How should I figure out my major?

Big questions get big answers, so read this when you have some time to really think about it:

Making decisions on career paths can be a pretty daunting task, especially if you are going straight from high school into a college or university. That said, I empathize with your situation. It took me YEARS to figure out what I wanted to do for a living!

Similarly, directly out of high school, I also detested anything to do with mathematics, (because I was terrible at it in high school) or the hard sciences, (like physics or chemistry), but now, oddly enough, I'm a physicist! (I forced myself to love mathematics by forcing myself to understand the underlying concepts. Once I really worked hard at it, I became pretty darn good at it, and started to like it a lot more)

Additionally, like you, I've always been interested in courses in history, philosophy, politics, and sociology. This stems from my desire to know how things work, and a desire to think critically, and I LOVE to debate and argue. Maybe I should have been a lawyer, ha ha! While at University, I loaded up on these types of courses as electives to my physics degree, and extra ones to satisfy my personal interests.

So with your interests in mind, here are some positives and negatives. First, let's get the pesky negatives out of the way. The bad part is that English, communications, history, psychology, and most liberal studies majors are quite common. They may be rigorous to a degree, but it will be an uphill battle to find a job working in one of those specific fields. So, for example you could be a history major, but at least in the early stages of your career, there is a strong possibility that you won't be doing anything related to history. That's not to say there's no value in your degree. It's just that employers can be VERY picky about whom they hire since there are thousands of people with the same degree as you.

With that in mind, if you do decide to go to college right now, and you do decide to take one of the types of majors you mentioned, you would probably do well to push yourself as hard as possible and attempt to get into graduate school after obtaining a Bachelors degree. But be forewarned, while going for your Bachelors, even as a psychology, history, or philosophy major, they will require you to take at least a few math classes, and a few hard-science classes. Usually, they like students to have at least taken math courses up through Calculus I, and some combination of non-calculus based physics, biology, and/or chemistry.

My real advise to you is that if you really don't know what to do with your life, (as most people don't the minute they leave high school), staving off college for a year or two may be better for you in the long run, and might save you from wasting time, money, and frustration. As for me, I didn't go back to college until I was 31 - I'm a bit of a late bloomer ;) I had no idea what to do with my life, and as such, I had no desire to even go to college. So, I joined the Navy for four years directly after high school, and was able to see parts of the world, as well as gain some money for college if I chose to go at some point. The military is definitely not for everyone, and I'm not suggesting for you to even consider it. It's just that it was the right move for me. Perhaps it may be good for you to take a break from school for a bit, and find your passions.

Finally, if you do decide to go to college right away, (which is totally cool), you can usually come in as "undeclared" (i.e. you haven't chosen a major), and for the first year, or possibly two, you can work on getting general electives out of the way, and take some courses that you think you'd be interested in. That way you might be able to focus more on what it is you think you want to major in. If you go that route, try taking some courses that you had never considered before. Try branching outside of your comfort zone a bit. You might just surprise yourself and find something that you're passionate about, which you never had even considered before!

Best of luck!

So you basically seem to like studying human behavior, and you'd like a career with longevity and a nice salary. I'm just going to be specific and suggest two often overlooked paths/majors.

I would definitely recommend looking at human-computer interaction. Google terms like usability, user experience design, and ux. This is a great combination of learning how humans interact with software and web interfaces and how to design them for the future. It might seem very tech heavy but you don't have to be a master programmer to excel in it. This job market increases every day and often pays very well.

Second major is looking into geography. There's a path called human geography which studies a lot of sociological concepts related to location. Some of these jobs are like planning towns, planning where a new business should be located, understanding how people move around their city and why.

The good thing is you can find a lot of info about both careers by researching google before making a decision on taking classes and spending your time and money. That should give an idea on whether they interest you.

Hi, Mike,
Like you I wasn't sure what career to prepare for. I was studying biology because I liked it, and also psychology, sociology and anthropology. I saw an add for career interest testing at my college career center and was offered the Strong Interest Inventory. It changed my focus. I decided to pursue applied psychology and counseling. A master's degree is the minimum to really make a living so I finished my biology degree and applied to graduate school. Career centers at most colleges have vocational testing available to help you narrow your broad interests. You will have to take statistics in any social science or program, or if you are thinking about business applications, so learn it well. I agree that you can do many different things with a liberal arts degree. However, try to find a marketable skill relating to it: technical writing if an English major, marketing with communications, public policy with sociology, etc. Interest inventories help tell you what sort of occupations people who answer like you do are happy in, so I hope that helps you as it did me.

