So for all of those you in college right now or graduated or even those who are
still approaching it. . . . . . how did you choose your major?
I've just finished my freshman year of college and even now I'm still having
doubts about what I want to do. You see, the problem isn't that the work is too
difficult or that I'm not sure about what I want to do. . . it's that I want to
do TOO MUCH! I just can't fathom how you can narrow so many interesting
things down to one! I guess the second biggest thing is, not wanting to regret
my decision later.
So in the end, how did you know that your decision is/was the right one?
ah. i see what you mean. i still don't have a set route in life either. and i'll
give you the me:
- talk to your counsellors
- talk to your career advisors
- find out what you're good at, and what's fun for you that you won't get tired
of after so many years of doing
- set your priorities straight when looking for that major (ie. is salary more
important than enjoying it? etc)
and if you still can't choose, then i suggest you take a sabbatical so that you
don't waste your money on some course you possibly may not use later on. this is
the option i took since i don't want school debts on something i'll probably
abandon, and atm, i'm getting qualitifations part time for catering and stuff
since it's not that expensive or long, and i could get more money while i'm
still thinking of what to do. well it's definitely better than getting minimum
wage.
Mostly looking at what you want to do with your major. Like pre-meds want to go
towards Bio, lawyers mainly Poli Sci. I don't think you can regret because you
can always do a Masters or PhD in a totally unrelated field! Academics is
totally open to it.
I chose my major based on a few criteria: the classes I enjoyed, professors I
liked, and how useful I thought the major would be.
It's really important to enjoy what you are studying, and two ways to make sure
of that are taking classes that interest you, and taking classes with professors
that you like and get along with. But obviously those cannot be the only
deciding factors for one's major decision. The other consideration for me was
choosing a major that I thought would be useful for my career and post-college
life. In my case, I ended up double-majoring in Psychology and Political Science
with a concentration in International Relations.
I was fascinated with what we learned in Psychology, and almost all the
professors in that department were simply great. I was drawn to Political
Science because of this one particular professor who delivered amazing lectures
and always managed to establish great camaraderie with his students--he later
became my major advisor and I took many of my major classes with him.
In terms of usefulness, I didn't choose my majors based on my career aspirations
because, at the time I had none. (I do know now that I am considering
law/business school in a few years, and that I want to secure a position as a
corporate or litigation paralegal) Psychology was a lot of critical thinking,
researching, analyzing others' research, research-based writing, discussion, and
debates. And.. Political Science (International Relations) was great in that we
read like crazy and wrote like crazy. The Polisci IR concentration was a LOT of
reading (e.g. reading 300 pages for one
class) and writing based on those readings and our
understandings/interpretations of those readings. Of course there were lots of
discussion and intense debating as well. I think.. psychology fascinated me and
continued stir my intellectual curiosity, while political science honed my
writing skills, communication skills in general, and helped cultivate an
extremely disciplined work ethic that I can pride myself on.
Okay even though I wrote a lot more on my majors' usefulness but I still think
what should really drive your decision is the love for the topics and interest
in the said academic field. Don't take classes based only on what you think you
may want to do after college. For example, don't force yourself to sit through a
ton of uninteresting bio/chem classes just because you are thinking about
medical school; don't take economics classes that you hate because you want to
work on Wall Street. The material you learn may be important (e.g. computer
science), but the love for your studies and the skills you learn are also
extremely important. So go for a major that draws you in. ^^
Psh it was kind of the only one that the crappy college offered that even
remotely catered to the classes I was interested in. You see they didn't have
anything like a Degree in Writing and that is what I wanted so I had to choose
the Liberal Arts degree which is kind of the same but not really. I took only
two writing classes and had to drop out because there were no other classes
pertaining to writing and because college was getting too expensive.
So for all of those you in college right now or graduated or even those who are still approaching it. . . . . . how did you choose your major?
I've just finished my freshman year of college and even now I'm still having doubts about what I want to do. You see, the problem isn't that the work is too difficult or that I'm not sure about what I want to do. . . it's that I want to do TOO MUCH!
I just can't fathom how you can narrow so many interesting
things down to one! I guess the second biggest thing is, not wanting to regret
my decision later.
So in the end, how did you know that your decision is/was the right one?
ah. i see what you mean. i still don't have a set route in life either. and i'll give you the me:
- talk to your counsellors
- talk to your career advisors
- find out what you're good at, and what's fun for you that you won't get tired of after so many years of doing
- set your priorities straight when looking for that major (ie. is salary more important than enjoying it? etc)
and if you still can't choose, then i suggest you take a sabbatical so that you don't waste your money on some course you possibly may not use later on. this is the option i took since i don't want school debts on something i'll probably abandon, and atm, i'm getting qualitifations part time for catering and stuff since it's not that expensive or long, and i could get more money while i'm still thinking of what to do. well it's definitely better than getting minimum wage.
Mostly looking at what you want to do with your major. Like pre-meds want to go towards Bio, lawyers mainly Poli Sci. I don't think you can regret because you can always do a Masters or PhD in a totally unrelated field! Academics is totally open to it.
I chose my major based on a few criteria: the classes I enjoyed, professors I liked, and how useful I thought the major would be.
It's really important to enjoy what you are studying, and two ways to make sure of that are taking classes that interest you, and taking classes with professors that you like and get along with. But obviously those cannot be the only deciding factors for one's major decision. The other consideration for me was choosing a major that I thought would be useful for my career and post-college life. In my case, I ended up double-majoring in Psychology and Political Science with a concentration in International Relations.
I was fascinated with what we learned in Psychology, and almost all the professors in that department were simply great. I was drawn to Political Science because of this one particular professor who delivered amazing lectures and always managed to establish great camaraderie with his students--he later became my major advisor and I took many of my major classes with him.
In terms of usefulness, I didn't choose my majors based on my career aspirations because, at the time I had none. (I do know now that I am considering law/business school in a few years, and that I want to secure a position as a corporate or litigation paralegal) Psychology was a lot of critical thinking, researching, analyzing others' research, research-based writing, discussion, and debates. And.. Political Science (International Relations) was great in that we read like crazy and wrote like crazy. The Polisci IR concentration was a LOT of reading (e.g. reading 300 pages for one class) and writing based on those readings and our understandings/interpretations of those readings. Of course there were lots of discussion and intense debating as well. I think.. psychology fascinated me and continued stir my intellectual curiosity, while political science honed my writing skills, communication skills in general, and helped cultivate an extremely disciplined work ethic that I can pride myself on.
Okay even though I wrote a lot more on my majors' usefulness but I still think what should really drive your decision is the love for the topics and interest in the said academic field. Don't take classes based only on what you think you may want to do after college. For example, don't force yourself to sit through a ton of uninteresting bio/chem classes just because you are thinking about medical school; don't take economics classes that you hate because you want to work on Wall Street. The material you learn may be important (e.g. computer science), but the love for your studies and the skills you learn are also extremely important. So go for a major that draws you in. ^^
Psh it was kind of the only one that the crappy college offered that even remotely catered to the classes I was interested in. You see they didn't have anything like a Degree in Writing and that is what I wanted so I had to choose the Liberal Arts degree which is kind of the same but not really. I took only two writing classes and had to drop out because there were no other classes pertaining to writing and because college was getting too expensive.