“What’s your major?” This may be the most-asked question directed toward college students, but it is also a source of confusion and unease for both secondary and college students alike. So as you make your way through the college search and application process this year, we’ll be focusing on different college majors and look at how they may apply to your future.
A “major” is simply an academic area in which you choose to concentrate your studies. Since you’ll be taking as many as a third of your college classes in this subject, you’ll want to pick a field of study that you’re both good at and truly enjoy. A major can be as broad as liberal studies, or as narrow and prescribed as biomolecular engineering. A broad major gives you a lot of latitude in selecting classes, while a narrow major provides few choices among a carefully planned curriculum.
When thinking about possible majors, keep in mind that there are two broad groups, applied majors and academic majors. Applied majors are those that prepare you for a career—this group would include such majors as engineering, business, accounting, nursing, architecture, and education. Academic majors are more pre-professional in nature. They do not prepare you for a specific career but give you the tools you’ll need for further study and success in that area. Academic majors include subjects like history, philosophy, English, and mathematics.
Some colleges (such as Hampshire in Massachusetts) encourage students to design their own majors—selecting their concentration from among classes with a common theme. Still others make it easy for students to double major (concentrate in two academic areas) or to minor in one or more related subjects. (A minor is similar to a major but requires fewer courses in that area.)
According to MyMajors.com, 80% of college-bound students have not chosen a major before attending college. More telling, about half of those who declare a major on entrance change their major while in college, some doing so two or three times.
Although most students begin to concentrate in their majors starting junior year, knowing your interests early will help you in choosing classes for your first two years of college. Individual majors generally have prerequisites, classes that you must have taken prior to beginning the major. Therefore, students who have a pretty good idea of their probable major can make sure that they select the classes that they may need as prerequisites before having to declare their major.
Some majors, however, begin with classes during freshman year. Generally, engineering students must take an Intro to Engineering class freshman year, as well as a number of science and math classes. Pre-meds need to get in their basic math and science requirements during their first two years of college, even before declaring their major. (Pre-med is not a major—many students planning on a career in the health sciences major in a related field like biology, anatomy, or chemistry.)
Although knowing what you want to major in may factor into your college choices, for many students it plays a fairly minor role in their decision about which college to attend. If you are interested in a number of academic disciplines, just be sure that the colleges on your short list offer classes that meet those interests. Also check that you will have opportunities to select your classes from a wide variety of academic subjects. Those of you who are more interested in the applied majors that prepare you for a specific career need to be more proactive in considering majors as part of the college selection process. Not sure? Arrange to take a career inventory and then discuss the results with your advisor.
