Major Life Decision: Picking Your Major

By Timothy Hayes on June 8, 2015

“So what are you studying?” Ah yes, that panic inducing question we all hate. Similar ones include, “what’s your major?” and “what do you want to be when you grow up?”

Few questions can inspire so much terror in a college student so easily. Notable exceptions include “this will be on the test” and “any questions before your test?”

(image thanks to www.examiner.com)

In college one of the top five stresses is finding a job after graduation, according to a 2012 study by Inceptia research group.

With rising student loan debt because of ever increasing costs of education, students are under pressure to push through more lucrative majors to find jobs that will be able to support them after college with a substantial debt burden.

Many people are pushing more and more towards medical school. Some are turning towards engineering and other STEM fields for job security. IT and computer sciences are on the rise as well.

Many of our peers, parents, mentors, and elders are all giving us advice on what to do and not do in college. From drinking and parties to illicit behavior, the obvious stuff doesn’t need to be repeated, but many more parents are pushing their children towards what they see as more practical or lucrative majors.

To be fair, many parents are helping put their children through school so they have at least some say as to where their money goes. However, this puts pressure on students to pick the right major as mom and dad foot an ever increasing bill.

(image courtesy of NBC via blogs.gonzaga.edu)

With all this pressure top-down, students feel pushed into majors they may not be interested or skilled in. Socially, unfortunately, the push is harder on men as they are still seen as primary breadwinners in families. As a study from Fordham University has shown, men still place emphasis on being the breadwinner in the family even if their wife were to work. This pushes men towards careers goals that may reflect major choice.

For entering freshmen, an average of 75 percent (some sources claiming as high as 80 percent) do not know what they want to major in. Of all students, approximately 50 percent will change their major at least once. Why? Because no one really ever demonstrates what the major is like before anyone signs up.

How many of you shadowed someone in high school or college? Not many of us had that opportunity. We were all too busy studying for the ACT or SAT, taking AP classes, filling up our time with sports or community service, and working on applications to college. Not many people ever explained what a major would be like before many of us jumped into one.

Now in college, you’ve got a clock ticking. Some universities like the University of Wisconsin are employing a surcharge that would double tuition if students stay too long at their university. Switching majors is really tough on graduation requirements and can set students back a whole year.

So, how do you find the major that’s right for you?

First, identify what you want to do after graduation; not what your parents want, not what you think would be best, just what you want to do. In the ideal situation, where would you be and what would you be doing? Now that you have that, let’s figure out how to get there. Whatever your goal is, the only way to achieve it is to plan and work towards it.

Once you’ve got some career goals outlined, see if you can find out more and more about that career path. What’s the job market growth expected to be in 10 years? How many people are employed in that career nationwide? Where is that career needed more? What kinds of tasks and work would you have to do to be in this career?

If you can’t find these answers yourself, find someone in that career field. Ask them what they did. Find out for yourself exactly what their job is like. Ask if you could perhaps shadow them for a day or two to get a feel for the real business environment. Also check in with your advisor. They can drop information on you like bombs about careers. If you’ve got a question, they will answer it themselves or find the resource to get the answer. That’s what they’re there for.

Next, identify any major that can get you towards that career. Here’s a pro tip; it might not be named the same thing in college. A rather silly assumption I made (and I’m sure some of you did too) was that if the major had a name slapped on it that that was what you did after you graduated. Far from it. By figuring out your career goals, you can work backwards from there. If you ask a professional whose position you admire about their major, maybe they can offer insight into an appropriate choice for you.

Shadowing can be a good way to get a feel for the career your major can prepare you for. (image via www.virgina.edu)

Lastly, check in with the school or department you want to apply to or take one of their majors. Go prepared. Look at the major requirements and be sure you know what you’re jumping into. When you meet with them, be sure to discuss any issue you might find concerning difficult course load or late graduation. Ask them about placement of students in your desired field post-graduation and what services the department or school would have to help place students post-graduation.

Ultimately, your major is your choice since you’re the one taking the courses and making your career out of it. Be sure that you’ve done your research and really worked towards what you want and what you want to achieve. It will take work and dedication, but application is half the process. Hard work, and a bit of luck, will do the rest.

For a little extra boost if you still have no clue, you might want to try out www.MyMajor.com for a free survey to help see what you could major in based on your responses to a small test.

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