I would love to hear any suggestions or resources people have used to help their child explore majors, especially in the math and science fields. I have looked at a few of the online surveys, which have seem a little contrived. When juniors have just had basic exposure to bio, chemistry, math, and physics, and there are so many college options - biochemistry, chemical engineering, environmental chemistry. Then there is mathematics, applied math, statistics, actuarial science, finance, accounting, etc… Some schools ask you to select your choice of majors within a school, some (math and finance) are in different schools. My daughter is just beginning to know who she is and what she likes. While she has always known she likes math/science as oppose to history/english/language, she has yet to take physics (will take it next year), or stats, and has some exposure to computer programming, but not much. She did think she wanted to go into medicine, but also thinks she might enjoy something in finance. She has also completed a few science fair projects in environmental science. I know kids are very likely to switch majors in college, but if possible it would be great to have a good shot at picking the best fit while exploring colleges. Right now we are just using google search to get a better definition of majors. Any suggestions would be welcome!
How old is your daughter?
Mine didn’t declare her major until end of sophomore year of college. Then she added a second major midway through junior year of college. Then she graduated…and did two years in the Peace Corps. During that two years, she figured out what she wanted for a career.
In my opinion…the best way for a student to choose a major is to take a variety of core courses in college. Something will get their interest. Our kids both went to colleges with a strong core course requirement and both said…it was great to take courses across a lot of disciplines.
But really how old is your kiddo?
I agree that exploration is the best way, but for capacity-constrained majors, sometimes it really helps to know your major before you start.
You can shop for a college and a major at the same time. Read college websites to get a feel for the classes required for a given major. While visiting colleges, visit different departments. Talk to a professor or academic advisor about what sort of students do well in that major and what the job market is like after finishing. Sit in on classes. Peek in the labs.
I completely agree, however, on most campus we are looking at it seems that during the application process we need to choose a major with a secondary choice. I understand that within similar majors it might be very easy to change from one major to another (and at some schools that is easier then others) but if we want to look at engineering or business then it at some schools we need to determine that prior to admissions or we are out of luck if she is not admitted directly. I am looking for any information that we can explore together. We only have a few more campus visits she will make prior to submitting applications this fall. I am just trying to do any homework I can by collecting as much information as possible that might help her understand various fields if nothing else it might be good to eliminate options that might be obvious bad matches. I am doing the basics to help her, downloading the majors at the schools she is considering with related course list. I keep thinking there must be a good list or book somewhere that will make this research a little easier.
Rather than trying to research this for your kid, try to set up experiences so she can explore first-hand. Have her talk to aunts and uncles and coworkers and neighbors who majored in different things. Attend both engineering school and business school information sessions.
And be careful not to pressure – make sure she knows you will back whatever decision she makes so she can choose based on her own interests.
Shadow experiences can be very helpful.
Would it be possible to throw in a few schools where you do not need to declare a major when applying? Honestly, I think its too much to ask for most kids that age to know in advance. You are absolutely right. How can she possibly know before she has had a chance to explore these things?
Back her if she decides to major in music…or drama…or art.
This major list looks like it’s based on income.
I don’t have a list where you don’t have to apply by major. But keep this in mind…even IF you mist apply within a major, the vast majority of colleges allow kids to switch majors…and you know…many, many do.
The other thing…many kids have careers that are not exactly tied to their undergrad majors…at all.
thumper1 WRONG, it is not at all motivated by money. I am not at all pressuring her into anything. I don’t care what she chooses as long as she is happy. She does not like music, art, english, history. That she has told me that. She does not want to be a teacher. She is good at math has great scores in math and likes it, and likes science. She has only taken Chemistry and Biology so that is her extent of that. I have done everything you said. She is volunteering at a hospital so she can get an idea what medicine is really like (she loved Grays Anatomy, the reason she thought she wanted to go into medicine and started volunteering), She is talking to teachers and even called a university lab herself and worked with them on her science fair. This question all started because we just went on a school tour and the admissions officer said students needed to list a major and an alternate, and said that if a student doesn’t get admitted into engineering they will not be able to switch into it. I am just trying to find some resource so sometime when she has time to talk that I can be informed enough to help her explore options, so she can make the best guess she can when she chooses schools and submits her applications. I would love her to be able to just “apply” but that is not the way the schools she wants to attend, work.
