<p>Now I know I'm bound to get a little bit of bias in my replies, seeing as I posted this in the science thread (Humanities thread only had four posts, so I figured I'd have more luck here), but I'm in desperate need of advice.</p>
<p>I've always been a pretty well-rounded student...I'm good at most subjects, but don't really excel at a genius level at anything (I would consider myself a slightly stronger student in English than Math/Science, but let's face it...BC Calculus is always going to be harder than a high school lit class). After a long process of narrowing down what I think I want to do, I've hit a fork in the road. I like Physics. I like it because it's a science that for the most part isn't bogged down by facts and information...it's just there to be understood, and everything else revolves around it. I like the idea of getting to study something where new discoveries are constantly taking place, and being a part of that would be exciting, and I feel like that would give me a greater sense of accomplishment and purpose than most other things would.</p>
<p>At the same time, studying language and how it works would mean getting to experience more of humanity and human emotion. I feel like pursuing a career Physics would make me feel productive and useful to the rest of society, but getting to do something in the Linguistics field would make me happier in the sense that I'd enjoy what I was doing more. For Physics, I'm considering doing a double major in Physics and Astronomy/Astrophysics (or maybe just an astronomy minor), with the ultimate goal of becoming a professor/researcher (completely aware that this may not happen, but dreaming big never hurts). For Linguistics, I'd really like to be able to research and document ancient/dying languages...that's always fascinated me, but I know that's a pretty narrow specialization, so settling for something similar wouldn't be all that heartbreaking.</p>
<p>All I really want to know is how other people have handled this situation. Has anyone else started out as a STEM major, then completely regretted their decision because they felt it just wasn't something they loved doing? Or are there any arts/humanities majors out there who wish they would've done something in a math or science field because they weren't being challenged enough intellectually?</p>
<p>Thanks for reading...any advice would be greatly appreciated :)</p>
<p>To answer your last question first, in my 31 years as a physics professor I have seen students who started in physics and realized that it really wasn’t for them and vice versa too. You can find plenty of posts on this forum that discuss the same thing.</p>
<p>You say that you want to pursue a physics degree to be a university professor but on the other hand you would rather study linguistics. It seems to me that you risk some mid-college remorse if you don’t follow the path that you are most excited about. Unfortunately, the two fields are quite a bit apart and it will be difficult to hedge your bets but that’s OK if really love what you are studying.</p>
<p>You do not have to decide immediately – you can start off taking the prerequisite courses for both majors to see how they interest you, and how well you do in them. Then you can decide whether to major in one or both of them.</p>
<p>I’d recommend holding off on declaring a major. Take the introductory physics sequence, and take some linguistics classes as well. If you decide to go with linguistics, the physics courses will count as some kind of quantitative reasoning requirement, and if you go with physics, the linguistics will count as some kind of GenEd requirement. </p>
<p>A lot of people find that physics isn’t for them after studying it for a while. It gets hard once you get into university physics, and it only gets harder as you move on. It can be a very challenging, and rewarding field to study. </p>
<p>I was at a similar crossroad when I first started college. I was torn between physics and anthropology. I ultimately decided on physics because anthropology just doesn’t have as much potential to be a lucrative career. I’ve taken a couple of anthropology classes to fulfill social science requirements, and it will always be a hobby of mine, but the options toward physics simply seemed more appealing all around. </p>
<p>Thanks for the responses…this is all really helpful. Looking at what each track requires at two of the colleges I’m seriously considering, there’s some wiggle room in the beginning if I wanted to take pre-req classes in both for the first semester (as a couple of you said, it wouldn’t be that much of a waste seeing as the classes I’ll take in the major I don’t end up choosing will count towards GE credits I’ll need at some point anyway). I think once I’m there it’ll be easier for me to decide what will be best for me, so until then I’m thinking of entering as an undecided - which really, really scares me because I don’t like the idea of wasting time or money, but in all seriousness I don’t think it’ll affect when I graduate.</p>
<p>My degrees are in linguistics, and my spouse’s undergrad degree is in physics. so…</p>
<p>First of all, you can’t do much of anything within either field with a bachelor’s degree—if you want to do physics- or linguistics-related stuff for the rest of your life, you need at least a master’s. (Whether a PhD is worth it is an open question—the market for academic, PhD-requiring jobs in both fields has traditionally been fairly strong, but they’ve both been hit pretty hard by the recent downturn.) My spouse did find work as a technical writer with her physics undergrad degree, but it was a pretty soul-sucking job, and it’s what led to her getting further degrees in a related but different field.</p>
<p>Linguistics is most marketable when combined with a minor or second major in computer science. For physics, I know people who did quite well with that and a minor or second major in computer science. Anecdotal evidence and small sample size and all, but there may be a trend worth mentioning here.</p>
<p>Well, it is true that almost any major can be usefully supplemented by computer science, since much research and study in many fields is aided by applying computing to it, and knowing computer science adds more potential job possibilities that may or may not be related to the first major.</p>
<p>Yes I’ve considered that…I talked with someone who was the department chair at one university, and she said one of the major fields a lot of her students go into is computational linguistics (I think that’s what it’s called…where you program voice-activated computers, phones, etc.). That’s not exactly what I’d like to do with a degree in Linguistics, but I’m thinking it might be a good thing to minor/double major in. Even though I’d like to go to grad school and go into a more academic/research-based field, having the security of a CS minor as a sort of back up would be nice</p>