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

[Respect and Compassion]

Hi there,

I am a 20 year old college sophomore who is taking it easy. I haven't declared a major yet and the past two semesters have been pretty light.

I've done fairly well in every subject in high school, 780 Math & 790 Verbal on the SAT. Still have a 4.0 GPA from gen eds. Attending the local college nearby to save money. I'm very unsure of what I should pick though...everything seems like a decent choice.

If you could go back in time to undergrad, would you change anything? If you're in undergrad right now, what's your current course of action? If you're still pre-college what are your thoughts?

I know career opportunities are an obvious factor but I honestly don't mind going into a field without many opportunities. I also don't care about making 'a lot' of money, whatever that means. 

[Del Tachi]

1)  Choose something that genuinely interests you.  College is the only time in your life you'll be able to completely devote yourself to learning as much as you can about a specific subject.  Don't pass it up by choosing something only for the "career opportunities."

2)  All else being equal, choose to major in a department with good faculty who take interest in their (undergrad) students.  My experience at big, research-heavy state schools was that teaching undergrads was the lowest priority for most professors.  Graduate students will (correctly!) garner most of professors' time/resources, but look for majors that have good opportunities for undergrads to participate in research, internships, directed independent study, etc.

Unless you plan to go into a STEM field or be an accountant, your undergraduate major is not really that important.  A BS or BA in practically anything will serve you just fine for most entry-level jobs in business or government.  The secret to getting the entry-level job you want is using your time in college to get quantifiable experience (i.e., internships, volunteer work, part-time jobs, undergraduate research, etc.) and taking advantage of your college's faculty or alumni network.   

[Illiniwek]

1)  Choose something that genuinely interests you.  College is the only time in your life you'll be able to completely devote yourself to learning as much as you can about a specific subject.  Don't pass it up by choosing something only for the "career opportunities."

2)  All else being equal, choose to major in a department with good faculty who take interest in their (undergrad) students.  My experience at big, research-heavy state schools was that teaching undergrads was the lowest priority for most professors.  Graduate students will (correctly!) garner most of professors' time/resources, but look for majors that have good opportunities for undergrads to participate in research, internships, directed independent study, etc.

Unless you plan to go into a STEM field or be an accountant, your undergraduate major is not really that important.  A BS or BA in practically anything will serve you just fine for most entry-level jobs in business or government.  The secret to getting the entry-level job you want is using your time in college to get quantifiable experience (i.e., internships, volunteer work, part-time jobs, undergraduate research, etc.) and taking advantage of your college's faculty or alumni network.   

I agree with all of this, but with the caveat that there are plenty of majors that are just not worth any amount of money and time for you to put in. If you are considering a major that would find itself on most "most useless college degree" lists, I would say steer clear of that. I hate to offend anyone here, but I'll pick on a degree like communications. No one is passionate about communications specifically. Its just used as a generic degree that one would hope opens the door to all kinds of different jobs, but it really doesn't. I've seen close friends with a communications degree that have really struggled to standout to get any sort of enjoyable job with that degree.

Alternatively, if you aren't looking for the most lucrative field, find a substantive field that you think you could be extremely passionate about. Like, meteorology. I think its easier to sell yourself as someone who found a topic very interesting and how you chased your passions instead of "I studied communications because I really wanted to be able to handle communications in your field."

Bottom line: If you aren't going the STEM route, find an interesting niche field that you could get excited about rather than the boring, generic degree.

P.S. Try to avoid "______ studies" majors. I just don't see any benefit there at all unless you want to be a professor of that study.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

First thing you should do is consider what you want to do with that undergrad, if you in fact want to go to a traditional four-year college. Studying your passions is great, but anything higher than an entry-level job will require at least a Master's degree. And if you're the type of person who likes manual work or working with your hands, I'd skip the four-year college altogether and just go to trade school. That way you'll have a well-paying job once you graduate and less debt to worry about.

For me personally, I'm basically deciding between two potential career paths at this time; either ordination or psychology. Either path will require at least a Master's and I've pretty much resigned myself to that. I'll be getting my undergrad in psychology (primarily because I think clergy ought to have some understanding of the human condition when they counsel or pontificate) prior to entering seminary. And if the calling ain't there for me, I'll ultimately be pursuing the psychology path.

It's never too early to plan ahead, and before you take on any loans, you should absolutely consider the type of future you want post-graduation. And I would advise the same to anyone else.

[Mr. Ukucasha]

Avoid any business degrees except for Finance, Accounting, and Supply Chain/Information Systems.

[ملكة كرينجيتوك]

Agree with DT, Donerail, Scott, Mr. Ukucasha, and Iliniwek’s point on studying something you’re really passionate about if you aren’t too concerned about financial compensation or post-college underemployment. STEM is a very broad field and the above non-STEM posters’ advice also applies to most natural science majors and many engineering disciplines.

Aside from asking your family, friends, professors, and possible coworkers, think more about what type of work environments you’d want to work in (beyond the blue-collar white-collar pink-collar divide), and what soft skills that’d require. Also ask yourself if you’d consider jobs that’ll require more formal education after a bachelors, if you’re in community college and are set on transferring to a 4-year school. That will help you narrow down a range of potential majors to apply to.

