If you don't know what exactly it is you want to pursue a career in, how exactly do you pick a major for college/university?

There a several really great questions in there. I'm going to take them out of order. I hope that's okay.

Going into college undecided isn't uncommon at all. That said, I'd encourage you to do some planning relatively early on. There are general education requirements that would count toward essentially any major. However, depending on how you do on your placement tests for math and English, whether you're attending college full time or part time, etc., you've reliably got a semester or two, tops, in which you can take classes that would literally apply to ANY major.

The big sticking point, in my experience, is math. General education requirements for math differ quite a bit. Think of them as tiers or layers. If you're interested in a liberal arts-style major (e.g., English, history, philosophy, etc.), then that's one layer of math. If you're thinking of something like business, IT, or psychology, that's another. And if you're thinking about engineering, computer science, or biology, for instance, that's another still. Now, one solution is to decide before you get to math and settle on a track.

The other solution (which I'd encourage you to do, if you feel you're up for it) is to hedge your bets and take the highest math track. If you take the math track for engineering, then you're over-qualified on the math track for liberal arts, for example. It's not a perfect solution. You may still wind up having to backtrack if you change majors and pick up a statistics course, for example, even though you've already tackled calculus with analytic geometry. Math is quite major dependent.

So that brings us back to the research idea. Start by thinking about the careers you're interested in so far. Do they have any common threads? Are they mostly social? Do they all involve writing? Are they math dependent? One way to think about majors is as a carrying case for a set of skills. You're not locked into doing things that are literally related to your major. My major, for instance, was English Language and Literature. I didn't get a job analyzing literature after college, but I did get a job that required strong writing and editing skills, a solid knowledge of grammar, critical thinking, etc. You may find, if you think about it, that there are majors that cover the skill sets common to the careers that interest you.

Also, locate and visit the Career Center at your school. They'll offer career assessments, help you map out some of the careers you're already interested in, and perhaps even connect you with people already doing those jobs, so you can see first hand what it's like and how to get there.

Most of all, don't worry. You're not locked into anything. Make sense?

The whole idea of picking a major to follow a career is a static mindset. Every 5 years there are a plethora of new careers that are created. These careers may better suite you than what was available while you were in college.

For example; Customer Experience Design is a completely new career, the affordable care act has brought a lot of compliance geared careers, etc. The trick isn't choosing a major to follow a career path, it's choosing a major to reinforce or complement your skills. Think of three different careers, look at what skills and expertise are needed to excel in them, then choose a major that is the most pivot-able between those careers.

If all else fails, there's always grad school.

Good Luck!

Allya,

The good news is most colleges and universities have core requirements that every student has to take in order to fulfill graduation requirements; this allows you some time to explore different majors while still staying on track for graduation. Many of these core requirements are board, so you may be able to take an intro class for some of the majors you are interested, to see if that path would be a good fit for you. You will want to choose something you are passionate about, otherwise later down the line, you may not be happy with your choice.