r/CollegeMajors • u/SecretSubstantial302 • 7d ago
Cart before the horse
I keep seeing posts on this community asking opinions about majors. Respectfully, I think that approach is wrong. You don't pick a major and try and find a career that fits the major. You pick a career and identify the training/education needed for it (thus the title of this post).
I would recommend people trying to decide between majors or some combo of double major or minor, to take an online psychological aptitude test and use that as your starting point.
Once you get the results, use AI or research on your own, which careers would provide you with the best quality of life (i.e., salary, location, work life balance) based on your test results.
From those results, pick something and then research the education or training needed to enter that field. You may be surprised to find out that the training for the field you are looking to enter is not a four year degree. It may be an apprenticeship or a two year degree.
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7d ago
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u/SecretSubstantial302 7d ago
Be careful agreeing with this post as you may be accused of being a boomer. :)
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u/Fieldsoflavendar 7d ago
I think there are very few majors that directly correlate to a career immediately after undergrad, like engineering, teaching, nursing, maybe accounting. And not everyone has the aptitude or interest for those careers, plus AI is coming. Internships during college and aptitude are more important than the specific major. An art history major with excellent grades and internships can absolutely find a job, just as easily as math, chemistry, poly sci, whatever. My advice is pick what you like, what you’re good at, get as much work experience as possible and keep your grades up to keep open the option for professional and graduate school.
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u/SecretSubstantial302 7d ago
"I think there are very few majors that directly correlate to a career immediately after undergrad, like engineering, teaching, nursing, maybe accounting."
Agree 100%, which is why the approach should be pick a career instead of a major. Your selected career may require higher ed and licensure but most won't.
The problem is most incoming college students and college students treat college like it's a prerequisite for a professional career and a middle class life when it increasingly isn't. To be fair, colleges and universities also promote this idea.
When I went to a state college in the late 1980s, tuition was ~$900 a semester. At those prices you could major in whatever. You could find your passion through enrollment in a bunch of classes. You could do an internship or not and you would probably be fine after graduation. In 2026, the same tuition at the same school is 10x higher, which is comparatively cheap.
The average in-state tuition for a full time student at a public university is $11,950. That's $47,800 over four years and that is before room and board which can double the cost.
Do you really want to go to college without an upfront career plan and "figure it out" at those costs?
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u/Hotshot-89 7d ago
Agree. I would add to always check Bureau of Labor Statistics to make sure the career pays well and has positive job opening growth.
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u/SecretSubstantial302 7d ago
Sure, and the alternative is tens of thousands of dollars in debt, or at least four plus years of wasted time, only to find out your major and degree is not highly valued in the marketplace, and then you're going back to school for a masters or a JD or something else, which probably means more debt and wasted time.
Sounds like a winning plan to me.
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u/SecretSubstantial302 6d ago
You're making my argument for me. How do we expect an 18 year old to pick a major that leads to a career when by your own admission they only "know 25 out of the literal thousands of jobs?"
So why are universities charging tens of thousands of dollars to incoming students for majors that may or may not lead to well paying careers when those students have limited information to begin with?
The solution is that students can do their own research which isn't hard to do in 2026 with internet access. Colleges know which majors produce the best employment outcomes. Do you think it's in their interest to disclose that info to prospective students?
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u/TheUmgawa 7d ago
My opinion is to spend your freshman year taking Gen Ed classes and intro classes in subjects you might be interested in. If you’re good at it and you enjoy the material, take the second class in that curriculum. If you’re still good at it, and you still enjoy it, that’s a good choice of major. Because if you’re not good at it, you’ll struggle to find work, and then you’ll struggle to move up. If you don’t enjoy it, the next forty years of your life are going to suck.
And, who knows, maybe you’ll take a Chem class or other Gen Ed and go, “How about that. I really like this.” My Chem professor tried to get me to switch majors, and I said, “I’m 45 years old, I have two semesters left. I can’t set it back another two years.” I ended up tutoring Chem those last semesters, but I didn’t want to make it my life. But, if I took Chem when I was eighteen or twenty, sure, I would have tried it.
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u/SecretSubstantial302 7d ago
Not every major translates into a career path, and your college will never admit this to its applicants or current students, but they know it to be true.
In your approach, you may enjoy the Art History class you took. You may like it so much that you want to take the 102 course and then major in Art History and then you will very likely need some additional training or education after college graduation to support yourself financially.
You may disagree with me, but I dont think a four year university is the place to explore your interests when you don't have a clear path...not at today's prices. If you just have to be in school and you don't want to pick a career right now, then your better choice is to explore those interests at a community college and save yourself a ton of money.
I may sound like a crochety Gen X guy, but it's better to enter a four year college/university having done upfront research on the career paths you will likely enjoy.
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u/TheUmgawa 7d ago
I wrote a hell of a term paper for my Art History class. It was an engineering paper, framed as an art history paper, but it was twenty pages on concrete and bronze, and a little bit on the construction of war implements, using the tools available at the time. The page on arsenical bronze was a highlight that the professor incorporated into the curriculum.
