According to the National Center for Education Statistics, roughly one-third of all college students change their majors at least once during their first three years of school. Additionally, about 10% of them change their majors twice in that same time span.
There is no surefire way to guarantee that you’re going to love the major that you pick when you first start attending college. But by learning how to choose a college major, you might be able to increase your chances of choosing a major and sticking with it once you start school.
Are you struggling to figure out which college major you want to pick right now? There are some simple steps you can take to figure it out before you begin enrolling for college courses and getting serious about your studies.
Use this step-by-step guide to choose a college major that you’ll love.
Begin by Thinking About What You Want to Do With Your Life Later On
What do you think you want to do with your life once you graduate from college? You should begin your search for a college major by asking yourself that simple question.
Do you want to be:
- A teacher?
- An accountant?
- A journalist?
- A doctor?
- A politician?
Your answer to the question is going to play a big part in which college major you choose.
You shouldn’t become, say, an English major if your ultimate goal is to own an accounting firm. At the same time, you shouldn’t become a political science major if you want to teach art at a high school at some point down the line.
Think long and hard about what you want to do with your life once college is over—and do more than just pick a career that pays a lot of money. Pick something that you’re passionate about and that you believe you’re going to enjoy doing.
As long as you land on the right career choice, you shouldn’t have too tough of a time choosing a college major.
See Which College Majors Will Work for Your Future Plans
Once you have some idea of what you want to be when you finish up college, you can start to look at some of the majors that will work well with your future plans. You can match up the career that you want to have with the college major that will help you get there.
Let’s say that you want to be an accountant like we mentioned a moment ago and open up your own accounting firm. You’re going to want to earn your degree in a major like:
- Business
- Accounting
- Economics
By taking courses in one of these majors, you’ll be able to prepare yourself to take the Certified Public Accountant exam one day. You’ll also be able to learn all the skills you’ll need to have to work as an accountant at your own firm.
Look Up the Classes That Come Along With Different College Majors
One of the things you’re going to notice when you look around at the different college majors that are out there is that they all have very basic names that don’t always fully explain what they’re all about.
A major like economics, for example, sounds simple enough. But once you start exploring more about it, you’ll find that it’s going to call for you to take classes like:
- Calculus
- Statistics
- Microeconomic Theory
Suddenly, economics might not sound like as much fun as it did at first. You should dig deeper into each of the majors that you’re thinking about choosing and see what kinds of classes they’ll have you taking throughout your college career.
Talk to Students Who Have Chosen the College Majors You’re Considering
You can spend as much time as you want looking up different college majors and researching them ad nauseam. But you won’t really know what a major entails until you speak with someone who has chosen that major and gone through everything associated with it.
If possible, touch base with several college students who have chosen the college majors you’re considering. They can shed some much-needed light on what goes into studying a particular major and give valuable insight into what it’s like to pick a certain major.
They can also give you some pointers on what you’re going to need to do to survive your first year of school. To see what they might say, read on here.
Check Out the Colleges That Offer Your Preferred Majors
At this point, you will have learned how to choose a college major and gone through the steps we’ve outlined here. The only left to do will be to pick the major that you like best and find a college that offers it.
If you’re choosing a very popular major, like business, you shouldn’t have too much trouble tracking down a school that offers it. Just about every college in the country has some kind of business program set up.
But if you’re choosing a major that’s going to take you off the beaten path, like Egyptology or mortuary science, you might need to look a little harder for a college that can meet your needs. Your options are going to be more limited when it comes to selecting a school.
Don’t let that stop you from choosing a college major that you really love, though. You’ll enjoy going to school so much more than you would otherwise when you find a major that makes you excited to learn.
Learning How to Choose a College Major Is So Important
There are so many young people who pick out a college and start going to school without learning how to choose a college major first. This often backfires on them in the end when they decide that they want to change their major and then have to transfer to a new school to do it.
Think about which subject you want to major in when you go to college before selecting a school. It’ll get your college experience off to the right start and set you up for future success.
Want to find out more about how to make the most of higher education? Check out the other informative articles about education that we have available for you.
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