According to a 2013 report given by Borderzine, 80 percent of college students change their majors at least once. The kind of investment college entails in the United States leaves many people feeling they have to choose right the first time. They fear if they choose to take more courses or re-enroll in school, it’s more money and more time they may not have. However, many people are still growing up when they attend higher education — their interests change, and their skills and personalities blossom. It may not make sense to assume that someone will be the same person when they start college as when they end it.
But with that in mind, how does one choose the right major? Most students change so much in their college years that it’s unrealistic to think your younger-self may always choose a career you’ll be forever happy with. Here are some tips on navigating your college major choices while being an ever-changing young person. Hopefully your choice is an educated one (no pun intended) and something you can stand behind in the years to come!
1. Predicting the Economy
Be aware of what industries are booming right now and where the jobs are — some college majors are just not worth your time if your goal is to earn a stable income. If you’re looking to know which industries are growing, watch the stock market and study its trends over the past several decades. Read industry news from unbiased sources (for instance, Reuters), and try to stay in the know about economic changes and what fields have new career options. Predicting the economy is difficult, but just staying informed can give you good insight into what direction to focus your search.
Now, something we may not have predicted previously is how the economy is rewarding freelancers on a larger scale than ever before. Many in the workforce refer to the current labor market as “the gig economy” because of this. Keep this in mind as you search for a major and career, as freelancing availability may be vital. Unfortunately, this also decreases job stability for many, so networking is equally important, because once one “gig” ends, you may have to find another quickly.
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king the Right College
It’s just as important to choose the right college as it is to choose the right major. Ultimately, where you go is a stepping stone to your eventual career. Money is vital, and using websites like scholarships.com or nextstepu.com to earn funding is not something you can overlook. However, it’s also important to choose a place that has majors catered to your skill set and interests.
That said, traditional college may also not be what you need — trade schools exist for a reason. If you know what kind of career you want and there’s a trade school that would be better than a mainline college to get you there, then go for it and don’t look back.
When you tour a college, ask questions regarding the staff, the career success of previous students, and the experience of the professors. This is a way to network early as well as discover if a place of higher education is a good fit for you.
3. Know Your Passion and Career Can Be Different
Passions and careers will often go hand in hand. We often find ourselves becoming invested in the things we’re good at, after all. So a skill set often applies to both. However, it’s important to realize that the two don’t always directly coincide.
Many people choose to separate the two. For instance many musicians fund their art with income from a variety of jobs. Sometimes it’s better to ask yourself what job will allow you to live the life you want, rather than what job is the life you want. Your career does not have to be all of who you are, and the sooner you understand this the sooner the stress of choosing the “right” career” may be able to vanish.
4. Understand There May Not Be a “Right Choice”
Humans tend to assign moral value to things that don’t necessarily hold moral weight. They are obsessed with making the “right choice.” It may be argued that for your college career, however, there is no single right choice. For instance, if you’re a computer science kind of person, you could take a path toward engineering or more traditional computer science work. One may lead you to robotics and the other may lead you to software development. But neither may be the wrong choice — many people would be happy in either field.
Again, find a career path that helps you live the life you want to live, not that necessarily defines the life you live. If you’re a family person, it doesn’t matter if you pursue marketing or environmental sciences as long as you can put food on the table and have time to be with those you love. It’s good to find something that interests you and that you’re good at, but don’t overthink it. Regret over choices is often unnecessary.
5. Weathering Your Own Personal Changes
The ages of 18-25 have been termed as the time of “emerging adulthood.” You are bound to change in ways you didn’t think possible. For many, being challenged by new experiences and information they discover in college will change the way they think about the world. This undoubtedly affects people’s career paths.
If you are just starting college and are not sure on your direction, don’t declare a major if you don’t need to. Get all of your general education classes out of the way. Then use this time to start thinking about your options while you explore different fields and avenues you could venture down. If you have to declare a major, find one with classes that are easy to transfer to other majors if possible. Of course, these are just suggestions, but the ultimate goal is that you use your time as efficiently as possible so you can make a better choice later!
Your situation is specific to you, but hopefully you now feel more empowered and equipped to choose your major, or at least be more confident in what path you’ll take as you work to figure it out. Have you chosen a major and do you have advice for those stuck in the decision-making process? We’d love to hear about it !
By Devin Morrissey: Devin is a jack of all trades from Daly City, but now roams the West Coast. He returns home to coach rugby and fix his friends’ cars, but luckily he can write from anywhere.
