Help a college student with \'major\' choice
 

Without trying to sound arrogant ….I am capable of learning and doing very well in college. Doing well for me does not come easy…. I literally work my ass off for every A.

Yet, I am unsure of what to major in. I do not have to reach a decision suddenly but I want some sort of direction. I came from a middle class family that has provided me the resources to be successful. As of now my intended major is in the engineering department. I want a job that will pay around 80k (does not have to be starting salary).

I can predict the responses in my thread…
“Do whatever you like best, its up to you and not us”.
-Yet nothing appeals to me.
“Do what you are good at”
-I can excel at anything so I’d rather choose jobs that interest me…but nothing really appeals to me.
“You are approaching choosing a major the wrong way, do what ever path your life leads”
- Perhaps, but I am confused. Any advice in general or story/experiences of your decision with choosing a major. Some people know what they want to do and stick with it, most people change their intended major…but I have no clue what I truly want.

Re: Help a college student with \'major\' choice
 

What year of college are you in?

-d

Re: Help a college student with \'major\' choice
 

Philosophy.

Re: Help a college student with \'major\' choice
 

Have you had any jobs? Try getting some internships in something you think you might like. Or maybe just shadow someone at their job for a day.

I remember I thought I might want to be a civil engineer for a while so I went to work with a family friend for a day. That was more than enough for me to know that I didn't want to be a civil engineer.

Talk to other people about their jobs and see if that interests you - family members, family friends, parents of your friends, etc.

I definitely went through many paths before I settled on what I wanted to do. My dad is a general contractor so I was on a job site my entire life - but that was something that I never really had a passion for. Fortunately my dad encouraged me to go to school. I thought about being a civil engineer, but that was a no go. Then I went to school and wanted to go to med school. I starting majoring in bio and basically completed all of the pre-med requirements. I also liked politics though and was majoring in that as well. I took a con law class and we had to do a moot court and I absolutely loved it and decided to go to law school instead.

I don't know if that is very helpful - I guess the point is just to have an open mind and don't be afraid to try different things out because you never know what you will like the most. You must have some general interests - you said engineering. So find a firm and visit it for a day or even get an internship. You'll never find out what you want to do unless you try different things.

GL

Re: Help a college student with \'major\' choice
 

I don't know what year you are, that would help.

I am going to be a senior next year. When I came to school I had no idea what I wanted to do, so I just started taking a bunch of different classes. If I liked one, I took the next level up. if I didn't like it, I just stopped. Eventually at some point near the end of sophomore year I realized I had really gotten into an EAnglish major, pretty much by accident. Since those were the classes I liked best, I finished the major, and thats what Ill be graduating with. If you have the luxury to do this, you should. That way you'll get to try out a little of everything, and fall into what works best.

Re: Help a college student with \'major\' choice
 

if you just want EZ money from your major and you can actually get good grades then Math. Maybe econ or business if you don't want anything that intense.

Re: Help a college student with \'major\' choice
 

Philosophy. It's what I do.

Re: Help a college student with \'major\' choice
 

if you are just looking at majors there are two ways to go about getting a good job.

A: econ / math /engineering guaranteed if you have a decent GPA you can get a good paying job out of school.

B: phil / lib art major = easier grades (at most schools) so you can play the GPA game to have a higher GPA on your resume which will give you more versatility when interviewing later on because (atleast for recruiting through your carreer center at the uni) higher GPA is all they have to go on most college students.

if you can do a choice A with great GPA (3.5+) then you can start getting into the interviews of the easy jobs that pay well. for poker players if you can get a job as a day trader it goes almost hand in hand. if you really boil it down poker is watching numbers change and sensing the table's emotion of the moment to calculate risk- that's the same thing as most day traders on the stock market except they make a hell of a lot more money if they are good.

-dm

Re: Help a college student with \'major\' choice
 

Go to the gym every day, get a *really* buff body and start making money in Vegas as a male escort.

Of course, to make $80,000 a year, you'd have to do men as well. But if things went really well, you might hook up with a nice sugar daddy, who would put you to work as his personal assistant

Re: Help a college student with \'major\' choice
 

If I had to do it over, I would have chosen a major more oriented towards marketing/people skills over my econ major. I've found that that type of background gives you a lot of flexibility when it comes to choosing fields, as it seems like you can go into finance-type stuff, but you can also go marketing, advertising, management, etc, whereas if you're strictly econ or finance, you're limited to finance or accounting. From my experience, a degree in something more people- or management-oriented with a minor in econ or finance is both more flexible and more valued than a straight econ or finance.

For reference, I graduated from a top-20 undergrad in 2004 with an econ degree.