Major Decisions !!!

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Are you uncertain about your major?

If so, you are not alone. Research conducted by Penn State and other institutions has shown that up to 80 percent of entering college students admit that they are not certain what they want to major in, even if they have indicated an initial choice of major. In addition, over 50 percent of new, first-year students change their majors at least once before graduation, and some change several times. So you can see that your uncertainty about a major puts you, in fact, in the majority.

Students who are uncertain about their majors often feel a sense of urgency about choosing a major and want to make the decision as soon as possible. However, making a decision as important as this one should not be rushed. You can't take any shortcuts if you want to make a good decision. Also keep in mind that your major is not going to come looking for you; you must become actively involved in the process of finding a major that's right for you.

To be effective in choosing a major, you will need time, information, and commitment. You will need time to consider all of the options, to think about the implications of your decision, and to do the work necessary to make a good decision. You will need information so that your decision is based on accurate data, statistics, knowledge, and advice. And after you have taken the time to gather the information and consider the options, you will need commitment—that is, you will need to make the decision. Having only time and information will not make the decision for you. The commitment must come from within. It is a personal choice based on sufficient time and accurate information. No one else can make the commitment for you (although at times you might wish that someone else would). Ultimately, whatever the decision, the decision is yours.

The MAJOR DECISION points described here were written to help you obtain information that will assist you in choosing a major that's right for you. You may or may not want or need to use all of these points before making your decision. Decide for yourself which MAJOR DECISION points would be most beneficial to you at particular times in your educational planning, and then follow these points as closely as possible. For your near and distant futures, the results will be well worth the effort.

 

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Some Common Misperceptions about Choosing a Major

Students often begin their exploration of majors with preconceived ideas about the best ways to go about choosing a major and about what impact that choice will have. Unfortunately, many of these ideas are misperceptions that can deter real progress.

Listed below are some of the most common misperceptions about choosing a major and an explanation of how these misperceptions can cloud your educational vision.


Misperception #1: The best way to find out about majors is to take courses.

Misperception #2: I'll just get my Gen Eds out of the way first.

Misperception #3: Picking a major and a career are the same thing.

Misperception #4: Choosing one major means giving up all the others.

Misperception #5: The major I pick now will determine my lifelong career.



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Misperception #1: The best way to find out about majors is to take courses.

Scheduling an introductory course is one way to learn about a particular major, but it may not be the best way, especially if you are just beginning the exploration process. Here are some reasons why:

1. If you schedule a course just to learn more about a major and then decide against that major, you will have eliminated one major but you will not have selected one. Deciding on majors by eliminating them one course at a time is obviously inefficient and time-consuming.

2. Sometimes it is not possible for students to schedule courses in a major until after they are actually enrolled in that major.

3. You can often learn a great deal about a course and a major just by browsing through the required textbooks, reading the course syllabi, and sitting in on a few class meetings before deciding whether or not to schedule a course in that major.

For information about some appropriate ways to use courses to help you explore majors, refer to the Courses section of MAJOR DECISIONS.



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Misperception #2: I'll just get my Gen Eds out of the way first.

Penn State's list of General Education courses is extensive, but not every course on the list can be used in every major. Here are just a few examples:

1. Although students in some majors may select any natural science courses from the General Education list, students in other majors must select two or three different types of natural sciences courses and sometimes a lab course. In most technical majors, students must schedule very specific natural science courses and may not be allowed to use non-technical science courses at all.

2. In general, students are not permitted to use courses from their own department to meet General Education requirements (e.g., a student majoring in history may not use any history courses to meet the humanities or social science requirements, even if the courses are on the General Education list).

3. In some majors, some General Education courses can “double count” with other courses required in the major; in other majors, General Education courses cannot double count.

You can see that while you are exploring majors, you should select your General Education courses very carefully. Your adviser should be able to assist you in this selection process.



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Misperception #3: Picking a major and a career are the same thing.

When students talk about choosing a major, they often mean choosing a career (and vice-versa). Although these two choices can go hand-in-hand, choosing one does not automatically mean you have chosen the other. Here are just a few examples:

1. Some people assume that students who major in the arts, humanities, or social sciences are either not qualified for any jobs (“What can you do with a degree in philosophy?”) or qualified only for careers in those specific areas. Actually, students who earn undergraduate degrees in theatre, history, psychology, and similar majors find jobs in business, research, human resources, teaching, the military, and a variety of other occupations.

