What if I want to go to college but don't know what to major in?

Depending on your situation, I would advise a few different approaches:

For any of the below situations, you should start by doing the following:

1) Find out who your academic advisor is and go visit them during their office hours. Talk with them about what you like and what you're good at. They will suggest different majors that might interest you. Then talk about different strategies to still graduate within 4 years and pursue majors. Don't leave it all up to the advisor, however, you should be doing your own research based off of their advice.

2) Use your required courses intelligently. You should be taking courses that are required for graduation (like Math, Natural Science, and Humanities if you are at a liberal arts institution). Take courses that might further your exploration in a major of interest rather than taking a course because you hear it is "easy" or simply because your friends are taking it.

3) Go to the career center and seek advice there regarding internships and different talks/job fairs that you can attend. Speaking to people in an industry that you are interested in might give you a solid understanding of a job that you want to pursue. Ask people who have job that you want what they majored in or what skills are needed for their industry.

4) Go to as many talks as you can. Departments often host talks or lectures of current students, faculty, or visiting professionals about areas of interest in that discipline. If there aren't a lot of flyers advertising these types of events, ask professors or go to the department office and ask the secretary of any upcoming talks, lectures, activities, etc.

I you are not enrolled at a 4-year institution yet, consider attending a community college for a year or two and then transferring to a 4-year institution. This will be much less expensive as you figure out what you are interested in. If two years sounds like a long time, consider the difference in tuition money you will need to take out in loans and how long it will take you to pay that loan back with interest. I can almost guarantee you that it will take you longer than 2 years to repay the difference in debt. If you do decide on a community college, ask the transfer counselor at the community college what 4-year instituions accept their credits. They should have a list of schools--this will be your list of 4-year schools to choose from so your community college credits will still count toward your 4-year school's degree.

Hi Hanna,

Great question! Professor Ruggles' advice above is fantastic. I don't think I can add to that, but I'd love provide some of my personal experiences if it's helpful.

First, it totally ok if you're undecided going into college. You should use it as an opportunity to learn as much about everything as possible. College is a unique opportunity, where the cost of tasking risks and learning is very low. Challenge yourself and be very curious. If your school offers pass/fail options, use it for challenging classes you'd never imagine taking.

I'm huge believer in the idea of being a renaissance person. Take classes in STEM, humanities, and social sciences, even you find yourself not planning to major in any of them. Having a broad background in multiple disciplines will be very valuable down the line. It will allow you to think more creatively about problems, the world, and have real impact. It's ok to go broad in undergrad and if you find something compelling going deep via graduate school.

In college I ended up double majoring in social sciences and humanities. I created my own major, which was based off Oxfords PP&E (politics, philosophy, and economics) and had a second major in Creative Writing.

It turned out that the couple of computer science classes I took had huge impact in helping me find my passion for artificial intelligence research. My social science background made me realize I wanted to have an impact in humanitarian response. Its been a long and windy road. I went from studying humanities and social sciences to actively researching artificial intelligence and developing technologies for a startup today. In my free time, I apply my technology and AI skills to helping NGOs with humanitarian and disaster response.

You don't know what will inspire you in your life journey. So take this opportunity to be radically curious and explore as much as you can.