3 Questions You Should Ask Yourself Before You Pick a Major

Choosing a major is one of the most difficult and important decisions any student can make. While choosing a field that you’re passionate about is essential, you also have to understand the dynamics of the marketplace as well to ensure that you’ll be able to realistically lend a position once you finish. Here are a few questions you should ask yourself before you pick a major.

Is This Really What I Want to Major In?

Ask yourself, “who am I getting this degree for?”. Too many students fall to peer pressure, usually from their parents, when choosing a major. Maybe that’s what daddy majored in. Or maybe they want to be the biggest earner in their family or want to make their parents proud. Ultimately, you should be the one choosing your major. So if you feel like you should study in an artistic field and your parents had dreams of you becoming a lawyer or a doctor, you’d be better off going with a major that fits your skill set and interests. Choosing a field just to please others is a sure recipe for disaster and you might end up either failing, dropping out or having an unfulfilling career.

Am I Really Sure of What I Want to Do?

Many students make the mistake of enrolling in some generic field because they had no idea what they wanted to major in. The goal of college is not to help you figure out your life mission, it’s there to teach you a specific set of skills for your career. So, unless you have a clear view of what you want to do in life, don’t waste time and money in a major you might end up abandoning anyway.

You should also check sites like jobdescriptions.net and look at various descriptions for jobs. This might give you more direction as to what career would actually suit you the best and pick a major accordingly.

How Much Do I Know About This Particular Major?

Some people have a romanticized idea of what a particular field is about. For instance, they might go for an MBA thinking that they would be focusing mainly on management while they might have to do more math than they expected. In other cases, you may have studied in the field and done pretty well, only to fail once you hit college level. This is why it is important to get as much information on the course content and the various modules that will be taught. It would also be a good idea to take representative courses that go beyond introductory courses so that you can get a taste of what the major is really about.

Finding a major is all about being informed and choosing a field that represents your forces and interests. You also have to make sure that you do not fall to peer pressure from your parents and choose a major for you first and foremost.