How did you decide what to major in?

[TD_washingtonredskins]

I see where you are coming from, and I agree to a point. To me though it is just insanity to do something that doesn't make you happy so that you can earn enough money to keep doing something that doesn't make you happy.

Well, it's not binary. What I do doesn't make me happy, but I'm not miserable. In addition, I don't agree with the logic in your second sentence. I'm not earning enough money to keep doing my job...I'm earning enough money so that I can maximize the joy I feel during the time outside of my job.

I love being able to take my family out to dinner or to the movies. I love the look on my 3-year old daughter's face when I can surprise her with a Disney princess doll that she loves or the look on my 5-year old son's face when I took him to a baseball game last summer. There are a number of industries I could work in which might feel better during the 8-9 hours I'm at work, but would have us very tight on what we could do to enjoy the other 15-16 hours in a day.

[Stugein]

Well, it's not binary. What I do doesn't make me happy, but I'm not miserable. In addition, I don't agree with the logic in your second sentence. I'm not earning enough money to keep doing my job...I'm earning enough money so that I can maximize the joy I feel during the time outside of my job.

I love being able to take my family out to dinner or to the movies. I love the look on my 3-year old daughter's face when I can surprise her with a Disney princess doll that she loves or the look on my 5-year old son's face when I took him to a baseball game last summer. There are a number of industries I could work in which might feel better during the 8-9 hours I'm at work, but would have us very tight on what we could do to enjoy the other 15-16 hours in a day.

I get it. I just think of my wife & kids and think that it would just make everyone miserable if I was miserable. I think the day to day stress and frustration of having to "grind" every day would wear on my mood and that would rub off and everyone would just be overall less happy for it.

[AsburySkinsFan]

See, again I disagree depending on what your long-term goals and priorities are.

I'm not saying that money is everything, because it's not. But if you want things like financial freedom, a family, etc. then you can't always just follow your passion.

Sure you can, but everything is a trade-off. I could have a caeer that makes a lot more money, but that demands more of my time which costs my family and my faith, plus if I'm not passionate about my career then I'm wasting my life for what?

It reminds me of the prable of the rich man and the fisherman.
A rich business owner took his first vacation in years and sitting on a beautiful Mexican beach he watched as a local man went to the shore with his fishing net. After an hour or so the local packed up his catch and his net and began to leave. This confused the businessman, so he approached the fisherman with a question: "It is still early in the day, why did you quit fishing?"
"Because I have all I need."
Still confused the businessman explained, "Yes, but if you keep fishing then you can sell what you have left over and then buy a boat to catch more fish so you can buy more boats to hire people to fish for you so you can sell those fish and make a lot of money."
Now it was the local's turn to be confused, "Then what would I do?"
"Well," said the businessman "then you could cone down here and relax on this beautiful beach."
"But, that's what I do now." replied the local.

The American way is to take the long way to get to where we really want to be.

[artmonkforHOF]

I had horrible advice for picking a college major, so I make it a point to try and give some good advice (IMO) whenever asked.

First, if you don't know what you want to do, don't go to college, this world doesn't need anymore bartenders with geography degrees, and you will hate yourself, your job, your life and education in general if you decide to go to school "just to go". My personal opinion is that college is a waste if you do not intend to be a professional, like a lawyer, doctor, engineer or accountant. Any other type of degree is just a pre-graduate degree, which is essentially useless unless you plan on going to grad school.

You said no to engineering, but you might like accounting. Apply to a school that has some sort of accounting program and a clear path to get your CPA. That's another thing about the adult world no one bothers to tell you, accreditation is key to getting paid well. Don't bother getting into accounting if you don't want your CPA, an accountant without it is pretty much as useless as the bartender with the geography degree. Another thing is make sure the school you apply to specializes in your field of study, that way if you find a tangent along the way you might be interested in, say becoming an insurance actuary (look it up if you don't know) , then you can transition easier within one school than trying to transfer somewhere new.

[Pick6]

Dude, this is simple. Sign up for your core courses your freshman year. Declare as undecided. You can change it after the fall or spring. Hopefully after the first year it will come to you.

I eventually settled on Business Management and a minor in English. I'm now working on my MBA part-time and might eventually get a Ph'D in business management.

If your thinking about accounting, try a course your spring semester. If you don't like it, you can drop or it counts towards your elective. Don't worry about the job yet. Like a lot of people have already said, they're not even working in their field of study today.

[btfoom]

HS senior here.

I have no clue what I am going to major in.

I've taken AP...

Calc 1, World history, Human Geography, Lang, US history

and am currently taking

Calc 2, Comp Sci, Literature and Econ.


I honestly don't have any subject that I particularly favor. My grades are usually pretty good. Also, I don't mind calc or anything but its not exactly my forte (though I manage B's).

I know this doesn't really give you guys much to go off of, but I'm sure some of you also lacked a real passion for anything and didn't know what to major in. Any suggestions?

Also if it helps, I doubt I would consider engineering, mechanical stuff, comp sci, or lib. arts...

I've been looking into accounting. More than anything I'm just looking for a major with a decent salary with decent job opportunities (like everybody else is... lol).

Anyways, suggestions or insightful stories are appreciated. Thanks everybody!!!

Nice, you live in the same neighborhood as I do.

The first thing I would ask you is what do like to do in your 'off time'? This is the time away from school, organized activities, etc. Figure out what you really enjoy doing and then look at different jobs that utilize those skills.

One specific thing job that I can recommend for someone living in MD is to apply to University of Maryland and go for Fire Protection Engineering. They have lots of hands on courses that deal with preventing fires and stopping small fires from being larger fires. Very fun stuff. The best part - it is one of the very few schools in the country that offers this major as a 4 year degree. My brother majored in this and when he graduated, there were 28 people in his graduating class. Every one had a solid job (plus several other offers) that they walked right into. Many go on to own/run their own business and either enjoy the hands-on role or the design role.

