Major or no major?
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free skin care · Tue Jun 28, 2005 2:14 pm

I'm having a really hard time being a decisive person about what i want to do with my life. I'm interested in sooo many things...such as: psychology, meteorology, and graphic design. Has anyone else on here had a difficult time? I see some of you are very successful and would like to understand how easy people find out their directions..my advisors have left me to taking an assessment test and im rather confused on the whole thing..

free skin care · Tue Jun 28, 2005 2:40 pm

I found my way by leaving college and trying out various jobs until I found one I liked. Now I'm back in school taking business management and average all A's. Now that I know what I want I do well in school. (I was B's, C's and a few F's before)

I was out of school 5 years before figuring it out. I don't recommend that long...as it's scary going back.

Wed Jun 29, 2005 1:37 am

I think I found mine relatively easy compared to some of my friends who are still searching. I was always good at maths and interested in technology and computers so I decided to go that way. Some of my friends easily found their way because they knew right from when they were little what it is that they wanted to do (e.g. my best friend always wanted to help sick people and he became a Dr, there was never any question about it). Some of my other friends have done a whole degree and gone to work before they figured out that they hated what they were doing. My other half gave up half way through his degree. Being a lecturer myself now, I have a strong opinion that asking young people right out of school to decide what they want to do for the rest of their life is just wrong. They should be given some work experience first in order to help them figure this out - it's just too easy to make the wrong choice. When I ask my students why they are doing a particular degree, too many of them still say "because X is doing it" or "because my parents say that it's a good idea" or "because I want to earn lots of $". All wrong answers IMO.

I think the best thing you can do for yourself is read a lot about the areas that you think interest you and see which one you find more interesting. It's also a good idea to go speak to a few lecturers and see what it is that they deal with and what some potential interesting topics would be - I'm sure there are also some proper career guidance councellors that you could speak to. Ultimately, although this is often hard, it'd be great to go and volunteer in a company where you'd see yourself working just so that you can see what is involved.

free skin care · Wed Jun 29, 2005 8:08 am

I had to go through a long process of elimination before I knew what I was going to do. Actually, when I was going through interviews for medical school, it took a long time for me to explain why and how I knew I wanted to become a doctor.

Basically, I started off in computer science and engineering. I love computers (I'm currently working in an IT department until school starts) and thought maybe I could either work with hardware or do computer game design. I learned very early on (by my second semester) that I didn't like advanced math and got out of the program. By then, I wondered what the hell to do with myself. I thought about all of the things I really loved and enjoyed and thought, "I love reading and always enjoyed english, maybe I'll just be an english major." So I took several english courses and aside from really loving them, I really got interested in the various forms of literary criticism and the application of psychology to the works we studied, and decided to take a psych class or two just for fun. It turns out the two subjects complimented each other very well, and I ended up double-degreeing with a BS in english and psych.

But while I was taking psych, I got into the cognitive and biological aspects, which expanded further into a fascination with how the body works, and so on. After graduating, I went to another school to do neuroscience research and take my pre-med requirements so that I could apply to medical school (I spent 3 years doing stuff to beef up my resume.) But I had no idea I'd take this path until my last semester of undergrad.

I'm an artist, a writer, I play video games, I build computers, I love shopping and going out, I like martial arts and tennis, travelling, etc. I'm all over the board. Having varied interests makes you more interesting and gives you a unique perspective on any field that you choose to tackle.

I guess what I'm trying to say, is take classes that you enjoy and that are comfortable to you, and find particular aspects in those that appeal to you. Finding those aspects, think about all the fields out there that incorporate them, or how they can apply practically to the world around you. For instance, looking at the fields you enjoy, you can combine them in creative ways and pick a field that you think would be conducive to achieving that end. You could do marketing for a science foundation or space program, work for a magazine doing layouts and design for psych or meteorology, etc. Just random thoughts.

Don't put too much pressure on yourself to find something early on. It's very common to see even people starting medical and law school in their mid-40s and such because it took them that long to figure out what they want to do, and they're still looked upon favorably. That's an extreme example, but you have time.

If you have to, major in something general (psych and graphic design are fairly general), and then work for a while or apply to something more specific for graduate work.

Good luck!

free skin care · Wed Jun 29, 2005 10:51 am

These are all very helpful responses. I have spent 2 years taking courses in psych, sociology, anthropology, political science, design classes, trying to feel what is working...and to be honest, im pretty flexible on what i enjoy doing. When i think about it, it isnt a problem because i could use it all to my advantage...im just very surprised how little help im getting from my school councelors...they are all braindead if you ask me..the one lady i went to yesterday couldn't even spell meteorology without my help...can we say they are getting paid to do Nothing?! I'm open about taking more classes as i get older...i can see myself changing my career many times..but i think its worth it.

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