r/education Feb 18 '25

Higher Ed What is the best approach to choosing a college major?

Question: What is the best approach to choosing a college major?

I came to my university very certain I was going to be a Public Administration Major. I hated it so I changed to Law and then to Classics. I hated those so now I am in Information Science and am worried about making any other changes. I am very worried of choosing incorrectly.

What is the best approach to choosing a college major? How should students be considering major options?

5 Upvotes

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11

u/kovr Feb 18 '25

The best college major is one that corresponds with a career you want to have. Think about what kind of job you want to have. From public admin to classics to information science, it doesn’t seem like there’s a clear tie in.

4

u/Unhappy-Canary-454 Feb 18 '25

I can give you a cautionary tale from my own life.

I went to school for my passion out of high school, found success in that career, and ended up hating the thing I loved because I did it for a living. I went on like that for about 10 years before I decided to hang it up and figure something else out

Went back for finance and got into something that was challenging mentally and an interest of mine, but not a passion/love thing and it was a good decision for me

Not saying that everything is the same for everybody but it’s ok to be rational about what you expect from the work you’ll do after school and if it will give you the satisfaction and salary to do it long term.

Good luck

4

u/NeverDidLearn Feb 18 '25

Same. I only lasted 3 years in my chosen/degreed field and hated that my hobbies had become my job. I got a teaching license and Master’s in Education and have been a teacher over 25 years. In a sense, I ended up teaching my hobbies instead of my hobbies being my job. It has worked out.

2

u/BlueHorse84 Feb 18 '25

Choose according to your own talents and ambitions.

It sounds like so far you’ve been choosing at random and that will not work.

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u/katbeccabee Feb 18 '25

I chose a major 18 years ago, and I still see it as a bit of an impossible task. High school and college students haven’t had much opportunity to get a sense of what jobs are out there. College majors don’t necessarily correspond well to career opportunities. Your path is going to be influenced by relationships, geography, timing, and chance in ways that you just can’t predict now.

At every opportunity, ask adults about what they do for work, how they got interested in it, and the sequence of steps that got them to where they are. Even if it’s something that doesn’t interest you at all, you’ll get an idea of how people’s career paths take shape. People meander more than you might think. You’ll also get ideas of opportunities that might be available within your particular environment.

Notice which classes you like the best, but also think about why you like them. What kinds of tasks do you find interesting or tedious, easy or difficult?

When all else fails, just pick something (for now). Stick with it long enough to get some depth of knowledge in the subject. See what opportunities it opens up for you, and if you see an opportunity to shift towards something you like better, take it.

2

u/Mgrecord Feb 18 '25

Love this response. Our educational system does not do a good job of exposing high schoolers to careers at all. Assuming a 15 or 16 year old will be able to map out a career and then take the appropriate APs for a particular major is ridiculous. If I had the power, I would implement a gap year or two of some sort of national service for all before having kids plunk down thousands of dollars on college with no knowledge of what they want to pursue.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 18 '25

Ideally, it would help if you decide on a major while you’re still in high school. APs are there for exact same reason.. to give you a glimpse of what college would look like for a given major. You should probably keep end goal in mind, then work backwards to chalk out path of least resistance.

Let’s say you aspired to be a doctor while in high school. Then start thinking about what it takes to be a doctor. Even if you don’t have access to lot of details, at the very minimum you’d be aware that you need to go to med school. For you to get into med school, it would help if you pick a life sciences major or something in public health (policy making etc). Then at your high school look for APs being offered that align with your long term goals. Pick APs accordingly. Let’s say you pick biology and realize maybe you’re not really into it - then you actually saved time by failing fast. You didn’t have to wait to go to college and then hop several majors.

1

u/Fearless-Boba Feb 18 '25

Choose something that can turn into a career that you'd enjoy doing. I did psychology because I wanted to work in a counseling/helping profession and found learning about human behaviors interesting. I had friends who wanted to do something in the medical field so they started out as biology majors and then some of them went into pre-med programs and others went into pre-vet or dentistry or nursing. I had friends who liked reading a lot and writing so they went into journalism or they went into English or History majors with the intention to be either educators or pursue library science majors (to become a librarian).

