<p>As I talk to more people regarding college, I honestly wonder why some people pick a certain major. What major are you and why did you pick it? What are your ambitions regarding your career and possibly grad school? In fact, why are you even going to college? Are the motives money? Social expectations? Cultural and family expectations? Personal motives? Why? What are some reasons why you pick a certain career or the decision to go to grad school.</p>
<p>I chose chemical engineering almost entirely because of the paycheck once I graduate and Im honestly not going to try to sugar coat it. Smaller factors included my chemistry and math abilities which I felt would make ChemE a good choice of a major.</p>
<p>I wonder what people who get majors in things like Gender Studies, Art History, Anthropology, African Studies, Classics, and ancient studies are thinking. I know tehy probably have some B.S excuse planned out about how your art major is better for society than an accountant or someone who has a practical major. What jobs do you expect?</p>
<p>School: Michigan is the ****. Always been a football fan, happy to get out of Ohio, 15th in the world as a school overall, 7th in the country for engineering and top 3 ME I think. I know ranking aren’t the end all be all but when you are ranked that high they mean something.</p>
<p>Major: Engineering is good money. I also enjoy math and science and am a good problem solver. ME is broad enough to allow me to do many different things. Plus I plan to branch out into business. So if an employer is willing to pay for my MBA I’m golden. Engineering + MBA = gold</p>
<p>Career: Not sure yet. Like I said, engineering with a business background. Or business with an engineering background. I love engineering, but I don’t want to be doing research in a lab. I want to get out into the world and make some money.</p>
<p>Your thoughts on: [YouTube</a> - Bringing Humanities Ph.D. Innovation to Silicon Valley](<a href=“Bringing Humanities Ph.D. Innovation to Silicon Valley - YouTube”>Bringing Humanities Ph.D. Innovation to Silicon Valley - YouTube) and [YouTube</a> - Quit Your Technology Job and Get a Humanities Ph.D.](<a href=“Quit Your Technology Job and Get a Humanities Ph.D. - YouTube”>Quit Your Technology Job and Get a Humanities Ph.D. - YouTube)</p>
<p>I have not watched it yet, but it came up on my subscription feed</p>
<p>School: I didnt necessarily make that choice. My mother did. I would have gone to OSU. But alas I in Cleveland…</p>
<p>Major: Polymer Science and Engineering due to its size at our school, opportunities both undergrad and afterwards. Plus my department chair has connections basically everywhere so thats a plus</p>
<p>Career: Considering pharmacy because its the most intriguing to me right now. but could change. as long as I dont have to live paycheck to paycheck</p>
<p>School: In all honesty I wanted to go to UW-Madison because I knew I would have a blast, I would be able to party all the time and get the life I really wanted. I’m not going to lie about it, that was my main motive.</p>
<p>Major: I’ve always been interested in psychology, I think I’ve known I’ve wanted to do that from the moment I really seriously looked at my options.</p>
<p>Career: Well ideally I’d like to go into therapy and become a psychologist, because it’s a well-paid job and you can help people. I’m also very good at talking to people and helping them that way.</p>
<p>School: Reed College. Honestly, I just want to learn, and Reed is known to have one of, if not the, overall most difficult curriculums in the country. It also has amazing classics, philosophy, and history programs.</p>
<p>Major: History. I never liked history classes in high school, but that’s just because the AP curriculums are awful and not even remotely similar to a college history course. I would like to attend law school, but there are a plethora of other jobs available for history majors.</p>
<p>Career: Possibly lawyer, but I’m not entirely sure.</p>
<p>Magneto, are you from Cleveland? I am from the area and I never even considered Case. I just wanted to get out of there.</p>
<p>Also, hooray for me starting the response format!</p>
<p>School: Northwestern was the best school I got into. Plus, you can’t beat being so close to Chicago. It’s been a good first year. I do wish now that I had applied to more schools in DC and thought harder about going to college there, but I wouldn’t dream of transferring!</p>
<p>Major: International Studies, and French.</p>
<p>Career: Ideally? I want a government job. I know that’s kind of a growing trend, but whatever. My dream career would be working for the State Department in a Francophone country.</p>
<p>School: Community College (transfer school undecided, pending next years acceptances). I wanted to save money mainly. </p>
<p>Major: Probably a double major in History and Economics, minor in German. History is my passion, economics would pay the bills better even though I don’t know what I would do with it. German because…I’m originally from the country and hope to move back at some point and want to re-learn the language.</p>
<p>Career: Either History professor, travel writer…or whatever it is people with Economics degrees do (obviously, more research is needed).</p>
<p>School: UBC (Canada). I honestly regret going there, this place has too many Asians (I myself being one). A bunch of rote learners in this place</p>
<p>Major: Physics and Math, quite a lot of Asians in Math, but fewer Asians in Phyiscs for some reason. I obvisouly went into both fields not because of the paycheck, it’s self-interest. </p>
<p>Career: Probably professorship</p>
<p>Money and girls. I learned from Tony Montana that first you get the money, then you get the power, then you get the women, and then you get yourself a nice sports car to go 150mph in and start a couple of high speed chases.</p>
<p>School: Texas A&M University- Kingsville. I got a scholarship and some of my family went there. </p>
<p>Major: Accounting with a Minor in English. I like business. I think its interesting and so far have been happy with my choice. My minor is more for fun and to be more well rounded.</p>
<p>Career: CPA is the current goal but its not hard and fast. I want something steady were I can have a family.</p>
<p>college: i’m going to beloit which i think is going to be great for ‘finding myself.’ i got a pretty large scholarship there which was a huge deciding factor for me. when i visited the entire vibe of the campus felt so right, too. i got the feeling that beloit attracts kids who didn’t necessarily do well in the system of high school but were ‘intellectual.’ it seemed like everyone was into learning for the sake of learning, not just resume building. that sort of mindless mentality drives me absolutely INSANE. </p>
<p>major: i don’t know what i’m majoring in, but at beloit that’s pretty common for incoming frosh. i think i’m going to end up double or triple majoring because my interests are EVERYWHERE and i’ve done PSEO so i have so many college credits out of the way that it will be easier. i feel weird because i love learning but i hate academia, the ivory tower, and all that crap that goes along with it.</p>
<p>career: the things i ‘want’ to do can exist peacefully alongside most occupations, although i know what i ‘want’ to do changes so often at this point in my life. i’m still unsure whether i want a career that will keep me financially stable or one that will keep me intellectually satiated.</p>
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<p>So Beloit takes kids that did poorly in high school and then tells them they are really an intelectual?</p>
<p>In all seriousness a family friend went there and graduated last year and she went to rural China to teach kids English. She also studied abroad in Austrailia while at the school. She loved it and if you thought it was a good fit for you then you probably will too…</p>
<p>… just get ready for some hippie, tree-hugger jokes</p>
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Those desires are not necessarily mutually exclusive.</p>
<p>i should’ve rewritten that sentence, it originally said ‘into learning’ or some equivalent but i didn’t want to use learning so many times in two sentences, lol.</p>
<p>as for the hippie jokes-- i already get a ton of those now. in all honesty, my dream school was wesleyan so… hahaha</p>
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very true.</p>
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<p>Just because you major in something doesn’t mean your career will be related to it. If you go to an Ivy like your username suggests, you should know better! 
For instance, Yale is probably 75% humanities and social science, yet it still consistently places well in salary rankings. Why? Because many of those humanities majors end up at med school, law school, finance, business, etc. Undergrad is a good time to study something that you’re interested in without really limiting your career options. All that being said, I’m a science major :)</p>