Really lost

College Majors
1

<p>I'm currently narrowing down colleges I plan on applying to, but it's really difficult to apply to a college if you don't know what you want to major in. </p>

<p>There are many fields that I KNOW I won't want to work in, but there are also many that I think I might be interested in, but have no real way of knowing. My family has a very modest income and the small high school I attend has very standard elective courses (Music, Photography, Economics, etc.). For the past five or so years, I have helped out as an Associate Editor for my family's small media/PR company. We produce/publish interviews we've conducted with various young artists. I have also transcribed/edited several (now published) novels in the past for family friends. This makes me feel like it would only make sense for me to attend a liberal arts college and prepare to enter the field of journalism, or something else English related. I wouldn't mind being a journalist, and I enjoy writing for the most part, but I think that it's a relatively unstable career path to choose in this day and age. I'm also worried that my parents would assume that this means I'm interested in taking over the family business. I'm not. It also doesn't help that my parents expect me to attend graduate school along with undergraduate school. I assume that I could go from an English undergraduate at a LAC and then advertising/public relations at a university?</p>

<p>I also have an enormous fancy for the field of science, particularly astronomy. It has always been my favorite subject in school. However, I know that most space scientists end up becoming professors, and I'm not an educator by any means. I also LOVE working with technology. I've taken various office-setting internships and I have always loved to learn how to operate different equipment. This has led me to want to enter a STEM field, or maybe even a field like film where I could operate the different audio/camera equipment. (My school doesn't have an A/V club, so I don't know if I would be any good at it.) I know that engineering is a really stable and lucrative industry, but my horrible math skills lead me to believe that studying it for 4+ years would be a miserable experience. I've gotten nothing but As on math progress reports thus far, but it takes me 3 hours to finish a 1 hour assignment, generally. I hate math, but whenever we hit the year's sweet spot and I'm able to understand the course material, math class is my favorite part of the day. It is hugely satisfying to go through numerous formulas and processes properly and get the right answer. I don't even know what kind of engineering I would want to study. I REALLY enjoy working with computers, though, and my #1 hobby is probably video games. Honestly, I'm so interested in engineering at this point in my life that I would probably feel comfortable studying any kind of it, I just don't know if I could hang. It's also worth noting that, as a girl, I'm honestly afraid I won't be taken seriously in the application process, especially with my primarily writing-focused resume.</p>

<p>Although I'm a very introverted and quiet person, I am very excited to start college and begin making new friends. However, I don't want to ruin my life along the way by choosing a career path that I will regret. </p>

<p>EDIT: Since I know it will be asked, no, I have never taken a calculus class. I'm only entering junior year this fall (meaning the only courses I have taken is Algebra I and II. I hated them both.) but my guidance counselor told me at the end of summer I have a list of potential majors/colleges so that I can send out my SAT/ACT scores when I take it next year. I'm going to take Calc as soon as I can, though. </p>

2

<p>" I’m also worried that my parents would assume that this means I’m interested in taking over the family business. I’m not. It also doesn’t help that my parents expect me to attend graduate school along with undergraduate school. I assume that I could go from an English undergraduate at a LAC and then advertising/public relations at a university?"</p>

<p>This is a little confusing. Do you mean that you aren’t interested in the family business but still interested in advertising and public relations?</p>

<p>As for journalism, if you are really interested, the top schools tend to be large, state universities and throw in a Syracuse, Columbia, and Northwestern among others. But you can google and see the top J-schools.</p>

<p>If you hate math, engineering could be frustrating. Algebra is cake compared to calculus, especially calculus 2 which is required for engineering and some people find differential equations to be very difficult.</p>

<p>I can’t help you with A/V.</p>

3

<p>I’m not interested in the family business I would ultimately end up doing a lot more than just writing and PR, and personally I think the business won’t go anywhere no matter who is at the helm. I’m still interested in the journalism industry. </p>

4

<p>Thank you for clarifying. My son is a journalism major (after initially being undecided). His initial interest was advertising and his mother (who 30 years of marketing and advertising including executive level) suggested journalism because there is so much content needed and not enough good writers. Since taking the intro to journalism class, he is now leaning more towards journalism as a career. And yes, being an unstable path is a concern. I do think in addition to writing skills, some skills are needed in technology (html, javascript, usability, informatics) and analysis. </p>

<p>Funny you mentioned calculus. My son is not a math head but did take calculus in his second semester and will take stat next term and he is looking at a social science research design class or two. </p>

5

<p>You sound like a great candidate for a computer science degree, and that is a very employable field. You might have to push hard through the math courses, but it would be worth it to do something you really enjoy. My D2 is a freshman at a STEM college, and just “discovered” CS this year when she took her first CS class. She loves it, and is researching on campus with a CS professor this summer.</p>

6

<p>intparent makes a good point with CS. Definitely worth a look. Perhaps you might try to take a programming class or get a book and try it out. And don’t worry about being a girl. My company has quite a few developers who are women and they are in their 50s. So females in CS are not something new.</p>

7

<p>Thank you both for your input.</p>

<p>I would consider myself to already be familiar with HTML5, as I have actually taken a couple of programming classes online before, and I enjoyed it. I also figure that after graduation, I realistically will be doing much less math in the industry than I did during my studies. My only concern is that nearly 100% of my previous work experience has been humanities-based. Would it make sense to also potentially pursue a business minor/double major? I don’t really want the last ~5 years of my work experience to go to waste. </p>

8

<p>Been thinking about your question. In general, I think having some business courses in your background is not a bad thing. But it really depends where you want to go in life. For example, accounting and computer science work well together, but I don’t see that as your direction. You might want to look at computer science in terms of usability in which case, knowledge of human factors would be important. That would get you into the psychology realm.</p>

<p>Journalism is becoming an entrepreneurial pursuit so some business classes make sense. Or if you go journalism with an eye towards advertising, marketing classes make sense. </p>

<p>You have time to decide. When my son started college, he had a three or four directions in mind and he left his options open for any direction. You might take such a direction. And don’t feel bad if you don’t have a clear direction going into college. I am on my third career and wondering what I am going to do next!</p>