How to Choose a College Major When You’re Stuck
Choosing a major in college is an important decision that, if made hastily, can lead you back on the line for unemployment, return to school, or work in a profession you have chosen for the wrong reasons. You may understand these implications and feel stuck with fear or sheer indecision, but there are some things you can do to help you choose the specialty you like best.
Learn three majors for your freshman and sophomore (instead of one)
Your first major choice probably won’t be your last. It takes some experimentation and research to figure out which ultimately works best for you, so don’t rush to college for the first time with the certainty that you’ve already figured it out. Take your time deciding. Don’t allow yourself to change specialization over and over again by announcing “Undecided” and learning three (or so) different specializations early on. In fact, some colleges have made “Research” an official preliminary statement for students wishing to study various specialties before making a decision. Cecilia Capuzzi Simon of The New York Times explains :
Some schools have made intelligence official. At the University of Florida, where 61 percent of students change majors by the end of their second year, there are three research areas – Engineering and Science, Humanities and Literature, and Social and Behavioral – that students can announce for three semesters before choose a specialized major. At the University of Cincinnati, indecisive students can enroll in a research program.
Check if your school offers a similar program. If not, take it into your own hands and study introductory classes to the various studies you are planning. Wait until your first year of study to make your final choices, and by then you will already have a few major merit in your first couple of years of study.
Avoid the easy path
Don’t be quick to settle for letting the simplest skills guide your career choices. It might seem like it makes sense at first, but you can quickly get bored of learning a topic that you already know from start to finish. For example: If you have been playing the piano since childhood and you really enjoy it, then becoming a piano expert can be tempting. However, once you start studying it full-time, you may change your mind. After all, turning a fun pastime into a must-do job is just a job . Rather than picking the major that works best for you, keep it in your pool of options by checking out other majors that are interesting but less familiar and more challenging. These may be the ones that will ultimately lead to a richer experience.
Think about how you will pay off your student loan debt
Be practical if you need to take out a student loan. You don’t want to find yourself in a position where you cannot repay loans because you have chosen a specialty that has not brought you a financially viable career and you have no other options. In fact, Forbes says high monthly student loan payments are the main complaint of newbies, and gives you a solution if you ever find yourself in the same situation:
The program is called Income Based Repayment (IBR), and it works if you have federal student loans. IBR will adjust your monthly payments so that you pay no more than 15% of your current income against student loans. Yes, you are reading that correctly! It can be a blessing for people who desperately need more flexibility in their monthly budget. With IBR, you will also have a different repayment schedule – 25 years instead of 10 years. Of course, this means you will be paying more interest in the long run, but it might be worth it if you absolutely cannot afford your student loan payments right now. And if you are unable to repay your loans after 25 years of making payments under the IBR plan, the government will forgive any remaining debt.
Of course, you want to try and avoid this. Best-case scenario: you choose a profession that pays well enough to solve the problem. Use the Financial Aid Loan Calculator and PayScale.com to match the numbers to each other and see if the loans you can get will cover the jobs you can get. Of course, there are other ways to manage student loan debt when you are struggling, and we’ve covered some of them before , but the goal is not to put yourself in that position in the first place. Instead, choose majors that will allow you to get a job that covers the debt you graduated with.
Your Desired Lifestyle Matters
Too often, students choose a major because they love the topic without thinking about whether it will fit their life plan or not. The career you choose should fit your lifestyle, not the other way around. Think about the lifestyle you want to lead and the career you are considering, find people pursuing that career and compare their lifestyle to the one you dreamed of. Careers do not always lead to the desired lifestyle.
For example: if you need guaranteed financial security, travel and vacations, art is not the best for you as a specialization. The financial security of an artist is not guaranteed, and you may well be working around the clock all year round without a vacation to make ends meet. On the other hand, if you find a good teaching job with a year-round salary plan, you have the vacation time and steady income that you are looking for. You can still find a place for his passion , but be careful when choosing a career that not only brings satisfaction, but also allows for a desired lifestyle.
Consider job prospects in the field
Make sure there is an active job market for whatever job you choose. LinkedIn’s Field of Study Explorer is a great first stop for collecting real-world data. You can enter a search term for a job in question, and using LinkedIn member data, it will return the most popular jobs and jobs for that job. This will give you a good, realistic idea of where you might end up, and you can compare the statistics for each destination you are looking for with each other to see which ones are in demand. Glassdoor’s Job Explorer is another handy tool that will find you jobs you didn’t know you were eligible for . This is handy for expanding your reach – your specialty may be suitable for more jobs than you think.
Shadow Someone does the job you want for the day
You won’t know what to expect until you get a job or complete the internship requirements. However, you can contact someone in the field and ask them to hide it whenever you want. Surveillance is simply spying on someone who is already doing the work that you hope to do one day. This way you can observe, ask questions and get a feel for the work to decide what you want.
Use your school’s resources to find shady opportunity. Research the companies that partner with your school for an internship and contact them. Since they are already in education, they may be open to your request to spy on an employee. If that doesn’t work, you can also talk to the professors of your core courses at your school or your career center to see if they have any contacts to introduce you to.
Treat it like a full-time job (at least) for a week
While turning your passion into work isn’t always the best answer , it’s still important to make sure you enjoy what you’re spending so much time on. You will end up spending 40 hours a week or more on your primary goal, first in school and then over (presumably) years in your career. Dedicate 40 hours a week (or as much time as possible) during the summer or winter break to learning and “practicing” your specialty. This will give you a good idea of whether you will happily devote time to it on a regular basis. If you hate it after a 40 hour work week, it’s safe to say that you won’t like it after years of practice. However, if you fall in love with it after a week or more of dedication, then a safe bet for you is to continue exploring it as an option.