunct positions. So when professors are retiring, particularly at the smaller colleges with less financial support, instead of replacing them with a new tenure-track professor administrators are instead breaking their job up into the work of several adjuncts, who get paid on average $3,500 a class with no benefits (and no office, and no control over the curriculum).

  1. There are large differences per field, and whether or not the competition is fierce for those tenure-track jobs relies a lot on the field itself.

For example, in engineering or economics, a lot of your classmates don’t necessarily want tenure-track jobs. Many of them want to start their own business, or go work at one of the many non-academic private and public labs and research groups out there, or work for a non-academic corporate tech firm or investment bank or hedge fund. The fields just attract more people with more diverse post-grad school interests. (And many people change their minds along the way.) There are also a variety of options for those who want to stay in academia: an engineering PhD could potentially teach in an engineering school/department but also potentially in a physics or math department, depending; an economics PhD could potentially teach at a business school, or a school of international affairs, or a school of public policy, etc.

So fewer people who actually want TT jobs + more opportunities both within and without academia = better job prospects and outcomes for people with PhDs in those fields. In some fields - like nursing and accounting - there are actually shortages of faculty members. Meaning that people who really want to teach in that field probably will.

A field like philosophy attracts far fewer people who want to do something non-academic with the PhD, largely because there are few directly relevant non-academic options for philosophers. So you can be surer that the majority of your cohort will become your competition in a few years when applying for jobs. But in the likely event that you don’t get a TT job, there are fewer obvious places for you go to go with that preparation and be rewarded for it. I mean, you’ll get a job - the unemployment rate among PhDs is very low - but it may be doing a job that you could’ve done with a BA, with equivalent pay.