Picking a major with Holland Code

Parent Cafe
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<p>I’m an incoming college junior who’s still trying to pick a major. I already have one major in mind (accounting) but would like to consider other majors in various fields to give me more options/variety. Since speaking to parents on CC has proven helpful in a past thread, I decided to post here to see if I can spark some discussion about my situation. </p>

<p>To add to my “list,” my college counselor suggested that I try the Holland Code Personality quiz to match my personality with a major that would complement each other. According to the quiz - by a land slide in terms of points allotted to each personality type - I have a conventional personality type. My two second highest scores were in enterprising and realistic, which have descriptions that don’t describe who I am as well as the conventional description does. If you look at this link, <a href="http://www20.csueastbay.edu/academic/academic-support/aace/major-exploration/conventional.html"&gt;http://www20.csueastbay.edu/academic/academic-support/aace/major-exploration/conventional.html&lt;/a>, it describes the personality type that I have to the tee!</p>

<p>To my dismay, the list of majors I’ve looked over for conventional personality type are all business-related (already related to the major I have in mind—accounting!). I’m looking for academic majors that fit the criteria of not being the technical/vocational type - mainly because I plan to pursue medicine, and vocational majors are supposedly frowned upon. Can someone help by mentioning majors that might match my personality?</p>

<p>BTW, for those who have used similar methods (personality comparison) of picking/narrowing down to a major, how did it go? Please feel free to share your experience! </p>

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Wow. I’ve never heard that. Do your friends have any data on that? I always thought it was grades, MCAT, pre-med requirements.</p>

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<p>I picked my major based on which courses I had enjoyed freshman year. I took a big variety.</p>

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<p>Not that I’m aware :slight_smile: My advisor mentioned this the last time I met him (he works closely with one of our local med schools). The general consensus on the pre-med forum is also to stay away from vocational programs (long-time posters with credibility swear by it, I might add - hopefully they’ll be chiming in shortly lol).</p>

<p>@mathmom I was hoping that taking a wide variety of courses would help me but as a rising junior doing just that in my frosh & soph years, I’m still not confident on a major choice. </p>

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<p>Maybe public policy? Political science?</p>

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<p>How about Statistics? It’s a dynamite major for medical school – some of my friends on medical faculties are lobbying to replace calculus with statistics as an application prerequisite, although of course if you are a statistics major you will be spending plenty of time with calculus. And stats has a lot of the systematic, rational, rule-based qualities that accounting has, and that may appeal to you and your supposed conventionality.</p>

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<p>Son majored in calc-based Economics, meaning calc through Def Eq, he is now a 4th year med school student who is also getting his MD/MBA in a joint degree program.</p>

<p>Kat</p>

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<p>^^^^And yes the vocational majors are not the best for applying to med school. It is said that the adcomms would prefer there not be a fallback major. Not that I agree but I am not an adcomm.</p>

<p>Kat</p>

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<p>You are placing far too much weight on this test.</p>

<p>You should choose a major based on a subject that you are interested in, not because a psychographics test (whose methodology and predictive value is widely debated among both statisticians and psychologists) tells you what you SHOULD be interested in.</p>

<p>Anthropology, Urban Planning, International Relations, Food Policy, Comparative Literature, Ethnomusicology… the world is filled with fascinating things to study. As long as you fulfill the Med school requirements, you can major in philosophy, Classics, art history-- anything. You don’t need to be a certain personality type to love literature. You don’t need to have a test tell you what you love- what do you love?</p>

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<p>A third recommendation for a math-y major.</p>

<p>I have have two kids in med school (MS1 and MS4) who were applied math majors in college. (Though to be completely transparent, each also had a second science major to go with the math–though neither one had the stereotypical bio/chem/biochem as their other major.)</p>

<p>Applied math offers plenty of both health-related and non health-related career pathways should med school not happen. </p>

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<p>Why are you considering majoring in accounting? Is that what you really want to do, or is somebody else pushing you to do that?</p>

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<p>Have you taken the courses you need to apply to med school?
Those are a sequence and often start freshman year.
Im not saying that you need a particular * major* for med school, but you will need bio, chem, etc.</p>

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<p>Why do you want to be an MD?</p>

<p>I don’t find these tests useful. My advice is to pick something you feel will provide a good foundation for at least some of your future interests and go with it. I wasted a lot of time worrying about choosing a major. There is no right answer…just work hard and excel in whatever you choose.</p>

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<p>@blossom‌

Part of separating my personal interests and finding a job is the breaking point for the major I hope to pick. To some extent, it has to be a major that employers like to see fresh out of college (and can earn a modest income) regardless of my interests. But to answer your question, I enjoy animals and also working with children. The other side of me, is someone who finds office work appealing. I am known for keeping records and weighing things thoroughly before making decisions.</p>

<p>@Hunt

I took a course in it last year and found it enjoyable. The Holland test sort of reaffirmed that it’s the major to go with but I’ve been off the chart with going through with it. </p>

<p>My mother is somewhat pushing me to pursue it but only because it’s the only think I’ve mentioned so far. She wants me out of the university as soon as possible to start working. My parents are not in the best financial situation right now and I feel obligated to graduate with a degree that will bring in some extra money for the family as soon as possible. </p>

<p>@emeraldkity4

I’ve taken 5 courses for medical school and I am fully aware of the requirements. From the advice I received on the pre-med forum, I’ve decided that it would be in my best interest to postpone these requirements until after I finish my degree.</p>