2. Many students who decide on a career in law automatically assume that they should major in pre-law, political science, or administration of justice. The reality is that a student can choose any major and still be accepted into law school. A student in the College of Agricultural Sciences, for example, might be planning a career in environmental law, while a student majoring in business might be interested in corporate law.

Choosing a major does not limit you to only one career choice; choosing a career does not limit you to only one major.



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Misperception #4: Choosing one major means giving up all the others.

There are a variety of ways for students to combine their interests in more than one major. It is possible, for example, for students to complete multiple majors, simultaneous degrees, or sequential degrees. Penn State also offers many different minors which often can be completed in little or no extra time or credits.

Sometimes students who investigate the requirements for combining majors/degrees decide instead to complete just one undergraduate degree and then go on for a master's degree. Post-baccalaureate degrees do not have to be in the same area as undergraduate degrees. A student who earns a bachelor's degree in music, for example, might go on to earn a master's degree in business administration. A student with an undergraduate degree in mathematics, on the other hand, might go on to earn a post-baccalaureate teaching certificate or a master's degree in computer science.

Another way to combine interests in several different majors is through programs such as the Letters, Arts, and Sciences major in the College of the Liberal Arts, the Integrative Arts major in the College of Arts and Architecture, and the intercollege Bachelor of Philosophy degree. These programs offer varying degrees of flexibility for students who are interested in designing their own specialized majors within the general framework of a baccalaureate degree program.



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Misperception #5: The major I pick now will determine my lifelong career.

Studies have shown that within ten years after graduation most people are working in careers that are not directly connected to their undergraduate majors.

Just as some students change their minds about their majors, some graduates change their minds about their careers. There are physicians, for example, who decide to become lawyers and lawyers who decide to become physicians. These are obviously unusual examples. More commonly, however, people change their jobs while remaining in a related occupational area (a teacher, for example, might become a principal or a superintendent within a school district, or an engineer might move into a management position in an engineering firm).

Jobs also change over time, whether people want them to or not. Many jobs that exist today will be performed in very different ways five years from now or may even be obsolete by then. New types of jobs are emerging every year, and most of us have no way of knowing what those jobs will be or what type of education will be needed in order to qualify for them. Consequently, the current emphasis in career planning at the undergraduate level is on the development of general, transferrable skills (writing, speaking, computer, problem-solving, team-building) that employers want and that graduates will need in order to adjust to rapidly changing careers.

People change; careers change. The connection between the major that you select now and the career that you will find yourself in ten years from now is likely to be very thin indeed.

 

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Five Considerations

Before using MAJOR DECISIONS to begin your search for information, think about the following five considerations. Try to keep these considerations in mind as you sort through and evaluate the information that you gather.


1. What are your interests?

Think about the kinds of things that you enjoy. What activities do you like to participate in? What do you enjoy watching on TV or reading, studying, or talking about? What hobbies do you actively pursue? Do you enjoy group activities, or do you prefer working alone? Do you enjoy outdoor activities or being indoors? Are you interested in science fiction, science fact, or neither? What courses did you enjoy most in high school? When you fantasize about a career, what do you think you would enjoy doing or being? What kinds of activities are you not interested in, and why? Imagine not being interested in a subject that you would study in depth for four years or more. The importance of considering your interests in choosing a major should not be underestimated. Would you be interested in the work required in a particular major?


2. What are your abilities?

Try to take an objective look at your past performance in scholastic as well as in non-scholastic work. How do your college entrance exam scores and high school performance compare to those of other students? What are the projections for your success in certain academic areas at Penn State? (The Profile of Academic Abilities that you received if you participated in FTCAP, the First-Year Testing, Counseling and Advising Program, is a good source of this type of information.) How have others judged your performance in the past? Have you won scholastic honors or awards for excellence in art, music, sports, or other performance areas? Do you seem to have a natural talent for helping other people, working with numbers, influencing others, solving problems, using your hands, or organizing activities? How strong are your study skills? Do you have the ability to be successful in the work required in a particular major?


3. What are your values?

Think about the values and principles that are guiding your life. Are your decisions and choices influenced by certain religious, philosophical, moral, or ethical beliefs and teachings? Do you consider service to others to be an important part of your personal philosophy? Is a broad undergraduate education more important to you than a more narrowly-focused program, or is the opposite true? Do you value financial security above all else? Where do you stand politically? Would you rather save the rain forests or cut them down? Why? What are your moral values? What place does a family have in your future? Will your values match the requirements and outcomes of a potential major or career?