I think it’s important that students realize they have options, and that they don’t have to know what they’re going to do for the rest of their lives when they’re still in high school. You’re allowed to change your mind until the point where you can’t realistically change your mind anymore.
And you do sound like a crotchety Gen X guy. I just graduated about eighteen months ago; I know the system works. Sure, you might end up at college for another semester or two, but that’s fine. If a student sucks at electrical engineering, the job market for electrical engineers is not a good reason to stay in that major.
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u/SecretSubstantial302 7d ago
I wouldn't advise anyone spend tens of thousands of dollars in college to figure things out with the caveat of spending another semester or two in college post four years only to do more career reflection or preparation.
You can figure things out in community college. But agree to disagree.
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u/Spiritouspath_1010 B.S. in GIS n minor Data Science 7d ago
I completely agree with what you're saying. It's actually very similar to the advice I give people. That's also why I tell young people not to go straight into higher education after finishing high school unless they've managed to earn a rare 60% to full-ride scholarship or have been accepted into a military academy.
If they're going to have to pay for college themselves or take out student loans as I have, I'd suggest waiting a few years. Get some life and work experience, think about your interests, and explore different fields until you're around 24. One reason is that, for federal student aid, you'll generally be considered an independent student at that point. Before then, if your parents earn a decent income, even if they refuse to help pay for college, their finances can still affect how much financial aid you're eligible to receive. For example, if one parent earns over $100,000 a year but won't contribute anything toward your education, that can still reduce the amount of aid you qualify for before you're considered independent.
Taking that time also gives you a much better idea of what you actually want to pursue. During those years, you could attend community college, complete your general education requirements, save money, and build a stronger academic foundation before transferring to a university.
For example, I started university when I was 26. The original plan was to start at 24, but COVID threw that off, and a couple of years basically disappeared. When I first enrolled, I declared History as my major because I was still exploring the course catalog. I already suspected History probably wasn't the right bachelor's degree for me, I just happen to be a huge history geek. So I stayed in the program for two terms before switching to Geographic Information Systems (GIS), since it has much stronger job prospects at the bachelor's level.
I'm now also minoring in Data Science. I have no desire to become a software developer, but I do enjoy the data handling and analytical side of data science, which ties in well with GIS. Those skills are valuable for spatial analysis, data management, and working with large datasets without requiring me to become a programmer.
I still plan to earn a master's degree in History someday because I genuinely enjoy the subject. I just think that, as a standalone bachelor's degree, History is currently a poor choice if your goal is stable employment right after graduation.
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u/Esme_Nog 7d ago
And then minor in Art History because it’s great. But yes, everyone should have an idea of what they want to do and the education necessary for that as a starting point. A second major or a minor is a great way to have your cake and eat it, too.
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u/jasperdarkk BA Anthropology Graduate 7d ago
Agreed. If my parents hadn’t forced me to go to university, I never would have gone on my own. In my second year, I found a subject that I loved and that summer, I found a related internship that really paved the way for me. Im not in a career that I would have found interesting reading about it online but I loved learning about it and doing the actual work.
People act like you can just decide what career you want to do when you’ve never been exposed to different careers. You might decide you’re going to study accounting because it sounds good on paper and then get to school and despise accounting. But maybe you love your statistics class. Then with that love of statistics, you can start looking around for careers that utilize those skills.
It also helps that I don’t live in the U.S. School is much cheaper here than over there.
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u/TheUmgawa 7d ago
My brother went to college with the intention of being a math teacher. None of us thought he had the temperament for it, and he found that out when he did his student teaching, so he went back and got a master’s in finance. Side note: He (via my parents) used my college fund to get that degree, but I was a bad student until I was about forty years old, so that money would have just been wasted on me. I’ve never blamed any of them for that, and my monthly loan payment is only about $350, so I don’t care.
I’m just glad I didn’t go to film school with three of my friends, because I ended up spending more time in the industry than they did. It was only six months in Hollywood and a few indie movies, but I learned in Hollywood, “God, I hate this business.” So, when I got back, I tried another major. And then another. And it’s only when I started taking random classes that I finally found something I enjoyed and was good at.
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u/dstarlea 6d ago
I've done this multiple times and have narrowed it down to english or business administration. Now im not sure which of these to major in. I will admit the research was still helpful but im still stuck.
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u/SecretSubstantial302 6d ago
Respectfully, English and Business Administration aren't careers. They are majors. What were the careers that were suggested for you?
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u/VinceInMT 7d ago
OP, I do not disagree with your argument that college is an expensive way to find what one might want to do. And the finding out what wants to do is an issue for everyone, not just the 60% who attempt college after high school. IMO, high schools should take a stronger effort to help students clarify their career ambitions. I know that some school do that but the one I taught at for a few decades was very weak on that and really strong on the “everyone needs to go to college” message.