No matter what, don't fret too much about your major. You'll figure it out along the way.

And of course, when it comes down to tie-breakers, go where the babes go?

[Old Bay]

I love history so that's what I studied. I wanted to originally go into the park service. Got sidetracked outside of school and now do a sort of history related but not really job. I don't think I could've done anything else outside of history. I minored in anthropology, but didn't enjoy it as much as history, but thought it a good compliment. Don't regret it because I think that my history courses helped me in developing critical thinking and writing skills which are skills that will be used for the rest of my life.

[Bacon]

In addition, I don't agree with the logic in your second sentence. I'm not earning enough money to keep doing my job...I'm earning enough money so that I can maximize the joy I feel during the time outside of my job.

Yeah, that's what I'm looking for as well. Do I want to be a massively successful writer? Of course, it's where my passion is. When I have time outside of class, I write fiction. It makes me happy. Will I be able to feed my wife and pets (and, in the future, kids) with that? Probably not, and certainly not to start. So I chose publishing in order to pick up relevant connections so I can 1) get paid and 2) maybe get the work I'm passionate about off the ground. Yeah, I'll be in school for an eternity and yeah it may be a slog once in a while, but that's the best way to support myself, as I have a passion outside of my major that's unrealistic.

If your passion is entirely practical, that's even better. That is the case for some people, and many of them do quite well. Like Stadium-Armory said on the last page, I can't fathom how someone could love their job so much that it is what inspires them to get up every morning, but that's no knock on them. In many ways, they're the lucky ones.

FWIW, the only person I've ever known who went to college and made a career out of it was my mother. She went to school to get an art degree, but went back a second time and got a degree in physical therapy, a field she's been in for about 35 years. Still at it. Managed a nursing home for a bit and hated it, now she's doing outpatient therapy, but I don't know if she's going to keep at it for much longer. She's almost at retirement age, as is my father, who hasn't had a "job" in about 15 years. He was all set up to be a paralegal. Now he preaches to prison inmates. He's never been happier.

My wife has a degree in film editing but now works as a training coordinator for American Licorice. WTF

Basically, just take it one day at a time. If unhappy days start piling up, do something else. Don't plan your life out now, because it's not going to work out the way you planned anyhow, and you'll squander a lot of perfectly good time trying to make something happen that doesn't need to.

[Darth Tater]

What was easy and interesting.
I was going into software development and a CS major was a waste of time and money. You learn how to develop software by developing software.

Not much help.

[TD_washingtonredskins]

Asbury, good points, but I think I must have misrepresented my situation. I'm not an overworked, miserable guy. I work 40 hours per week with the occasional evening or weekend task. I take my kids to school and pick them up almost every day. I get to see all of their games, practices, recitals, etc. I even have time to volunteer with various local groups.

And I don't hate what I do at all...it's just not something I'm passionate about and I'm not "making a difference" in any way. If a Federal agency didn't automate some process we are working on, the sun will come up tomorrow. I could push myself more and be more financially stable than I am. But that's not the life I wanted either. I like the balance I've struck and it is worth the small sacrifice of not living a dream I might have had when I was 18.

In fact, the role I play at work now matches my personality quite well. I'm detail oriented, a little type A, and relatively organized. A lot of the things I'm required to do on a daily basis are things I would naturally do for my personal sanity...so it's a good fit and isn't hard to succeed in my role.

To me, the joy I have when I come home to my family is the dream I have always wanted...how I get to that moment is of far less significance to me.

[skinswillwin06]

I was always good at math from elementary school through high school. Thought I was just going to major in math in college, but luckily my school had a combined major of Math & Economics. So I got to learn about two things I love, numbers and money. Also this gave me a wide range of possible career paths as I never knew exactly what I wanted to do, besides something with numbers. I graduated in May and I was lucky enough to find a job that I like and is in my major after about 4 months of looking. It's a little bit boring but I think most jobs that would fit my major are boring save for working for a sports team. So if I were you, I would take some general ed classes your first semester and just see what you like and what you are good at and go from there.

[AsburySkinsFan]

Asbury, good points, but I think I must have misrepresented my situation. I'm not an overworked, miserable guy. I work 40 hours per week with the occasional evening or weekend task. I take my kids to school and pick them up almost every day. I get to see all of their games, practices, recitals, etc. I even have time to volunteer with various local groups.

Excellent.

And I don't hate what I do at all...it's just not something I'm passionate about and I'm not "making a difference" in any way.

See, I've worked the 40 grind where I wasn't making a difference and it drove me nuts. For me if I'm not making a difference in some tangilble ways I just feel like I'm wasting time, which probably explains why I do what I do.

[Mini Deisel]

Journalism, IT, or Poly/Sci. If you have opinions in government or pop culture than Journalism and Poly/Sci are the way to go. There will always be jobs in IT as well. Good Luck all.

[fullnelson9999]

By going to college and not declaring my major until I had experimented with a bunch of different electives.

Ended up in journalism, and am happy for that.

[Die Hard]

I see where you are coming from, and I agree to a point. To me though it is just insanity to do something that doesn't make you happy so that you can earn enough money to keep doing something that doesn't make you happy.

I see someone has recently seen the Alan Watts video :-)

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151304160085020

Stop the cycle of all wretch and no vomit!

---------- Post added December-13th-2012 at 11:42 PM ----------

The American way is to take the long way to get to where we really want to be.

Because most people have never been introduced to becoming consciously aware their belief systems. Therefore, they are prone to unconscious living controlled by their external environment. A small percentage reach threshold and do something about it