I am right now thinking about going to either Indiana University or UIUC.
I am also thinking about my majors and have narrowed it down to these three: finance, secondary education, and statistics and computer science.
The last one is offered only at U of I and not at IU. Anyways, I have come to the realization that I like business, and would love to create some inventions and learn to sell them, but I also love teaching. I feel like education is more of a passion for me than is business, but I could honestly see myself happy in both. I chose finance because it is the business major that seems most interesting to me, and it has the best job outcomes as well as earning potential. I don’t know if I could necessarily see myself analyzing data and crunching numbers…kind of seems boring. If I were to teach, I would love to teach English at the high school level.
Statistics and Computer Science has the best job outlook out of all three, and the most jobs. It’s no secret that there is a huge shortage of jobs in the computer science industry, and there are even fewer girls, so I feel like I would be able to find a job the easiest with that major. Correct me if I’m wrong, I have only done very basic research so I am not very knowledgeable about this fact. Also, I am taking AP Stats and AP Comp Sci right now, and I love stats, but CS is REALLY boring and I just do not like it much. I feel like the combination of Stats and CS is a very high demand major because of the shift toward big data.
What do you think I could be the best at? Which is the best choice for me?
The statistics and computer science major at UIUC is basically a joint major in statistics and computer science. Indiana has both majors, so you can double major in statistics and CS there or major in CS and minor in statistics to get the same thing.
Don’t just concentrate on the job outlook alone. You have to think about what you would actually enjoy doing for a living on a day-to-day basis. Also, no one is going to hire you simply because you’re a woman: it’s a nice to have but is unlikely to significantly raise your chances of getting hired (and in all honestly, most of the research points towards discrimination against women in tech and CS, not a leg up).
Sometimes college-level classes are quite different from high school classes - even AP classes - but if you really hate CS now, that should be a warning sign for you. Don’t major in something you really hate: you’ll be unhappy in college and possibly still unhappy in your career, because even if you get hired into a nice job that still means you have to use skills that you don’t like.
If you’re still in HS you don’t have to decide now. Take some classes in a couple of these fields your freshman year and see what you enjoy. You can also explore other careers - there may be some you haven’t thought of that you’d enjoy.
Education isn’t really a major either. I say this because there is yet to be a real science in education. If you are interested in learning, then the science is probably psychology. If you learn an actual discipline, then you could always do a Ma in education to learn techniques for teaching. If you go far enough in a field (doctorate) you’ll end up training or teaching anyway. But, if you have not studied and learned a discipline, what can you teach? And that is the problem with the fact that our elementary schools are filled with teachers who have not mastered a discipline. (no this is not an indictment of the field of education or of elementary school teachers-it is an indictment of any major that requires college students to take a bunch of low level classes and it is an indictment of a system that allows people who hate math and science to teach our elementary school aged children math and science). Major in something that you can stand (don’t hate) and that is rigorous-so you end up with some knowledge that is specific and valuable unless you plan to go to post BA school. In other words, not social science or humanities unless you are prepared to get a graduate degree. Computer Science is such a degree. Math too would give you a skill that you could parlay into a job because so many companies need people good at math who can interpret stats etc. I think you’d be quite marketable with computer and math skills.
Ugh on being a math and CS major with aspirations to teach it tho because you will have such a broader range of options-all of which probably pay better.
Education is certainly a major. Something doesn’t have to be a science to be a major; you can major in education at a lot of colleges and universities in the country.
In fact, if you want to teach elementary school you have to major in elementary education in order to do it. Secondary school teachers usually major in the field they want to teach but they have to do a second major or complete curricular requirements for licensure in secondary education in their state.
Also, you can certainly get a job after college with a social sciences or humanities degree. I know many people who have done just that.