How to Pick a Correct Major

How to Pick a Correct Major

The choosing of a college major dilemma has haunted a lot of prospective students. It all may seem plain and simple when you are preparing to enroll in college. Just pick the major and get over it. Study hard and get a successful career. That’s pretty much it when you don’t know the details.

Then comes conflicting advice and opinions, which career is better for you. Your parents may wish for a different future for you from the one you envision. Your school teachers may come up with their own opinion as well. And you start feeling hesitant when picking a subject to major in. And you start fearing the future.

You start thinking about balancing your studies with various odd jobs that you will take in order to pay your tuition and rent. And boy, you are happy that you will be able to buy an essay online from a paper writing service. As it will mean an extra hour or two of sleep. And you graduate from college dissatisfied with your major, and willing to do something else.

Thinking about the prospective exhaustion of college life and being under the weight of various opinions, makes things way more different. But you may get in a more difficult situation if you have absolutely no idea which major to pick. But that problem can be easily fixed.

Things may look even more uncertain if you cannot decide on the subject to major in, and don’t have any particular aspirations. While it’s possible to enter college with an undecided major, a lot of prospective students worry that such a move will have a negative outcome. But you need to remember several things here:

- College allows students to take any classes that may help you to decide on a major;

- Volunteer programs and internships can help you decide on the field;

- Visiting Q&A sessions with college departments can help you pick a major;

But you may need it only in case you simply don’t know what you’re good at and have no particular interests in your prospective career. These tips can also be helpful when you can’t decide between the two majors. But if you have at least a vague idea, you should use the next steps to pick the correct major.

You may pick up a major that guarantees a shiny and profitable career, but you are unlikely to succeed in it if you have zero interest in the field. Most likely you are going to wound up exhausted and miserable. That’s why you need to pick your major based on your interests. Of course, the ideal variant is majoring in something that you are really passionate about.

But you can pick your major based on any subject that you are interested in. Who knows, maybe after studying a subject that wasn’t your primary interest, you will get more excited about it? Besides, you never know where your aspirations will lead you. You can major in biology, and end up building a career in molecular gastronomy.

Aside from following your interests, you should also consider your abilities. It’s better to major in something that you were good at in school. It doesn’t mean that you should stick to the subject that you got only A’s in, even though you have little to no interest in it. Besides, most likely you will get passionate about college courses in subjects that weren’t available in school.

The main idea here is that you should avoid trying to major in a subject you don’t understand. Let’s be honest, if you barely managed to get decent grades in maths, while studying in school, majoring in maths-related subjects is not the wisest move. So, consider subjects you were good at in school when picking your major.

Another thing to consider is your career goals. If you want a specific career, you need to be careful when choosing your major. Of course, not all of them, but certain careers require prospects to major in certain subjects. For example, if you want to become an engineer, you need to have a degree in engineering.

If you want to be a doctor, you should also major in certain subjects. Trying to enter med school with the wrong major will require you to complete an expensive pre-med school program. But there are a lot of career paths, like journalism and entrepreneurship, where you have plenty of optional subjects to choose from for your major.

And that’s the aspect that your folks have been telling you about throughout your school years. Your potential employability. And while it may have sounded like classic nagging, now you really need to consider your potential of getting employed when figuring out your major. Here are the important questions you need to ask:

- Will you be able to find a job with your degree?

- Will it be hard or easy?

- Will you have to relocate?

And then you should start finding answers to these questions by checking the professions that face shortages of employees or growth industries. You should also consider the skills that your major will provide you with, and how applicable they are to this or that profession. Answering those questions will help you pick the right subject for the degree.

And finally, you need to consider your future income potential, when figuring out what subject to major in. If a high salary is an important aspect of your future career, you need to be realistic about your career interests. You need to understand that if your passion is teaching or social work, it’s unlikely that you’re going to make a fortune.

You can research the payscale data for various professions, as well as the median salary for graduates with a particular major. Getting acquainted with the data will help you get a more or less clear picture of the subject to major in.

Choosing a major can be a hard task, but if you start exploring this topic early on, you have a good chance to pick the one that suits you best. The only question that may bug you is what if your interests shift to a different field. But that’s not as big of a problem as it may seem. Most of the students change their major at least once, so you can always ask your counselor to help you out with it.