At some colleges, engineering is one of those majors you really DO need to get accepted into freshman year. However, there are other colleges where you can switch into engineering as long as you have taken the course sequence needed up to that point (Sciences and math).
One thing she needs to consider…sometimes the bar for engineering acceptances is higher than for other majors. BUT if she wants to major in engineering, than that is a risk she will have to take if the school requires her to pick engineering from the get go.
Many colleges have engineering wannabes take a general engineering course as freshmen…because that gives them a better idea of what the course and major are about. Then they choose.
You might want to encourage your kiddo to actually look at schools where direct admit to engineering is NOT required also…as an option.
ETA…does she want to go to medical school? Or does she want to be an engineer?
In addition to shadowing medical folks, have her shadow some engineers.
ETA…does she want to go to medical school? Or does she want to be an engineer?
That is what she will need to sort out. This is all about doing our best to explore options at the schools she wants to attend but needs to declare a major, the other schools are easy. I know the engineering majors are impacted, but just like I don’t want to force her into schools that are hard, I don’t want to say she can’t apply to a engineering because it is impacted. I am just trying to see if anyone has resources (books, websites etc…) for me to get informed about options so I can help her, that is all. Shadowing is great, but what I was searching for at this moment is to find some resources to help me understand a little more about the various science majors. Her priority right now is to focus on her school work and AP tests. Since she has signed up for a summer program I am realizing what a very short window of time she has with essays etc… to get everything done. The more I can unburden her by finding resources, the more I feel like I am helping.
I will leave you with my opinion.
The BEST way is personal contact…not reading resource books.
She needs to have time to talk to some engineers about their careers, and see what they do on a day to day basis. She needs to discuss their schooling and what it took to get them where they are (my husband is an engineer and happily has students shadow him…and answers questions).
It sounds like she is already doing this with some medical folks.
But keep in mind…she could get a degree in engineering…and subsequently decide that a career in engineering is NOT her thing. And that’s even WITH good shadowing and information.
Send me a PM and I’ll tell you how I know that!
Also, it sounds like she is in HS. Many…many kids change their minds multiple times…about majors…even when IN college. And you know…that’s OK.
She might find that perfect mentor in her college courses at some point. And that will lead to her choosing a great major.
If she’s interested in math and STEM, starting out in engineering isn’t a bad idea as at most places, it is easier or as difficult to to switch out of engineering in to something else than it is to switch in to engineering. And the freshmen classes for engineers tend to be very similar and consists of the maths and sciences (though she could possibly place out of the intro classes with AP credits) which also are many of the required pre-med courses.
If she is interested in math, definitely have her take as much math (and stats) as possible as math subjects build on top of each other and while she/you may wonder at times “what is the practical application of this?”, various math skills are the type of thing that you may not use for years and then it becomes useful and at that point, you either know the math or you don’t. And remember that she can specialize after undergrad (which is an argument for paying less for undergrad) so long as she picks up quant skills.
BTW, accounting isn’t very mathy. Yes, they use numbers, but just basic arithmetic. It’s more like law done with numbers.
thumper1 thank you for your insight I will encourage her to have as much personal interactions as possible, I just wanted to be better informed. I would love to read something that discusses the various majors, chemical engineering, environmental engineering, materials science, it is like a foreign language to me. I don’t have a background in science, so for me to better understand it and help her explore her options I was hoping to gain some insight . I had a few personal messages that were sent to me that really helped to direct me to some math and statistics links that are helpful.
Thanks PurpleTitan, yes that was what her latest thinking was, to start out with a good base of math and go from there. But it becomes confused when she has been told that unless she starts out in engineering she can’t move into engineering. So I thought she might want to make sure that wasn’t a direction she was interested in.
The accounting came up when we had a discussion with someone who majored in acounting about whether she should think about math and business. Several people suggested that data statisticians and math and econ is an interesting direction to consider. Some of this sounds like she can figure out once she in in school but it does help when looking at colleges and the majors they have to have a good an idea of what you want as possible at this age.
Most high schools have a room with resources about colleges, majors, and careers as well.
If she’s willing to look abroad, there are also stuff like Durham’s Natural Sciences (which includes business as a subject she could study).
