College Majors and College Search Website

What is a College Major?

How to Choose Your Major

Choosing your college major is arguably one of the most importance decisions you will have to make in your early life.  However, it can be a challenging process, and often causes stress, confusion, and a lot of second guessing.

The most important thing to know about choosing a major is that your major does NOT define the rest of your work life!  There is a misconception that choosing a particular major limits you to one focus and industry for the rest of your life.  In fact, your major defines only your concentrated base knowledge and determines what words go on your diploma.  Otherwise, the knowledge you gain in college is just your foundational skills—if you focus more on humanities (English, History, Cultural Anthropology, etc.) you will build a basis of communication, research, critical thinking, interpersonal and interpretive skills; focus on STEM fields and you’ll gain problem solving, qualitative reasoning, research, and analytical inquiry skills (and probably a little of both in either).

So how DO you go about making this decision? This will take some self-reflection, so be prepared to do a little work!

Think about your skills and abilities. What are you good at?  What do you LIKE to do?  Where is the intersection of those two pieces?  Often we’re good at things but we don’t particularly enjoy doing them, or we love something that we’re not terribly good at.  The important part is to know those things about ourselves.

Once you’ve determined what you are good at and enjoy, and where those two pieces meet, it can important to think about some of the more ambiguous pieces.  What work environment seems like it best fits you?  It’s important to understand what you want in a work environment.  Do you want to work closely with people and collaborate?  Or would you prefer to have lots of autonomy and control over how and when you do your work?  Does an office and a computer best suit you or would you rather be moving, traveling or in the field? Do you want to do something hands-on and physical or do you prefer air conditioning and a comfy space?

Determining your work space can impact the choice of jobs you want to pursue, and help you narrow down options that best fit where you think you’ll be most happy.

Some ways to gather information include:

• Talk to your academic advisor. They can help you determine what coursework would be required, what minors, concentrations and certificates might be beneficial, and common career pathways with particular majors.
• Your college career center can help with this as well—and can help you with values sorts, skills assessments, and discussions about employers and career options.
• Consider doing a mind map.  Mind mapping can help you gather your thoughts, connect commonalities, and creatively think about a concept or idea, and put it into a visual form that you can process later.
• Do some informational interview with people in fields that you’re considering. Who knows best what the day to day positives and negatives of a field are than someone who’s doing it every day? Ask them what skills they use most, what the challenges and benefits are, what path they followed to get to their current role, and what suggestions they have for things to do to explore and gain experience in their field.
• Talk to faculty members in courses that you enjoy. See if they can give you some insight into different options for using those disciplines.
• Take as many different courses and participate in as many experiences as you can, to help you determine where your strengths and interests lie. Jobs or courses are often very in concept than in reality.
• Most college academic departments have an accounting of where previous students majoring in their field have gone on for employment. See what insights this gives you into your opportunities.

Some other questions to ask yourself:

• What day to day activities bring me joy and give me energy?
• If I were to pick a major right now, what would it be?
• What have I been successful in so far?
• What are my favorite subjects and do those subjects come easily to me?
• What are my values? Do I want time to be with family?  To travel?
• What does success look like to me? Money?  Impact?  Autonomy?  Power? Ability to make change?
• Will my choice require graduate school or professional school and is that something I’m willing to pursue?
• Does my intended major allow for study abroad options, internships or research, and if not, are those things important to me?

Think through the skills you can gain, and think more about skill development than actual major—you can be a consultant with an English degree, a teacher with a Chemistry degree, a lawyer with a History degree—it all depends on the skills and experiences you build up. Ultimately, choosing a major is a lot about knowing yourself, your skills, and what you might want. Consider your options, know that it’s always flexible, and choose something that you enjoy.