Choosing a major

[Liriena]

I think we have to approach this from two different mindsets simultaneously:

1. Right now, a lot of people can't afford the de facto luxury of choosing a major that they like but doesn't guarantee decent employment. This is specially true today in countries where public funding for the sciences has suffered the consequences of austerity, and where the private sector has no interest in various disciplines (and specially many social sciences). Telling those people to just pursue their dreams and go for the major that they are most interested in, regardless of future work prospects, is kind patronizing and near-sighted in a sense.

2. That being said, I still think that prioritizing the majors that you are most interested in regardless of the job market for them is the ideal choice.

You might be able to strike a balance.

[Kannap]

Many people going into college or people already in college sometimes have a hard time deciding on a major. Many people choose a major depending on their interests and other people choose a major depending on the demand of a certain job. How should we really choose our major when we go into college? should we choose a career that we will actually enjoy? or choose a job that will give us a good amount of money because the demand for people in that job is high?

Personally, my path so far has been one of indecisiveness, not knowing what I want to do, and changing my major countless times. All in all, it's a shit strategy and I've been in college for four years and am no closer to a degree than I was four years ago.

Presently pursuing my associate's degree in accounting and finance and hoping to graduate with that in December 2020 and be done for a while - pursuing a bachelor's later if an employer pays for it.

[Nanatsu no Tsuki]

I personally chose a major out of living it. But done choose majors due to high demand in the field. It’s really a toss. Work happy and not gain much, which causes its own struggles or work and earn much but don’t be happy, which is also a struggle. Of course, your chosen major can bring you both happiness and a lot of money so... I can’t really say how others should choose.

[Major-Tom]

It's up to the individual whether or not they want to follow their passion or go for something they know will be lucrative down the road. I opted for the former, majoring in Secondary English w an emphasis in English, minoring further in English as a second language and political science.

In other words, I'm studying to be a high school/secondary school teacher, and I don't expect to be paid well once I start teaching in a short two years time. That said, I'm psyched to do it and teaching is something I've wanted to do for ages. My passion over my paycheck.

[Greed and Death]

Pick a subject with good employment prospects like engineering, programming, or accounting.

Only go into Liberal arts if you can be in the top 10% of your country's universities or if you really want to go into academics.

[US-SSR]

Major in what you love, not what people say will be lucrative. Go to college with your friends, don't try to impress the worthless offspring of The One Percent. The really good outcome of your four years of college, regardless of where or what you study, is that if you pay attention and apply yourself at the end of that time you will be able to tell when someone is talking rot.

[Xmara]

I think we have to approach this from two different mindsets simultaneously:

1. Right now, a lot of people can't afford the de facto luxury of choosing a major that they like but doesn't guarantee decent employment. This is specially true today in countries where public funding for the sciences has suffered the consequences of austerity, and where the private sector has no interest in various disciplines (and specially many social sciences). Telling those people to just pursue their dreams and go for the major that they are most interested in, regardless of future work prospects, is kind patronizing and near-sighted in a sense.

2. That being said, I still think that prioritizing the majors that you are most interested in regardless of the job market for them is the ideal choice.

You might be able to strike a balance.

Yeah, I think if you examine all of your options, you can find something you love that you'll be able to find a job in.

I am definitely against forcing kids to major in something they have no interest in. Just because it means a high salary, or because it's what you do for a living, or because you're wanting to live vicariously through your children does not mean that your kid would want to do it or should do it. Some kids aren't cut out to be doctors or lawyers, and that's fine.

I am also against going with a career path simply because of the money. When I was in high school, there was a huge number of students who were planning to become doctors, lawyers, nurses, dentists, and accountants. For many of them, they wanted those jobs because of the money. When I was a freshman/sophomore in high school, I wanted to be a science teacher. I was talking to another girl in one of my classes (who wanted to major in business) about it, and she was like "you're not gonna make a lot of money," and I was like "I don't care because I'll be doing what I love." Her response was "I don't care if I hate my job. I just wanna make a lot of money." Of course, I ended up changing my mind (several times actually; it wasn't until my second semester of my freshman year of college that I decided I wanted to be a forensic scientist).

But yeah. Major in what you love, but also make sure you can find a job in it and be able to make enough to live comfortably.

[Liriena]

I think we have to approach this from two different mindsets simultaneously:

1. Right now, a lot of people can't afford the de facto luxury of choosing a major that they like but doesn't guarantee decent employment. This is specially true today in countries where public funding for the sciences has suffered the consequences of austerity, and where the private sector has no interest in various disciplines (and specially many social sciences). Telling those people to just pursue their dreams and go for the major that they are most interested in, regardless of future work prospects, is kind patronizing and near-sighted in a sense.

2. That being said, I still think that prioritizing the majors that you are most interested in regardless of the job market for them is the ideal choice.

You might be able to strike a balance.

