Not sure what to study - ideas?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hello,</p>

<p>I've been through an indecisive journey, but here is the general idea (I'll try to keep it short).</p>

<p>I'm currently a junior at CUNY Queens College, and I've thought about going into several majors, but never made any commitments to them except for mathematics. I knew that I wanted to do something with math, but never knew what, so I decided to go for being a math teacher. Now I've decided completely against that because a) I'm not enjoying it, b) I have neither interest nor motivation left, and c) increasing political garbage like teacher evaluations, if I were to graduate and land a job in the education field. Some may say that I'm just quitting. The reality is that I won't enjoy every aspect of my major, but I'm just not happy with what I'm studying now.</p>

<p>Therefore, this leads me to find a new major or area of study. I've always been interested in infrastructures and how can they support so much. I've also wanted to be able to have the type of skills that I consider useful in life, such as being able to build things (cabinets, doors, fix parts of the house, etc). I suppose you can say that I like the idea and skills of a carpenter, but I'm not 100% sure I want to go to carpentry vocational school. If I did, however, then I am having trouble finding a list of schools that offer this in my area (NYC). The one that I've seen commercials of is called APEX Technical School, but after reading a couple of reviews that people have made (simple Google search and you'll find them), I'm not sure if they are a decent school, or if people are just making biased reviews. </p>

<p>The next field closest to carpentry, or even construction, would be Architecture. I don't want to pursue this major because a) I suck at drawing, and b) it's not truly the designing that I'm after, but really the construction and being able to do everything with my hands that interests me.</p>

<p>I suppose something similar to Architecture would be Interior Design, but I believe (if my understanding of interior design is at least partially true) that my reasoning for Architecture can apply to Interior Design.</p>

<p>Could someone please provide feedback and/or advice?</p>

2

<p>Go find the career services office. They exist to help you work through these questions. They’ll likely sit you down for an interest inventory and/or personality type assessment. That will help them give you good personalized advice in the context of what you can do at Queens.</p>

3

<p>lynxinsider:</p>

<p>Thanks for the reply. I’ve actually been there before, and I’ve taken one of those tests that determine what kind of careers I should look into based on how I answered questions. I scored highest in computation fields, such as engineering, math, physics, programming, etc. However, I’m sort of straying away from math, engineering, and physics mainly due to the fact that I’ve taken those courses already and haven’t done well, leaving me frustrated and unhappy with it. I believe that my interest in those fields goes no further than what they play on the Discovery channel. I don’t think I want to truly probe into these fields.</p>

<p>Also, I just wanted to note that I don’t necessarily have to stay at Queens College, and I might not want to. It might be a hassle to transfer/change schools, but I’d say it’s worth it if I can study something that I actually want to.</p>

<p>Do you have any personal advice? (open question)</p>

4

<p>Sounds like you want to get into Civil Engineering</p>

5

<p>Construction Science e.g., [Construction</a> Management, Undergraduate Programs, SUNY-ESF](<a href=“http://www.esf.edu/scme/undergraduate/cm.htm]Construction”>http://www.esf.edu/scme/undergraduate/cm.htm)
or
[UMass</a> Amherst: Building and Construction Technology Undergraduate Program (B.S.)](<a href=“http://bct.eco.umass.edu/academics/undergraduate-program/]UMass”>Undergraduate Major: B.S. in Building and Construction Technology - Building and Construction Technology - UMass Amherst)
or
[Alternative</a> Home-Building Schools, Classes & Volunteer Opportunities](<a href=“http://www.hollowtop.com/cls_html/home_building_classes.htm]Alternative”>http://www.hollowtop.com/cls_html/home_building_classes.htm)
or
[The</a> American College of the Building Arts](<a href=“http://www.buildingartscollege.us/]The”>http://www.buildingartscollege.us/)
or
[Undergraduate</a> | Roger Williams University](<a href=“http://www.rwu.edu/academics/schools-colleges/saahp/degree-offerings/historic-preservation/undergraduate]Undergraduate”>http://www.rwu.edu/academics/schools-colleges/saahp/degree-offerings/historic-preservation/undergraduate)
or
[Residential</a> structures| Wood Science and Forest Products | Virginia Tech](<a href=“http://sbio.vt.edu/residential-str/]Residential”>http://sbio.vt.edu/residential-str/)
or
[College</a> of the Redwoods](<a href=“http://www.redwoods.edu/Departments/construction/courses.asp]College”>http://www.redwoods.edu/Departments/construction/courses.asp)
or
[Yestermorrow</a> Design Build School offers a variety of courses in sustainable design : Design Build School Vermont](<a href=“http://www.yestermorrow.org/]Yestermorrow”>http://www.yestermorrow.org/)</p>

6

<p>@joker311</p>

<p>I don’t really want to get into engineering, even though I had greatly considered it. Civil engineering would be the definite choice IF I was pursuing an engineering degree. However, I don’t want to because engineers are designers, and I want to do be the one putting the projects together.</p>

<p>@zapfino</p>

<p>Thank you for the long list of schools. The only problem is that I wish to stay in NYC. All of those schools are very far, and the only one that is in NY is SUNY ESF, but it’s all the way up in Syracuse. What a shame :(</p>

<p>I was looking at the NYCDC Technical College:</p>

<p>[NYCDC:</a> Technical College](<a href=“Home - NYCDCC”>Home - NYCDCC)</p>

<p>It’s associated with SUNY, but I’ve never heard of this until now. I do, however, trust it on my first impression because a) it’s associated with SUNY, b) it’s part of a union, and c) they are politically involved. Has anyone ever heard of this school?</p>