what to do if you pick a wrong major
The Pupil's Guide to Choosing a Major
If you're confused about how to choose a college major and feel like picking a major is causing a lot of stress, this guide tin can help.
past Staff Writers
Published on October 5, 2021 · Updated on March 8, 2022
Reviewed by Sarah Holliday, MS
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Ready to beginning your journey?
- Knowing what you're interested in and what you're good at tin help you lot choose a major.
- Talking with your bookish counselor could help y'all learn almost new degree options.
- Many colleges allow you create your own major and so yous can focus on a specific topic.
Choosing a major can be tricky, especially if you have multiple interests or don't know what kind of career you want 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 think almost your personality, personal and professional goals, and interests.
Including these variables in your decision process can assist ensure you cull a major that resonates with your personal mission, values, and passions.
6 Key Factors to Consider When Choosing a Major
Choosing a major represents a significant pace in the college process, and it shouldn't be taken lightly. Here are 6 factors to consider earlier 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 you choose a major, think most which of these iii factors — economical advantage, involvement level, and power — are most important and relevant to you and your future goals.
2. What Are You Interested In?
Studies have found that students tend to perform better in school when they tin focus on their interests. Unfortunately, it's non always easy for a student to place their interests.
To get aid with this, consider taking a personality quiz. For example, the Myers-Briggs Blazon Indicator questionnaire can help yous determine subjects that closely align with your personality and interests.
This pop cess uses your habits and attitudes to generate 1 of xvi personality types, written as a combination of four letters. Examples include ISFJ (introverted, sensing, feeling, and judging) and ENTP (extroverted, intuitive, thinking, and perceiving).
You can also explore potential areas of written report and career paths by joining student clubs, volunteering, working a function-time job on campus, managing a side hustle, or completing internships.
iii. What Are Yous Good At?
Agreement your natural skills and talents can go a long way in helping you make an informed and confident decision when choosing a major. It may be your parents' dream for you to exist an artist, but what if you skew more than toward business or the sciences? But because someone else has a degree path in mind doesn't mean information technology'southward right for you.
I style of determining which academic fields best suit you is to take a close look at your form grades in high school, every bit well as your ACT or SAT scores. Doing this can highlight your strengths in specific academic areas.
4. What Are the Highest-Paying Fields?
When because which major to pursue, determine how important salary and salary potential counterbalance into your decision-making process. If you're motivated by high earnings, pursuing a caste in a STEM-related field may appeal to you.
That said, some students intendance more about the importance of their work than the salary offered; they don't want a job simply for the coin. Non-STEM degrees that students are oftentimes passionate about relate to human services, education, and visual/performing arts.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics provides a regularly updated list of positions offering the highest wages. Psychiatrists rank loftier on this list, every bit do oral and maxillofacial surgeons, obstetricians and gynecologists, and general internal medicine physicians.
If you desire a job outside of medicine and healthcare, other positions with high salaries include chief executive, airline pilot, reckoner and information systems managing director, architectural and engineering managing director, and marketing director.
5. How Rigorous Volition the Coursework Exist?
Some majors may feel harder than others based on factors like typical homework load, grade expectations, and frequency of exams. Your core classes (i.eastward., classes specifically related to your major) will make up a significant portion of your college class load. Then, before you declare a major, make sure you empathise how rigorous your weekly workload volition be.
Indiana University Bloomington'due south National Survey of Student Engagement, carried out in 2016, determined the virtually difficult majors based on the boilerplate time students spent per calendar week preparing for classes. The hardest majors included architecture, chemical engineering, and aeronautical technology.
Easier majors, which typically required less prep time, included fields like criminal justice, communication, and public relations.
six. What Does Your Bookish Advisor Say?
Checking in with your academic advisor is one of the most important steps you can accept when deciding on a major. They've had similar conversations with hundreds of students and can provide insightful wisdom into picking a major. Your advisor may even suggest a major you hadn't previously considered that meets your academic and career goals.
When speaking with an academic counselor, remember that their time is valuable and limited. Come to the meeting with a list of thoughtful questions to ask.
Should You Double Major in College?
Undergraduates aren't necessarily limited to i subject field. Nearly colleges and universities allow students to double major or even triple major. Commonly, students who double major choose ii academic fields that complement each other, though you lot're not required to do this.
For example, students hoping to establish careers in international business might double major in business management and a strange language. Other popular major combinations include accounting and finance, technology and math, political science and philosophy, and criminal justice and psychology.
If you don't take plenty room in your form schedule to pursue two majors, you tin also declare a small in a secondary field of study that interests you.
What If You Want to Design Your Own Major?
Recognizing that many learners have specific interests and career aspirations, several colleges now let learners to blueprint their own interdisciplinary majors. If you're considering this path, it'due south important to carefully review existing majors to ensure no existing choice meets your needs.
Adjacent, you should consider whether your proposed individual major meets current and future career requirements.
Lastly, yous should speak with your advisor to get their input on of import classes to include in your curriculum. You can as well speak to other students who created their own majors to learn about the pros and cons of this conclusion.
Some examples of student-created majors include music and technology, public education history, and psychology of marketing.
Frequently Asked Questions About Choosing a Major
It depends on the school. Some students enter their first year with a declared major, while others can expect until their junior year. Individual departments may set their ain rules, so brand certain you lot ask.
If you can't decide on a major, you have several options. Taking classes from different disciplines tin can assistance narrow your choices, as can meeting with your bookish advisor to review the pros and cons of the options you're considering.
Aye, you can e'er alter your major. That said, if y'all complete a pregnant number of classes related to one major and then switch to another, you may need to stay in school longer to meet the credit requirements of your new major.
Definitely non. Colleges want students to think carefully about their decisions and non rush into whatsoever major if they're unsure.
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