Potential Career Path

College Majors
1

Hi guys,

I just finished my first year of college as a Biology Major at UCI. Overall, the introductory classes were not too difficult for me. I currently have a 3.8 GPA with a near Junior standing. I have accumulated a lot of credits that can allow me to have priority in enrolling courses. I am not here to talk about how smart I am because I am not. I really do want to figure out what I want to do in the future. I have been thinking about my future for a long time now, ever since the start of Spring quarter; I’ve been thinking about it for several months now.

Ever since I was little, I have always enjoyed math and science more than other subjects. I do not like art, history, English, and other subjects relating to social sciences. Therefore, I know I am not passionate about working in an environment relating those subjects and would rather stay in the STEM field.

Why did I choose the Bio major? I’m not completely sure. I majored in Bio because I thought that it wouldn’t be a bad option because it is very flexible in terms of being in different healthcare fields. However, I realized that I am truly not passionate about assisting other people, or have the ambition to become a doctor. I’ve volunteered in a hospital and accumulated hundreds of hours in a hospital. I did somewhat enjoy that experience-- It felt good when patients appreciated me for what I did and how I was able to assist the nurses. However, I am not too fond of the patient interactions. It was somewhat awkward in a sense I couldn’t express my true character as if I was trying to act genuine. I truly believe that I am a genuine person, but I’m not a big fan of acting nice to patients every single day, even though many people do because it is part of their jobs.
I’ve spoken with numerous alumni and upperclassmen about this and I have gained more knowledge about what “helping other people” means. I like and want to help others, but I realized that it doesn’t necessarily mean that I have to become a doctor to do so. For that reason, I believe that I can help others in another approach.

The Bio and Chem courses I’ve taken did not intrigue me. I did not experience a moment where I was happy to wake up in the morning to attend the lectures just to learn new materials. I am not sure if it is because they were more of a review from AP biology and chemistry that I took in high school, or it is because I don’t enjoy learning about them. Furthermore, I was accepted into an Ophthalmology research that is affiliated with the UCI Med school. Throughout these several months, I have learned several research techniques like immunohistochemistry (IHC) and Western blotting. I like new things, but I think research is not something that I truly enjoy. I cannot see myself working with cell/tissues every single day. It’s just not interesting enough to me. I do not believe that I can work as a researcher in the future.

I don’t even know what to do at this point. I did enjoy some courses in my first year, such as Calculus II. I took AP Calculus in my senior year of high school and scored a 3 on my AP exam. For that reason, I had to retake Calc I going into my first year. I thought I wasn’t good at math because I got A- in all of my math classes in high school. Moreover, I did not care about my classes during my senior year of HS. But at UCI, I enjoyed attending to Calc classes. Integrals and series were not difficult; they were somewhat fun I am not sure why. I ended up getting A+ for both Calc courses at UCI. Maybe I’m not that bad at math overall? I do enjoy doing math a little more than biology that’s for sure. I would rather do hundreds of practice problems rather than memorizing a bunch of facts from Bio textbooks.

I am thinking of switching majors. I thought of applying for nurses school at UCI because I heard nurse anesthetists make a lot of money. With my current GPA, I’m confident that I’m qualified for the competitive nursing program at UCI. But then I’m thinking, “I’m not even passionate about helping patients, why am I even going into nursing?” I am also thinking about switching into engineering or comp sci because they are the most lucrative majors in college. I am a strong believer of majoring in something rewarding, which is something in the STEM field. But what is holding me back is that I’ve put in so much effort into my first year, being accepted in a research opportunity and achieved an above-average GPA. I am afraid to let go of all the efforts I have put in.

As you guys can see, I really do care about my career and wants stability in the future. I really want to make a lot of money and hope to have the ability to support my family. My parents sacrificed so much for me and I really do love them a lot. My dad has been working 7 days a week, from 9 am to 7 pm every single day. The least I can do is make enough to support them when they’re older; I want my dad to retire without having to worry about financial problems. I know that they are already proud of what I’ve done, but I just want to do a little more for myself and for them.

