The Student's Guide to Choosing a Major

If you're confused virtually how to choose a college major and feel like picking a major is causing a lot of stress, this guide can assistance.

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Published on October 5, 2021 · Updated on March eight, 2022

Reviewed past Sarah Holliday, MS

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The Student's Guide to Choosing a Major

  • Knowing what you're interested in and what y'all're good at tin can assist y'all cull a major.
  • Talking with your bookish advisor could help you learn about new degree options.
  • Many colleges let y'all create your own major so you tin can focus on a specific topic.

Choosing a major can exist tricky, particularly if you accept multiple interests or don't know what kind of career you desire to pursue. Co-ordinate to a 2020 BestColleges study, 3 in 5 college graduates would change their majors if they could go back.

There are many factors you should consider before committing to a major, including the program cost, bacon expectations, and employment rates in that field. In improver, you should recall about your personality, personal and professional goals, and interests.

Including these variables in your decision procedure tin assistance ensure you choose a major that resonates with your personal mission, values, and passions.

6 Cardinal Factors to Consider When Choosing a Major

Choosing a major represents a meaning footstep in the college process, and information technology shouldn't be taken lightly. Here are six factors to consider before committing to a major.

1. What Are Your Biggest Priorities?

Some students pursue certain majors primarily based upon salary potential and job demand. Alternatively, other students choose majors they're passionate about and/or highly skilled in. Earlier yous cull a major, think well-nigh which of these three factors — economic advantage, interest level, and power — are nearly of import and relevant to yous and your future goals.

ii. What Are You Interested In?

Studies accept constitute that students tend to perform better in schoolhouse when they tin focus on their interests. Unfortunately, it's not always easy for a educatee to identify their interests.

To become assistance with this, consider taking a personality quiz. For example, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator questionnaire tin can help you make up one's mind subjects that closely marshal with your personality and interests.

This popular assessment uses your habits and attitudes to generate one of sixteen personality types, written as a combination of four messages. Examples include ISFJ (introverted, sensing, feeling, and judging) and ENTP (extroverted, intuitive, thinking, and perceiving).

You tin also explore potential areas of written report and career paths by joining student clubs, volunteering, working a role-time chore on campus, managing a side hustle, or completing internships.

3. What Are You Good At?

Understanding your natural skills and talents can go a long way in helping you lot make an informed and confident decision when choosing a major. It may be your parents' dream for you lot to be an artist, but what if you skew more toward business organization or the sciences? Just because someone else has a degree path in heed doesn't mean information technology's correct for you lot.

Ane way of determining which academic fields best adjust you is to have a close look at your grade grades in loftier school, as well as your Deed or SAT scores. Doing this can highlight your strengths in specific bookish areas.

4. What Are the Highest-Paying Fields?

When because which major to pursue, make up one's mind how of import bacon and salary potential weigh into your decision-making process. If you lot're motivated by loftier earnings, pursuing a degree in a Stalk-related field may entreatment to y'all.

That said, some students care more about the importance of their work than the bacon offered; they don't want a job merely for the money. Not-STEM degrees that students are often passionate almost relate to human services, didactics, and visual/performing arts.

The Agency of Labor Statistics provides a regularly updated list of positions offer the highest wages. Psychiatrists rank high on this list, as practice oral and maxillofacial surgeons, obstetricians and gynecologists, and general internal medicine physicians.

If y'all want a job outside of medicine and healthcare, other positions with loftier salaries include chief executive, airline pilot, calculator and data systems managing director, architectural and engineering manager, and marketing manager.

5. How Rigorous Will the Coursework Be?

Some majors may experience harder than others based on factors like typical homework load, class expectations, and frequency of exams. Your core classes (i.east., classes specifically related to your major) volition make up a significant portion of your college course load. So, earlier y'all declare a major, make sure you understand how rigorous your weekly workload will be.

Indiana University Bloomington'southward National Survey of Student Engagement, carried out in 2016, adamant the about hard majors based on the average fourth dimension students spent per calendar week preparing for classes. The hardest majors included architecture, chemical engineering, and aeronautical engineering.

Easier majors, which typically required less prep time, included fields like criminal justice, communication, and public relations.

six. What Does Your Academic Counselor Say?

Checking in with your academic advisor is one of the most important steps you lot can take when deciding on a major. They've had similar conversations with hundreds of students and can provide insightful wisdom into picking a major. Your counselor may even propose a major yous hadn't previously considered that meets your academic and career goals.

When speaking with an academic advisor, remember that their time is valuable and limited. Come to the meeting with a list of thoughtful questions to ask.

Should Yous Double Major in College?

Undergraduates aren't necessarily limited to one field of study. Most colleges and universities allow students to double major or even triple major. Normally, students who double major choose two academic fields that complement each other, though yous're not required to exercise this.

For example, students hoping to establish careers in international concern might double major in business direction and a strange language. Other popular major combinations include bookkeeping and finance, technology and math, political scientific discipline and philosophy, and criminal justice and psychology.

If you don't have enough room in your form schedule to pursue two majors, you tin also declare a minor in a secondary subject that interests you.

What If You Want to Design Your Own Major?

Recognizing that many learners accept specific interests and career aspirations, several colleges now allow learners to design their own interdisciplinary majors. If you lot're considering this path, it'southward important to advisedly review existing majors to ensure no existing option meets your needs.

Adjacent, you should consider whether your proposed individual major meets electric current and hereafter career requirements.

Lastly, you should speak with your advisor to get their input on important classes to include in your curriculum. You can besides speak to other students who created their own majors to larn about the pros and cons of this decision.

Some examples of student-created majors include music and technology, public education history, and psychology of marketing.

Frequently Asked Questions About Choosing a Major

When do y'all accept to declare a major? true

It depends on the school. Some students enter their kickoff year with a declared major, while others tin wait until their inferior year. Individual departments may prepare their own rules, so brand sure you inquire.

What should you lot do if y'all can't decide on a major? true

If you can't determine on a major, you accept several options. Taking classes from different disciplines can help narrow your choices, as can meeting with your academic advisor to review the pros and cons of the options y'all're because.

Tin can you modify your major? true

Aye, you lot can always modify your major. That said, if you consummate a significant number of classes related to one major and and so switch to some other, you may need to stay in school longer to come across the credit requirements of your new major.

Does it look bad to colleges if you apply with an undecided major? true

Definitely not. Colleges desire students to retrieve carefully well-nigh their decisions and not rush into any major if they're unsure.

Have a Question About Higher?

In our Enquire a College Advisor series, experienced advisors provide an insider look at the college experience by answering your questions well-nigh college admissions, finances, and student life.

Some college majors are more than pop than others due to their high earning potential and strong job prospects. Learn what the meridian ten majors are in this guide. Choosing a higher major is a conclusion many students agonize over. Here, recent grads offer new students advice they wish they'd heard earlier. Many students flock to just a handful of popular majors, leading to crowded fields. A well-chosen major and pocket-sized can give you a competitive edge for jobs.

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