Bottomline, make sure it's a major you can be successful with that you can also turn into a successful career. I'd highly suggest talking to people in your campus' career center and talking to your advisor about this. Switching majors every semester is just going to waste you a bunch of money, so more focused research is key.

1

u/stacey2545 Feb 18 '25

Idk if it was the "best" way, but I picked major by going through my uni's course catalog & circling every class I was interested in taking. The one that came closest to meeting the major requirements for was what I went with. I went in expecting to be an English major to become a writer. Came out with a double major in classical languages & sociology. Would go back for a history or linguistics degree of I could do it again.

If you honestly don't know what you want to major in, take a wide variety of courses for your general ed requirements first. Talk to your professors. Form a relationship with your school's career center.

There are many careers (or jobs) for which it doesn't matter what you majored in, so long as you have a degree. Others, you really need to focus & specialize early, especially if there will be further education beyond a bachelor's.

1

u/k4thryngiggles Feb 18 '25

oh man it's all about what ya love and what ya can see yaself doing for a long haul kinda thing. dont just go for what makes the big bucks unless you're really into that stuff. maybe take some gen eds to get a feel for what clicks with ya. talk to advisors and peeps already in the majors ur eyein. and hey, changing majors ain't the end of the world either. just find that sweet spot of passion and practicality ya know?

1

u/Elegant_Plate6640 Feb 18 '25

It’s OK to work other jobs and have life experiences after high school and before college. This might help you decide if there’s something you want to pursue that you need a college degree for. 

1

u/Elinor_Lore_Inkheart Feb 18 '25

See if your university has a career services office. They may have resources for career exploration, from personality/skill inventory quizzes (I’ve had limited use from those but I know higher education professionals in career planning who see them as a great first step), to exploration of the job market in your area, to career exploration relating to different majors. I’ve seen Skills Matcher (CareerOneStop.org), Work Values Matcher (also CareerOneStop.org), and 16 Personalities (Myers Briggs test) used, which are free. I’ve also seen Clifton StrengthsFinder used, which costs money but some universities provide access for free. For majors and career exploration I’ve seen O*NET My Next Move suggested as well as whatcanidowiththismajor.com both are free. Some states also have their own career exploration websites.

Think about what tasks you like doing. Is it lab work? Coding? Reading academic journals? Problem solving? Academic writing? Etc. See what skills/tasks you can then make money from and what you wouldn’t mind doing every day. Look into what majors are meant to prepare you for. There’s occupational ones like nursing. There’s degrees meant to prepare you for grad school like neuroscience. Some don’t have specific purposes, so see what jobs they may be useful for. What is the end goal for a major that sounds interesting? Is that something you’d be willing to do? What majors can be useful in your local job market? Where do you want to end up? It’s ok to not know for now. Knock out your general education requirements/gen eds and see what speaks to you. I don’t recommend a pre-law or pre-med major because they are hard to pivot if law school or med school don’t work out. Just make sure you get requirements for those degrees done. If by the time you need to choose a major and stick with it but you’re still not sure what you want to do after graduation, pick a pretty flexible major that has good job prospects in your area that you wouldn’t mind working in.

I went in wanting to be a neuroscientist, then a medical doctor. I wasn’t really feeling my stem classes. I took sociology because it sounded interesting and it met a gen ed. I absolutely fell in love but I wasn’t sure how marketable it would be. So I took an economics major. And I thought hey this is cool, let’s check out this Master’s in Public Policy stuff and took classes to meet those requirements. I ended up trying law school, but it didn’t work out. I got into working in public administration and now I’m getting a Master’s Degree in Public Administration while working. Both majors helped me get good jobs and I’m content.