I hope you guys can leave some comments and not something meaningless that can guide me into the right career path. Thank you.

2

Well, if you have realized that you don’t like assisting other people in direct clinical care, then being a nurse is worse than being a doctor. They do MORE direct patient care than physicians do.

Money is important, and some people know that they need to make “a lot” of money in their careers to be happy. However, wildly cycling through careers on the basis of salary isn’t really a great way to pick one. There are LOTS of different ways to make a lot of money. The reality is that most people will make a small to average amount of money early in their career and then slowly ramp upwards over time. So don’t expect to make a lot right away - expect that you will grow your salary over successive positions in your career.

The other thing is that many students assume that “STEM” careers, lumped together, mean high salaries and secure job prospects. They don’t. Really, the concept of “STEM” needs to die in my opinion. Majoring in biology or agriculture is really different from major in engineering or computer science, and there are wildly different careers and salaries in those fields. On average, recent grads with chemistry and biology majors make about the same salary as recent grads with psychology or sociology majors. Political science majors make more, and economics majors make a lot more. The highest starting salaries are in engineering, computer science, math, and physics.

However, salary growth is also really important when you get to mid-career (about 5-10 years into your career). At mid-career, economics majors on average make about the same as physics majors, slightly more than computer science majors, and only slightly less than aerospace engineering majors. Philosophy and international relations majors see tremendous salary growth over the course of their career - although they do make less than most engineering and physical science majors, at mid-career they make more than many business majors, chemistry majors, geology majors, and IT majors.

Really, salary is all about what you DO with the major and not the major itself, and salary differences are primarily because of the choices that majors make in their careers and the differential skills they learn. Quantitative analysis skills are valued on the market, but economics and political science majors develop them too, and sufficiently motivated students in other social sciences can as well. Communication and analysis skills are also valued, which probably helps those IR and philosophy majors (philosophy majors likely have similar critical thinking skills to math majors).

So the real question is what do you like? You say that you like math and science. That’s broad. Narrow it down. What classes did you enjoy in high school? Have you taken any other math and science courses besides biology? do you like chemistry? Math? Statistics? Physics? Engineering? if you haven’t already, try taking some classes in those areas to try them on and see if you enjoy them.

Don’t be afraid to switch tracks. It’s way too early in your life to think that since you’ve already put a year of work in you are now stuck. You’re never really stuck. There’s always some way to reinvent yourself - you just have to be willing to take a risk and put yourself out there. In this case, the risk is small.

Also…do not put the burden on yourself of trying to help your parents retire free of financial problems. Those of us from middle- and working-class families do have that extra anxiety of what to do with our parents when they are older, especially when they have not made historically enough money to support themselves when they can no longer work. But your parents made their choices. You have to make your own, and you cannot center you future career around anxieties over what they may need. When the time comes, you will figure it out. And I’m sure your parents would not want you to make your career choices based on whether or not you can wipe away their financial issues.

3

Ever since I was little, I enjoyed immersing myself in an environment with a competitive nature. I am not sure if this is helpful or not but I played a lot of games and sports that require high skill sets and competitiveness. And within those interests, I also enjoyed working with a team even though I can work solo; I prefer working with several members.

I’ve taken almost all of the science and math classes available in high school except physics. I enjoyed Calculus and Stats because I was decent at them and enjoyed the feeling of solving difficult problems. I wouldn’t say I was superb, but they were classes that I can recall better than others. I also took AP Biology and Chemistry. I believe that Chemistry isn’t very difficult at the moment. I got relatively decent grades in all of my chemistry courses. Biology, on the other hand, was not something I enjoyed very much. AP Biology was extremely boring and the introductory Biology courses I took in first-year were extremely tedious. I do not like memorizing a bunch of facts and forgetting them within a month. I didn’t go too far into Physics because I had a really bad physics teacher in HS; she did not know what she was doing. For that reason, I never approached physics since. I’m actually afraid that I might not do well in physics courses now.

It’s just really frustrating to choose a career path. It’s difficult to find a job I am passionate about and have a relatively good salary.