Hello Mike,

Choosing a major can be difficult as this decision can determine what career you will be pursuing in the future .
One important thing here is to consider what are the most important things for you in order to make the right decision.
You want a good paying job, do some research and use your network to find more about your options.
if you like psychology or sociology just continues taking thoses classes, you might want to pursue that and do a doctorate if you like to do some research and continues to read and write. This can be a good option for you. :)

And remember that there are no bad decisions, you will continue searching until you will find the right thing for you. Always keep learning !

Good luck !

If you are taking sociology and psych, it sounds like you are in a liberal arts college and not a vocational school? Assuming so, I want to encourage you to think a different way about college. College is not a place where you will take a lot of specific courses to learn a trade, although there may be some disciplines, like engineering or computer science, where that is more true. Rather, college is an amazing time in your life where you can look at a courseguide, be tantalized by the description of topics a class will cover, or books they will read, and just dive in. Learn new things, expose yourself to subjects you've never even considered, and enjoy the process. My honest feeling is that the most important thing you can learn in college is how to learn, how to read, how to write, and how to engage with people and ideas that are novel to you. If you can master those skills, it doesn't matter what you major in. You will have an interesting, successful life. And you can learn your job on the job.

Hi Mike,
Consider what career will pay your monthly bills. At least, $50,000 annual salary. The rent has been rising, even doubling, during the last 4 years. You could graduate with psychology (psychologist) or sociology (social worker) as your career. You could teach after graduating with your license. Another couple of years taking classes. Also, talk to the pros about their jobs. And if you're still not satisfied, why not go fishing or strolling on a beach? It's amazing what the tides will say when you're trying to relax and searching for inner light. You might laugh when those sea gulls fly overhead and squawk to agree with you. Best luck, Mark Wagner

Hey Mike,

Picking a major can be confusing and it helps to understand what you really enjoy. Having mentioned, that you want a decent paying job, one thing you could do is work backwards. Figure out a few jobs you might be interested in after graduation and look into the job requirements/ skills they need. It might also be helpful to connect with friends or contacts in related fields and figure out what academic qualifications will help you be well-prepared for one of those jobs.

I guess for me, the question you is, WHAT are you interested in? What is that thing you'd like to make a career out of? If you don't know, then perhaps you should look at some free online classes that places like MIT offer so you can look over notes, slides, etc. of various classes they offer but for free. Whatever you find yourself studying the most of or being drawn to, that's where you should try looking around locally and finding out about how much classes are, student loans, etc.

Pursue what you're passionate about, don't chase a job just for the money. In the long run it will turn out to just be a job. I'd say chase what makes you happy, if it doesn't work out you can always pursue other avenues but at least you can say you pursued your dream. I have a friend that went into psychology and after trying it he wasn't as crazy as he thought he'd be about it. Now he does analytical work for the psychology department of his employer.

follow your heart and find what your are passionate about and that should be your major.

Hi Mike!

It's not easy knowing what you want to do when you have never done it! But, ANY degree is better than NO degree. Many jobs require degrees, and, quite honestly, there are many that don't really care what the degree is in, so long as you got one. Because of the economic downturn over the past 8 years, a lot of folks who could not find jobs went to college. And, way too many of those went on to get their master's. My advice? Keep going! Get the Bachelor's. Do NOT go for the Master's right away! Why? Because the real world work you will be doing will vary significantly from the classroom approach. You may or may not like it. Also, because, we are seeing people with Master's degrees, but no solid experience, are having trouble finding a job. They are overqualified for entry-level, because of the degree, but underqualified for the higher positions, because they lack experience.

But, what to major in? So many choices! There is nothing wrong with a liberal arts degree. I've seen people with Communications degrees who became the PR person for large corporations. I've seen people with Sociology (and Chemistry!) degrees who worked their way up in Banking positions. I challenge you to take the difficult classes and make sure you are actually learning something for all that money, and not just getting a piece of paper. Hone your critical thinking skills. Learn to write powerful papers. Master public speaking. Take a logic course. Get really good at doing research. These skills will serve you well anywhere you go!

As to careers? First off, people don't stay in one job anymore. In fact, those who stay with one company over 5 years are often looked down on as stagnant, and not pushing themselves to grow. So you sort of make your own career path, moving from one to the next. You would be amazed at how you can sell yourself in different areas, with a really good resume. Now, a lot of folks with liberal arts degrees also go into gov't positions. Some pay well, some pay really low. If you think you might do that, you could look at getting a minor in Public Administration, if available.

Also, get some work experience while in school, if possible. Call center and retail jobs both provide customer service experience, which a lot of companies are looking for, even in filling professional positions. Do a little volunteer work. Try to figure out what you like!

Finally, while some people look down on liberal arts degrees, the beauty of the degree is it is marketable in soooo many different directions. The hard sciences, or Accounting, by contrast, limit your options. So, although it might be a little more difficult to find a good paying job, you will be able to find an entry-level position and work your way up!

Best of luck!
Kim