Yeah, I think if you examine all of your options, you can find something you love that you'll be able to find a job in.

I am definitely against forcing kids to major in something they have no interest in. Just because it means a high salary, or because it's what you do for a living, or because you're wanting to live vicariously through your children does not mean that your kid would want to do it or should do it. Some kids aren't cut out to be doctors or lawyers, and that's fine.

I am also against going with a career path simply because of the money. When I was in high school, there was a huge number of students who were planning to become doctors, lawyers, nurses, dentists, and accountants. For many of them, they wanted those jobs because of the money. When I was a freshman/sophomore in high school, I wanted to be a science teacher. I was talking to another girl in one of my classes (who wanted to major in business) about it, and she was like "you're not gonna make a lot of money," and I was like "I don't care because I'll be doing what I love." Her response was "I don't care if I hate my job. I just wanna make a lot of money." Of course, I ended up changing my mind (several times actually; it wasn't until my second semester of my freshman year of college that I decided I wanted to be a forensic scientist).

But yeah. Major in what you love, but also make sure you can find a job in it and be able to make enough to live comfortably.

I got lucky-ish because, in my pursuit of the dream to become a journalist, I majored in Communication Sciences, a major which also enables me to work in fields such as advertising, media planning, research and media policy. So if I failed to find a job as a journalist (which seemed likely not too long ago and I was repeatedly warned by professors to be a huge possibility), I had the opportunity to work as a community manager or something like that, and not feel like I'd wasted years getting my degree.





The good news is that I eventually did find work(-ish) as a journalist.

[Internationalist Bastard]

I majored in child psychology
With a minor in pain

[Vetalia]

It worked out okay for me. I originally declared a major in finance at Ohio State back in 2006 because I was fascinated by equity markets, corporate finance and trading, but switched to accounting in my sophomore year because I really enjoyed the accounting classes I had taken and excelled in them. That turned out to be the right choice given that in 2008-2009 the economy imploded and finance jobs were hard to come by. Even so, it was still so bad in 2010 I went to grad school and did my Masters in Accounting to buy more time and get my credits for the CPA exam. In another timeline I think I would have gone for an astronomy/physics major as that is my true passion outside of work but I didn't know that until I was well on my way to a BSBA.

Your best bet is to choose whatever you find to be your passion, keeping in mind a few key points:

1. Is the field I'm majoring in going to be something I want to do for a long time, even the rest of my working years? (you can always switch careers in the future or go back to college but it's easier to figure this out earlier)
2. Does it pay well enough either directly or indirectly to cover the loans I am taking out to pay for this?

If the answer to these two are "yes", than go for it. If #1 is an obstacle, weigh the benefits vs. the costs and decide accordingly; it's much easier to switch careers or go back to school for another degree if you have money saved up. In that case, stay away from the more intense majors (e.g. medicine) and focus on something that is marketable, but unremarkable.

If #2 is an issue, stay far away...being enslaved to a massive debt you can't discharge and living paycheck to paycheck is going to be a lot worse than sucking it up and going for a more marketable field until you pursue your dream in the future.

[New haven america]

Didn't know what I wanted to do in life, went to college anyway, found an interesting job/career that requires at least a master's of science degree, only have the funds and ability to get an AAoT.

RIP.

[Xmara]

Yeah, I think if you examine all of your options, you can find something you love that you'll be able to find a job in.

I am definitely against forcing kids to major in something they have no interest in. Just because it means a high salary, or because it's what you do for a living, or because you're wanting to live vicariously through your children does not mean that your kid would want to do it or should do it. Some kids aren't cut out to be doctors or lawyers, and that's fine.

I am also against going with a career path simply because of the money. When I was in high school, there was a huge number of students who were planning to become doctors, lawyers, nurses, dentists, and accountants. For many of them, they wanted those jobs because of the money. When I was a freshman/sophomore in high school, I wanted to be a science teacher. I was talking to another girl in one of my classes (who wanted to major in business) about it, and she was like "you're not gonna make a lot of money," and I was like "I don't care because I'll be doing what I love." Her response was "I don't care if I hate my job. I just wanna make a lot of money." Of course, I ended up changing my mind (several times actually; it wasn't until my second semester of my freshman year of college that I decided I wanted to be a forensic scientist).

But yeah. Major in what you love, but also make sure you can find a job in it and be able to make enough to live comfortably.

I got lucky-ish because, in my pursuit of the dream to become a journalist, I majored in Communication Sciences, a major which also enables me to work in fields such as advertising, media planning, research and media policy. So if I failed to find a job as a journalist (which seemed likely not too long ago and I was repeatedly warned by professors to be a huge possibility), I had the opportunity to work as a community manager or something like that, and not feel like I'd wasted years getting my degree.





The good news is that I eventually did find work(-ish) as a journalist.

I got lucky because I love science and careers in biology aren’t hard to come by.