But in any case, she doesn’t have to make sure she isn’t interested in engineering (unless there is a choice to go to a LAC that doesn’t offer engineering) as it is often easy to switch out of engineering after freshman year.
And again, as life doesn’t end after undergrad, she could always pick up a tech/quant/STEM background in undergrad and an MBA later.
Going from undergrad business to tech/STEM grad school is much tougher.
Doubles majors may also be possible at various schools.
Our D1 knew she wanted to be an engineer since 8th grade and chose Chem E as a sophomore. No issue there. She’s graduating with her degree in May. D2 had no clue what she wanted to study. Her prime EC was dance and she knew she didn’t want to be an engineer. She loved biology and took an anatomy class her sohpomore year that was her favorite class in HS. Her HS had a college and career fair each year. They had people from varying fields around to talk with. We had her go her sophomore year not to look at colleges but to talk with a variety of people about what they did. She came away with 2 favorites. Genetic Counseling and Physical Therapy. Her junior year she set up an appointment with a PT to shadow her and decided she was going to work towards being a PT. She looked into what that entailed. She is now a Dance major taking her pre PT prerequisites.
Engineering is one field that can be difficult to transfer into. It is very sequential and normally requires more hours as a major than others. If your child might be interested in engineering but is not sure it may be better to start as an engineering major then transfer out. Many medical fields require graduate degrees and don’t require specific majors as such just the completion of prerequsite courses. Usually about 30 hours or so. Good luck.
Reading widely is the answer I think. A few years ago I read a fascinating article in the New Yorker about the genetics of apple cultivation which made me wish I’d majored in Ag or genetics. I’ve read many articles in the Wall Street Journal, Economist, Vanity Fair which have made me wish I could go back to college and start over again in fields as diverse as urban planning, political science (voter fraud), climatology, ocean science.
Encourage your kid to read various publications which might not be on the regular reading list- I read a story in the FT a few years ago (before Bitcoin) which wrote about the Death of Money (why physical currency is on the way out) which was really gripping. Again- why didn’t I major in econ- specifically monetary policy???
I don’t know of any “major specific” publication which is any good- especially since by the time something comes into print it’s outdated (nanotechnology didn’t exist not that long ago; applying big data to public health issues (like where is the flu outbreak going next; why do some people with a particular genetic makeup get a certain type of cancer while their siblings and first cousins with the same genetic marker do no?) is pretty recent.
If it were my kid- I’d think in broad strokes AND apply to a few places where you can apply undecided and that’s just fine. I changed my major 3 or 4 times in college; one of my kids changed so many times we got weary of the “guess what, I found a new major!” phone call. Broad strokes- engineering fundamentally is about solving practical problems using math (and ingenuity). Majoring in math has two flavors- theoretical and applied. If the magic and mystery of numbers is interesting to her in and of itself- then maybe pure math. But if it’s USING math- maybe applied. And out of applied math could come econ, finance/accounting, although the actual math for most accounting majors is pretty much HS math.
Is there a parent at your kids school who works in engineering? another one of these fields? One of my kids wanted to be a cardiologist, until a neighbor of mine (a nurse) offered to introduce the kid to her boss (one of the leading cardiologists in town). That quick meeting cured that itch!
I appreciate all the comments and most have already been done. We have explored, she has read, she has talked with some people we know if various fields, we are doing all that. Now I feel it is down to the last phase, choosing the college list and getting prepared to apply. I know she might change after she enters, it is now about focusing on what is offered at the colleges she is interested in, maybe add a few more colleges, but my guess is she will choose from the ones she already seen and liked, and for a few of them, that means picking a major, or at least a college within the school. I started printing out the list of majors at the various schools so she can start looking at them when she has time, BUT and this is a big but, she wants to only focus on school right now. In the summer she has a summer program that she will be focusing on , so I started thinking that her window of time is going to be small to think through all of this. The more I can unburden her by gathering information so that when we have that talk, I am ready to listen and provide feedback and the person who best knows her. For now I was just looking for resources for me to help me understanding the difference between majors. I think at this point I will just do some google searching to get better definitions of the various majors. I was hoping there was at least a reference that would help me with this and most importantly, to help her make the decisions that are harder to change later.