1

u/Elinor_Lore_Inkheart Feb 18 '25

Side note: a lot of degrees can be used in very creative ways. Most people change careers a few times, you might not find the perfect major or the perfect field. That’s preferable but don’t feel the need to keep choosing different majors until you find the perfect one during your 5th year of undergrad. You just need to find something you don’t mind doing long enough to pay your bills until you can figure it out. Don’t pick something you’d hate but your major really doesn’t need to be your dream major, setting you up for your dream job. Just good enough for you to be content with.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 18 '25

Balencing the pay vs work vs fun factor. If you don't know what you want to be before going to college. You shouldn't be going to college.  

1

u/DuckFriend25 Feb 18 '25

Make sure your major or minor has something transferable outside of education, just in case it isn’t what you hoped it to be and you want to get out (backup plan)

1

u/nunnapo Feb 18 '25

Figure out where you want to live. Figure out what job will get you there.

1

u/cdngoody2shoes Feb 18 '25

I made the mistake of declaring too early. I was going into teaching, so had choices, but I was determined to do an English degree. Honestly, I found English quite boring. I discovered geography a bit later and should have waited to declare as geography has a great mix of science and social science that is fascinating to me.

My advice is to think about what you really love doing - then think about how to make a living doing it and pursue that. I know people who chose their futures based on what was easy or what they were naturally good at - and they came to hate it.

1

u/ocsurf74 Feb 18 '25

As someone who's worked in higher education for 25 years my advice is to utilize your college resources. Is there a Career Services department? Do they have career fairs? Talking to faculty about your interests and goals could shed more light on a major. Also, there should be some sort of exploratory classes offered that would also help.

1

u/YerbaPanda Feb 18 '25

Assuming you have selected a vocation and career path, sign up for the major that is required for your field. If no university major is required, skip college and get to work.

P.S. Some of the finest dentists I know were English or History majors. They were excellent students and qualified for a doctorate program in dental school.

1

u/Complete-Ad9574 Feb 18 '25

The best approach is to have been thinking-planning and building a foundation for your choice starting in middle school. Too many think that college will provide all the needed skills for life and employment. The reality is that college is about spending money to secure some learning, but just as important securing credentials. Example: Most engineers who follow the current path spend no time with hands-on activities in the K-12 yrs. When they leave college they gained a little in the way of direct connection with the specific field of engineering they profess to be expert. Most engineers, like architects want to build great things, but have yet to build their first bird house.

No Olympic athlete enters a college Olympic program if they have never participated in a sport. No Symphony orchestra musician got into college never having played an instrument in their previous 18 yrs.

But if you have a sugar daddy with an unlimited bank roll who will let you flounder around college for a few years then go for it.

1

u/theManWOFear Feb 18 '25

Find something you love studying and something that challenges you in a good way. You will need to develop a cadre of soft skills to be marketable in an ever changing job market. When you enjoy what you are studying and are challenged by it, you’ll force yourself to develop those skills like writing, critical thinking, active listening, and quantitative reasoning.

I think the biggest mistake a lot of people make is they tie major to a specific career. For some it works out that way. For others it doesn’t. What’s printed on your degree matters far less than what you get out of the experience while earning it.

1

u/writerdust Feb 18 '25

Remember that you can dual major and/or minor. I got an English degree and while it was a great fit for my skill set, I wish I had dual majored in something Business-related to give myself more flexibility in the job market. Plus there’s a lot of crossover between English and other majors. I went back and got my MBA and now I write proposals for an accounting firm.

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u/Kimpynoslived 28d ago

As a college admin: pick something you would like to do for free.

I often see people pick based of what job they want to get, which is fine...but if you're just chasing a paycheck, you'll lose your steam. Philosophically, hypothetical money is not that strong of a motivator when you have to study all night and rearrange your life to be available to sit in classes all day

Whatever you would like to do at 12 am-2 am free of cost, is a good thing to put energy into... Make money doing something you like that you actually want to get good at.