[Del Tachi]

1)  Choose something that genuinely interests you.  College is the only time in your life you'll be able to completely devote yourself to learning as much as you can about a specific subject.  Don't pass it up by choosing something only for the "career opportunities."

2)  All else being equal, choose to major in a department with good faculty who take interest in their (undergrad) students.  My experience at big, research-heavy state schools was that teaching undergrads was the lowest priority for most professors.  Graduate students will (correctly!) garner most of professors' time/resources, but look for majors that have good opportunities for undergrads to participate in research, internships, directed independent study, etc.

Unless you plan to go into a STEM field or be an accountant, your undergraduate major is not really that important.  A BS or BA in practically anything will serve you just fine for most entry-level jobs in business or government.  The secret to getting the entry-level job you want is using your time in college to get quantifiable experience (i.e., internships, volunteer work, part-time jobs, undergraduate research, etc.) and taking advantage of your college's faculty or alumni network.   

I agree with all of this, but with the caveat that there are plenty of majors that are just not worth any amount of money and time for you to put in. If you are considering a major that would find itself on most "most useless college degree" lists, I would say steer clear of that. I hate to offend anyone here, but I'll pick on a degree like communications. No one is passionate about communications specifically. Its just used as a generic degree that one would hope opens the door to all kinds of different jobs, but it really doesn't. I've seen close friends with a communications degree that have really struggled to standout to get any sort of enjoyable job with that degree.

Alternatively, if you aren't looking for the most lucrative field, find a substantive field that you think you could be extremely passionate about. Like, meteorology. I think its easier to sell yourself as someone who found a topic very interesting and how you chased your passions instead of "I studied communications because I really wanted to be able to handle communications in your field."

Bottom line: If you aren't going the STEM route, find an interesting niche field that you could get excited about rather than the boring, generic degree.

P.S. Try to avoid "______ studies" majors. I just don't see any benefit there at all unless you want to be a professor of that study.

Communications is a perfectly fine major for someone who wants to work in marketing, PR or journalism; attend law/business school; or is just genuinely interested in theories of how humans communicate.  Communications gets a bad rap because a lot of unmotived students choose it as an "easy" major but the subject is wholly more respectable than many more lauded majors.   

[vitoNova]

I wanted to major in something extremely gay like "Information Systems Management" or "Computer Science" because getting out of the military after 4 years with no transferable skills other than being a lame security guard or a cop (I was an MP), I wanted to choose a major that in my mind thought would make me lots of money.  Though my heart wasn't really into it. 

But my mom lectured the hell outta me and told me that I was a goddamn idiot if I chose that, and to instead go with my heart/instinct/gut, which was something along the lines of IA/Poli Sci.  And she was 1000% correct. 

Moral of the story: momma knows best, kids. 

[HillGoose]

$$$

[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.

[Alcibiades]

It works a bit differently where I’m from (you apply for a specific course and study just that usually), but I imagine apart from that it’s much the same. I agree with the prevailing advice in this thread: above all, study something you genuinely enjoy and find intellectually stimulating, and that you’re good at (ideally the two will coincide). It doesn’t matter whether the subject is more ‘mainstream’ or ‘niche’, just make sure it’s a genuine academic field (so not business). There are very few jobs which require specific degrees, especially outside of STEM.

Don’t do history or business or polisci. Anything else go for it. Take classes and find what you like. I went into college last year with the same perspective and all it took was a super interesting class and I declared my major.

Why not history? It’s a very respectable degree, which is also I think, for most people with the kinds of interests that make them post on this site, very interesting. It also has great transferrable skills. I say all this as someone who’s not even studying it at uni btw.

[Illiniwek]

Agree w/ DT's advice but disagree with Illiniwek, my Environmental Studies major has served me fine. So long as you avoid something really useless, like "Business," you'll be fine.

I wouldn't have intended to lump environmental studies in with my comment above. That sounds like a much more interesting field with real world implications. No disrespect intended to your background.

[Alcibiades]

It works a bit differently where I’m from (you apply for a specific course and study just that usually), but I imagine apart from that it’s much the same. I agree with the prevailing advice in this thread: above all, study something you genuinely enjoy and find intellectually stimulating, and that you’re good at (ideally the two will coincide). It doesn’t matter whether the subject is more ‘mainstream’ or ‘niche’, just make sure it’s a genuine academic field (so not business). There are very few jobs which require specific degrees, especially outside of STEM.

Don’t do history or business or polisci. Anything else go for it. Take classes and find what you like. I went into college last year with the same perspective and all it took was a super interesting class and I declared my major.

Why not history? It’s a very respectable degree, which is also I think, for most people with the kinds of interests that make them post on this site, very interesting. It also has great transferrable skills. I say all this as someone who’s not even studying it at uni btw.

From what I’ve seen it doesn’t lead to a lot of relevant opportunities after college but go for it if it’s what you’re passionate about.

I mean, unless you want to make the same criticism of all humanities subjects (and I certainly would not), it seems odd to single history out here when it's probably one of the more 'prestigious' degrees in the arts/humanities. Always plenty of history grads in law and investment banking, for instance. And as I said, you shouldn't worry too much about "relevant opportunities" for most fields, which generally don't care a great deal about what you studied.

