Which major would be best for me?

College Majors
1

I’ll start by saying that I know I don’t need to know exactly what my major is yet (I’m only in highschool).

For the past few years of my life, I’ve been dead set on being a pure math major. However, recently in my chemistry class we covered the chapter on electrochemistry and it was fascinating. Then I was helping my friend with his physics homework, specifically on electricity, and I’m not in physics but I was able to easily pick up the concepts and help him. Now I know I’m gonna take physics next year as well as an electromagnetism course (my school has special electives like that), but I’ve been dying to learn more physics because it’s fascinating to me, especially electricity. In fact, I’ve considered electrical engineering to be the one engineering major I’d pick just because of it’s heavy math requirements, aka before I was fascinated with electricity. One of my teachers also said that electrochemistry doesn’t really come back up in detail until graduate school. I know I want to get both a bachelor’s and a doctorate degree, but I don’t know whether I want to major pure math, theoretical physics with a speciality in electricity, or electrical engineering. I don’t know what opportunities each would bring me. I’ll probably have a clearer answer after I take physics next year, but I’d at least like to have a clearer answer from anyone who knows specific details of these majors.

2

Nobody can really give you a clearer answer than you. It really depends on where your interests lie.

As you take more and more classes when you finish high school and begin college, you’ll find lots of different things you’re interested in. Today it might be electrochemistry; next year you might take a class that sparks an interest in theoretical physics; and after that you might decide biophysics is interesting. Instead of trying to decide on a major right now, take it all in as information - this the the breadth of things that you are interested in. Once you’ve gathered a decent bundle of things, then you can start comparing where your passions are really sparked.

Also, remember that undergrad is about building a foundation of breadth across a field. Particularly if you want a PhD, you need to build a solid girding of knowledge across an area to support specializing. For that reason, undergrads don’t major in “theoretical physics with a specialty in electricity”; they major in physics. Undergrads don’t even really major in pure math, so to speak; generally you’d major in math, and you can choose to take classes that lean more pure than applied.

So take physics next year and pay attention to what you like and don’t like. Do the same in all of your classes.