What factors should I consider before declaring a major in undergrad?

[Benjamin Frank]

I think there have been a lot of good points made here, but I have three points to add:

1.If you have an interest in something but don't think there are a lot of jobs available in that field, think creatively.  The example I always give of this is that if you major in history, you might not think there are many jobs available outside of aspects of the tourism sector and teaching. But, for instance, with the growth of all the streaming networks, there has been an increase in documentaries that require people with at least degrees in history to provide fact checking and research.

2.I could be wrong, but with the increases in costs for education at university, and the realization that most of what's taught is mostly pointless for much of anything other than making all degrees take four years to get, I think that the employer expectation that applicants will have a masters is decreasing. Most of the purpose of people getting masters degrees was nothing more than education inflation: if everybody has a degree, in order to out-compete the herd, I must now get a masters.

I know that many disciplines now have a lot more knowledge, but until 20-30 years ago, relatively few people earned masters degrees, and yet the world survived reasonably well with clinical psychologists who 'only' had a bachelors in psychology.

3.Most importantly, and these are things you'll have to find out yourself, keep in mind that what gives anything value is not demand, but demand relative to supply. I get the idea that DT implied of network effects, that more in demand jobs are likelier to have university support networks and I certainly agree that's very valuable, but if there are 500 available jobs for lawyers but 10,000 law students, and 50 available jobs for basket weavers, but only 20 basket weaver students, especially if you already enjoy basket weaving, that's the better thing to study for employment prospects.