[Хahar 🤔]

This thread is just too vague. I can't give much good advice to you when you've said nothing at all about what interests you or what plans you might have for the future. Others have already made the salient points about your major actually not mattering very much. When it comes to finding a job, whom you know is generally a lot more important than what you studied. I disagree with the idea that you shouldn't major in history; it gets you the same results as most degrees, and I've known plenty of history majors who have lucrative or fulfilling jobs now. (Those jobs generally aren't in history, because most people don't have jobs directly relevant to their majors.) I would add that it's generally better to major in something broad rather than something very specific; a major in a field everyone knows about is better than something that sounds esoteric. History is a quite good major in that sense because most people have some thoughts about history and are interested in telling you what they are when they hear what you studied.

I entered college as a history major and declared economics as a second major in the spring of my freshman year. Near the end of my junior year, I added mathematics when I realized that I could do that and still graduate on time. My history and math classes were both very interesting and generally rewarding. I didn't get anything in particular out of the econ classes, but people are impressed when they find out that I had three majors, so that's something. In general I do feel like I maximized my college experience from an academic standpoint.

If you have no strong passions but are interested in (or at least open to) employment in something related to science or technology (or, more generally, employment that makes you a lot of money), I think that the best majors are mathematics and physics. Most likely very little of what you learn in your classes will be applicable to your future employment, but those majors indicate that you are intellectually capable and well-rounded and that your employer will be able to teach you whatever skills you need. Biology is a very bad major unless you are convinced that you are willing to spend the rest of your life doing biology (not a great job market) or you are sure you want to be a doctor (and even then you should major in something else unless you really have no other academic interests), because it is simultaneously quite difficult and not mathematical enough to be of interest to employers.

Even though I disliked business majors and the concept of the business school when I was an undergraduate, I will actually disagree and say that an undergraduate business major is not necessarily a bad thing. Studying business is boring and suggests a troubling lack of intellectual curiosity, but if you really decide you want to spend several years studying supply chain management you'll probably be able to do that once you get out of college. It's a really boring thing to do, though.

[vitoNova]

If I had to do it all again, I maybe would've gone for Geography.  (but am still pretty happy with my international affairs BA)

Geography = a major that combines the human element (political/human geography) with a surprisingly technical and lab-focused element that almost ventures into STEM territory.  Of course, as an IA major my geo courses were just bare-bones basics (ie, Geopolitics 101), but some of those 300 and 400-level courses....them fools had some pretty cool toys to play with.

And also, I met some folks later on overseas who worked for the NGA, and they all seemed pretty chill.   

[It’s so Joever]

If I had to do it all again, I maybe would've gone for Geography.  (but am still pretty happy with my international affairs BA)

Geography = a major that combines the human element (political/human geography) with a surprisingly technical and lab-focused element that almost ventures into STEM territory.  Of course, as an IA major my geo courses were just bare-bones basics (ie, Geopolitics 101), but some of those 300 and 400-level courses....them fools had some pretty cool toys to play with.

And also, I met some folks later on overseas who worked for the NGA, and they all seemed pretty chill.   

I applied for an internship with them last week! Hopefully it goes well that would be a dream.

[vitoNova]

If I had to do it all again, I maybe would've gone for Geography.  (but am still pretty happy with my international affairs BA)

Geography = a major that combines the human element (political/human geography) with a surprisingly technical and lab-focused element that almost ventures into STEM territory.  Of course, as an IA major my geo courses were just bare-bones basics (ie, Geopolitics 101), but some of those 300 and 400-level courses....them fools had some pretty cool toys to play with.

And also, I met some folks later on overseas who worked for the NGA, and they all seemed pretty chill.   

I applied for an internship with them last week! Hopefully it goes well that would be a dream.

Word of warning: all of them served in Iraq or Afghanitan and had that 1000-yard stare.  It’s not all roses in the end 

[It’s so Joever]

If I had to do it all again, I maybe would've gone for Geography.  (but am still pretty happy with my international affairs BA)

Geography = a major that combines the human element (political/human geography) with a surprisingly technical and lab-focused element that almost ventures into STEM territory.  Of course, as an IA major my geo courses were just bare-bones basics (ie, Geopolitics 101), but some of those 300 and 400-level courses....them fools had some pretty cool toys to play with.

And also, I met some folks later on overseas who worked for the NGA, and they all seemed pretty chill.   

I applied for an internship with them last week! Hopefully it goes well that would be a dream.

Word of warning: all of them served in Iraq or Afghanitan and had that 1000-yard stare.  It’s not all roses in the end 

I…considered that a part of the job.

[Mr. Smith]

How robust is the department you're looking at, is it something you like and enjoy but don't love, how many classes do you have to take to get the credits, and how much follows you home...and are you okay with a lot?

[Meclazine for Israel]

Salary and your interest level.

[Statilius the Epicurean]

Yeah choose something that motivates you. You don't have to love it, maybe you will or won't, but at least a subject that you will have the motivation work at.