<p>@noimagination

There are a couple reasons but I don’t feel comfortable sharing on this board (they are a bit personal). I’d be happy to share by PM if your reason for asking is pertinent to this thread. Please PM me if you’re interested.</p>

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<p>Thank you to all. Of the majors mentioned, I see a couple I’d be interested in. And a few that don’t appeal to me. But before I take them off the list, I’d like to learn more about how these majors do after graduation - without a graduate degree. These are the majors mentioned above that my university also offers:</p>

<p>Statistics
Economics
Political science
Philosophy
Applied math
Anthropology</p>

<p>I’m hoping to get an idea for what each major’s desirability (by employers) is. I don’t plan on graduate school immediately after graduation so I’m hoping to pick a degree that might have qualities an employer is looking for in a student fresh out of college. Any thoughts? Can parents or current students/graduates who have majored in these subjects also tell me what strengths and weaknesses might be better suited for the major they’re experienced with?</p>

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<p>I work as an adviser for undeclared students and I’m confused as to why you are not following a pre-med track if you want to go to Med School? All of our pre-professional students will pick a major in bio, chem or neuroscience to ensure they have the pre-reqs to be able to apply to med school, PT, OT, whatever it is. </p>

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<p>

All of your pre-professional health students major in a science? That’s interesting, are you at a small technical/science university with limited degree offerings?</p>

<p>To give some background to your question, I’m a CC transfer. I attended community college for two years and completed most of my general education requirements. </p>

<p>As a transfer student at the 4 yr university, I originally intended to major in biology. However, my schedules in the next four semesters would have been filled with mostly science and math classes. Several senior students at the 4 yr and two of the advisors I’ve since consulted were in agreement that my plan to take the heavy science and math loads could damage my GPA. As you’re aware, maximizing one’s GPA is important for applying to a pre-prof program. I took biology off my list to prevent a burnout or the start of a downward trend in my grades (I have a 3.8 overall and 4.0 science GPA), which would look bad to pre-prof programs. I also had no problem giving biology up because of the lack of decent-pay employment opportunities after graduation. </p>

<p>Adding to the above, biology was the only major that would have allowed me to graduate in two years with med school prerequisites done. All other majors would have required me to shell out an extra year to have all med school prerequisites done, which I can’t afford financially (my full tuition scholarship is only renewable for one year). The alternate plan that was suggested in another thread I started was to graduate with a degree in two years and work full time while taking the med school prerequisites as a part time (non-degree seeking) student. </p>

<p>Now I’m looking for a major that’s readily accepted by employers to make sure my plan goes smoothly without anymore delays. </p>

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<p>Actually, yes they do. It’s the best way to be prepared for MCATs and for the rigor of Med School. If you can’t handle a bio major with a good GPA, then med school may not be the right path for you. We have an joint BS/MD agreement with 3 medical schools. </p>

<p>It’s not a REQUIREMENT that one majors in a science field to be in the program or go on to Medi School but it’s the most direct route and has a very high success rate. </p>

<p>I worked with an Engineer who graduated and worked in the field for 2 years and decided he wanted to go to Med School and he came back and fulfilled the requirements for the bio degree and went on to be accepted to a program. He said he never could have done it with out all the Bio and Chem classes. </p>

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<p>@dolphnlvr6‌</p>

<p>

Very interesting, but I have a difficult time buying it - unless science degrees are the only majors available at your college. What school is this? Please PM me if you have a problem with posting on this board. </p>

<p>

Solely majoring in a science does not prepare one to be prepared for the MCAT or for the rigors of med school. My med school friends can attest to this. They do not attribute majoring in biology to their success on the MCAT or in med school. Med students I’ve met who majored in the humanities and social sciences are doing fine in med school. </p>

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Either you advise students at an easy school or your students are very bright. Many bio majors at my school spread their science courses over four years to balance their course load - not take them all at once over two years.
As I’ve also already said, even the pre-med advisors at my school wouldn’t recommend my senior schedule (posted in a thread I started in the pre-med forum) to even the top science students at my school. </p>

<p>On top of two heavy science years, I’d need to balance a job, a son, and extracurricular activities. </p>

<p>Just because I’m trying to protect my GPA, I should forget about med school? Where’s your logic in that? You’re very narrow minded to make such claim.</p>

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<p>I’m aware that a science major is not required. What do you mean by direct route? There are multiple routes to medical school… one doesn’t necessarily need to follow one [or the direct] route. Again, medical students I’ve spoken to who majored in non sciences do fine in med school. Majoring in a non science also doesn’t mean that one will have a low success rate.</p>

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<p>Engineer… that’s the outlier in your anecdotal example. Not everyone has the aptitude to major in engineering and be an engineer. After going through undergrad as an engineering major, I’m sure the science loads in the bio major were nothing compared to his undergrad engineering courses. </p>

<p>Keep in mind that many pre-meds specifically do not pursue engineering because of the widely known fact that it can easily hurt their GPA. I don’t blame them.</p>

<p>Moreover, my situation is different from your engineer friend. As a non-trad applicant, he likely didn’t have worry about balancing extracurricular activities to the extent that I would have need to as a traditional bio major applicant, continue a job to support a son throughout the two years, and care for a child as a single parent. </p>