[Ubekibekibekibekistanstan]

Can someone explain American degrees to me? I can't fathom why you'd want someone to get tested in more than one subject area for a single subject degree. Speaking as a Brit with a BA Hons History with Politics.

I've wondered about this myself, despite being an American. I think this gives a pretty good explanation: link

[Forsher]

Price signals now are not a good guide to market conditions in five or more years... recognising that, in practice, choices of subject in school limit ones options later on.

The best approach is to learn what makes what you're interested in employable. Not to hope that you'll start drinking the accounting Kool-Aid after however many years of hating it.

[Krasny-Volny]

Nobody has a blank resume in the US these days. Even teenagers mow lawns or work at MacDonald's in the summer or part-time during the school year. All of that goes into the good old resume.

"Tell me, how has your lawn mowing experience prepared you for the position of on sight structural integrity management in deep surface drilling?"

"Well...um...if the grass was, like, greener...there might have been something underneath it or something?"

At least you have something on your resume and it's not 100% blank.

Lawn mowing experience is enough to get you a job sweeping up around the rig. After that you get promoted to roughneck. Your resume grows. Within a few years you're the crew foreman responsible for the rig. Then you get trained to a higher and higher occupational specialty until you're the resident expert on structural integrity management in deep surface drilling.

MacDonald's, farmhand experience, and mowing lawns will not get you a highly technical, desirable job. But they're not supposed to. They're what gets your foot in the door at the very bottom of the totem pole, you work your way up from there.

[Pope Joan]

I let others choose my path for me, mostly through aptitude testing. Do not do this.

Follow your heart but use your head.

I like history, but there is a HUGE glut of history PhDs on the market now and that will not lessen for years; a degree does not go away, it is there waiting to be used, and all those others are still waiting there in line ahead of you. So choose another major.

[Nilrahrarfan]

I hope it's not Gender Studies, because that sh*t is useless.

[Bezkoshtovnya]

I did both, majoring in history and then going into post grad museum studies. I went into college forced to do a major I had mo interest in by a family member but ended up changing because I couldn't stand it. As a fall back I have developed connections through the fraternity that are offering me a career path outside my major after school, so I guess it all really depends.

[Costa Fierro]

Outside of a few in-demand industries, most university qualifications aren't worth the paper they're printed on. Just live off the welfare system.

[Muinordgrad]

To be fair, the amount of people who lie on resumes is staggering. Unless if you're going to be like a doctor or lawyer or teacher or something like that where your resume will be absolutely scrutinized to the letter (or, in the case of teachers, you can't get your certifications without official records and coughing up a few grand so you might as well go to college anyway), a lot of people just put down that they have a 4 year from some nobody college that won't seriously be checked (for example, putting down that you went to West Meridian Community College rather than the University of Mississippi) and just kinda go in and work. A lot of places are just looking for any degree, rather than a specific degree. I'm a history major who's also gonna have a teaching certification, and while I'll probably end up graduating at 22 as opposed to 20 or 21, I'll at least have a "real" degree that can be used for something more than basket weaving or fast food.

Also, resumes are easier to put stuff on than you'd think. Just do something you enjoy and market yourself. Let's say you really did get a "Lesbian Dance Theory" degree. Yes, if you market yourself as a lesbian dance theorist, it'll be "interesting" trying to get a job. But if you market yourself as a researcher who has an incredible research aptitude and information gathering ability along with the endurance to get a 4 year degree, you should be able to get something that isn't entirely awful.

[United Muscovite Nations]

I chose my major (history) and minor (international relations) just because I enjoy them. I probably should have gone into ag science though because we have lots of connections in that world and I easily could have gotten $80,000 a year starting salary.

[Xmara]

I hope it's not Gender Studies, because that sh*t is useless.

I’m not someone who automatically dismisses certain degrees as “useless,” but what exactly can someone do with a gender studies degree?

Outside of a few in-demand industries, most university qualifications aren't worth the paper they're printed on. Just live off the welfare system.

That is a horrible idea.

I chose my major (history) and minor (international relations) just because I enjoy them. I probably should have gone into ag science though because we have lots of connections in that world and I easily could have gotten $80,000 a year starting salary.

But would you have been happy? Because no amount of money is worth having a job where you’re absolutely miserable.

[Thermodolia]

I majored in child psychology
With a minor in pain

There’s a joke in here somewhere

[Thermodolia]

Haven’t gone to college probably never will. If I did it would be History or PoliSci and then get a JD.

Though for me College is cheap as fuck, thanks GIBill

[Zuhayrian]

From my own standpoint, my chosen major (computer science / cybersecurity concentration) is already one which has high demand and high payout, and which happens to be something I enjoy. So I'd be lucky in that aspect. However, if you're facing the dilemma of interest vs opportunity, I would probably go with opportunity, then pursue interest. Of course, those majors would have to be somewhat related.