What major best suits me based on my interests and skills?

College Majors
1

<p>I am a senior in high school and have been trying to figure out what I want to do in life. I'm terrible at picking things, whether it be a Christmas present, a favorite food, and especially what career I want to pursue for the rest of my life. I am fairly intelligent and have been at the top of my class throughout high school (I know, not a big deal). I got a 32 on my ACT and have like a 3.99 so I should be able to get into most public colleges. I'm leaning towards the University of Minnesota and the application deadline is quite soon so I want to at least go in knowing my first choice for a major.</p>

<p>Here is a small list of things I enjoy:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>I have always loved the outdoors. My dad is a wildlife biologist and his job is pretty cool because he gets to do fieldwork unlike most other biologists</p></li>
<li><p>School-wise I have always enjoyed science and sort of math. This year I am taking calculus and I'm not a fan of that, it confuses me a little. I looked into engineering but I don't know if it would be a "fun" career. Also, I am not the greatest at coming up with designs for things</p></li>
<li><p>I absolutely love sports. Baseball, Football, Basketball, Hockey, you name it, I have watched tons of it and have played tons of it. Unfortunately I am not quite D1 caliber or even D2 caliber so playing sports as a career is definitely out of the question. I still want to maybe be involved with sports with my career. I don't really know any careers that I should pursue that would let me be involved in sports.</p></li>
<li><p>I enjoy politics. I listen to a lot of talk radio which is weird for an 18 year old guy but it interests me. In my college government class I have been able to breeze by so far based on prior knowledge that I already have and learning some new things is also interesting.</p></li>
<li><p>I like looking at data. Like sports stats and cool charts and maps.</p></li>
<li><p>I love trying to make money in weird ways. I spent the last two summers trying many different internet marketing strategies (I guess you would call it that). I didn't make a whole lot but it was fun trying</p></li>
</ol>

<p>I know this is a lot to take in but if anyone could give me a few suggestions and why you think it would be a good career for me I would be eternally grateful!</p>

2

<p>Maybe something like accounting, sports management, training idk </p>

3

<p>Hey! I think you might like statistics. It is defined as the study of the collection, analysis, interpretation, presentation, and organization of data. You could work some sports stuff into that. You don’t need to know your major going into college. Take some classes and see how you like them, then decide. By the way, I live in Minnesota! I go to the University of Minnesota-Morris. If you want a smaller town you might like Morris more than the main U. Good luck with your college search! Everything will work out in the end!</p>

4

<p>What about lobbying for an environmental group? </p>

<p>If you like the military they have a job where you teach people to survive in the wild, though you have to be the air force equivalent of a Navy SEAL to qualify for that job.</p>

<p>You may also like the coast guard (Not really military, more like cops to be honest) and help clean oil spills and other catastrophes.</p>

<p>Physical Therapist for a sports team? Looks like a fun job to me.</p>

5

<p>I think you might be able to do Environmental Engineering. That’s what my neighbor majored in. For his job, his focus is on water conservation. So, he goes to building sites and helps them make decisions on how to make these new communities use less water. You would be travelling here and there. In some cases, I’m sure you could be outside. You said you liked the outdoors and this would help the environment. You can make a good amount of money. And, I’m sure it involves looking at data.</p>

6

<p>Civil engineering, City planning, Environ engineering. Good news is that you’re a math person. You’d be S.O.L if you were a words person like many college grads floundering in this job market…</p>

7

Well, the first thing you need to realize is that you are not picking a career that you will pursue for the rest of your life. Many people pursue several careers over their lifetime, and your major doesn’t necessarily neatly map onto your career. What you’re really picking is what you might like to study for the next 4 years of your life, which may serve as a prelude to the kinds of things you do in your first post-college career.

The other thing is that you may have lots of interests, but your major (and your career) doesn’t have to satisfy all of them. I love history - I’m a huge history buff! But I didn’t major in history and I don’t do anything with it in my career. I satisfy that love by reading histories and historical novels, and I took a couple of classes in history in college.

If you sort-of love math and you like sports, statistics does come up as an obvious choice. Statistics can be parlayed into all of your interests - sports fields hire statisticians to chart players’ performance over time (Nate Silver, the famous political statistician, got his start in baseball and returned to sports when he got hired by ESPN recently). Statistics is also useful in politics when it comes to polling and trying to predict election outcomes. In addition, statistics is useful in finance, marketing, and business. However, you do need to take three semesters of calculus and linear algebra in order to take statistics classes. That said, though, statistics classes do have a different feel to them than other pure math classes.

Athletic training or sports management, or turfgrass management, can allow you to work with players and (especially with turfgrass) be outside a lot. Yes, turfgrass management is an actual major! Many large state universities with D1 athletic programs have it.

You may be interested in political science, but political science is quite different from politics. You also might be interested in several business majors, like marketing or finance.

Majors at University of Minnesota that might appeal to you:

Actuarial science (using math and statistics to estimate risk; very useful in the insurance industry)
Agricultural industries and marketing (combines the outdoors/natural world with money and marketing)
Applied economics (could be related to the money thing)
Applied plant sciences (if you like to be outdoors and you like science)
Biology, society, and the environment (combines the outdoors, politics/understanding people, and science)
Earth sciences
Environment and natural resources
Environmental sciences, policy, and management
Fisheries and wildlife (if that appeals to you)
Forest and natural resource management
Geology or geophysics
Kinesiology (the study of the mechanics of movement; it combines science with the study of the human body. Very good for those interested in athletic training or sports)
Marketing
Recreation, park, and leisure studies
Recreation resource management
Risk management and insurance (related to finances and money)
Sports management
Supply chain management
Urban and community forestry

The benefit of going to a huge public university like Minnesota is that they have tons of majors you would never find at a smaller school!

This is a myth of the dichotomy between “words” and “numbers/math”. First of all, actual facts show that humanities majors are no more likely to be unemployed than math/science/engineering majors - and in fact, it depends on the individual major. See Georgetown’s “Hard Times” report on employment in recent college graduates. Second of all, a successful mathematician/scientist/engineer needs to not only understand the numbers but be able to communicate their findings to others - including non-scientists - both verbally and in writing. Many engineers are managed by non-engineers, for example, and need to be able to communicate their building plans to the people who don’t understand math and physics the way they do. Statisticians especially need to be able to communicate their work to non-statisticians, because they are usually working on teams in which they are one of few (or the only) statistician.

I say this as a person who is both a math person and a words person.