4. What are your motivations?

Ask yourself why you might be considering a particular major. Do your strongest motivations come from your interests, your abilities, your values, or from some other factors? Are outside pressures (from family, peers, or the job market) shaping and influencing your decisions? Are you thinking about choosing a major because you believe it will be easy, or because it is what somebody else said you “should” do, or because you think you could ensure a good job and earn a high salary? Would your motivation be strong enough to allow you to succeed in a major even if other factors seemed to direct you away from that major?


5. What are the realities?

Consider what situations in your life may have a strong and overriding influence on your choice of major. Do your interests, abilities, values, and motivations conflict with each other, or are they in agreement? Sometimes students are very interested in a major but find that they do not have the abilities to handle the academic demands of the required courses. On the other hand, some students have considerable abilities in a particular area but do not have any real interest in studying that topic. And sometimes students have both interests and abilities in an area but find that the realities of the job market are such that they are not willing to risk a four year (or more) investment of time and money on a major that appears to lead to bleak employment chances.

What other realities might you face in choosing your major? Will you be able to meet entrance- to-major requirements on time, particularly in programs with administrative enrollment controls? How much extra time will it take to graduate if you have already completed a significant number of credits that cannot be applied to a major? Does Penn State offer the major(s) that you are considering, or would you have to transfer to another school? Can you afford to finance a four- or five-year degree, or can you afford only two years of college education? Consider these and other outside factors that may make a significant difference to you. Is your choice of major a realistic one?

 

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Courses

Students often believe (incorrectly) that the best way to explore majors is to take some courses in those majors. On the one hand, scheduling a variety of introductory Penn State courses to test your interests and abilities can be very helpful in exploring majors, especially if these test courses are also General Education courses that can be used in many different majors. On the other hand, scheduling very specific, narrowly focused courses may not be of much benefit to you if you have not already explored the majors in other ways, especially if the courses you schedule cannot be used in other majors.

Most Penn State courses are designed to help students learn about a specific topic, not necessarily to help students decide on a major. Students who schedule highly specific courses just to see if they might like the majors often find that they have ruled out those majors after only a few weeks of classes. Then they either spend the rest of the semester in courses they do not want or need, or they end up late-dropping the courses. These courses might be useful in meeting requirements in some majors, but taking them still would not have helped these students to select a major, only to eliminate one. Eliminating majors one course at a time is a very slow and inefficient process.

If, however, you have already narrowed your choices of major to two or three, then scheduling a few very specific courses in those majors could be very helpful to you in finalizing your choice. If you think that you are ready to schedule some of these courses, you may want to make an appointment with your adviser or visit an advising center to discuss which specific courses might be appropriate for you.

Your experiences in course work may even cause you to decide against a major (or even a group of majors) if you discover that you are not doing well in the courses or that you really have no interest in them. Poor grades in required science and math classes, especially calculus, physics, chemistry, and biology, could indicate that majors in science, engineering, earth and mineral sciences, and other technical areas may not be appropriate for you. In that case, you might begin ruling out majors and minors that require the kinds of courses in which you are not doing well. Also, a definite lack of interest in a group of related courses might indicate that majors requiring those courses may not be the best match for you.

 

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People

Many valuable “living resources” are available to you both inside and outside the Penn State community. These resources include students who have already declared a major, instructors and professors who teach courses in the majors you might be considering, and professionals who are now working in a field related to these majors.

Students who have already declared a major should be able to tell you why they decided on a particular major and how they went about the process of deciding. Students can also give you information about courses in their majors and about the kinds of course-related activities they are involved in as they progress through their junior and senior years.

Faculty members are often more than willing to share their knowledge of the academic departments and majors that they are associated with. Professors can provide information about their teaching experiences, the work they have done outside the University, their current and past research projects, and the future of their fields. Many professors maintain close ties with graduates from their programs and can share with you the experiences that recent graduates have had in their majors and in postgraduation activities, whether employment or graduate education.

Professionals working in the careers that you are considering can be invaluable resources. Their front-line experiences can give you a clear picture of what to expect if you seek employment in that area after graduation. The experiences you have while earning a degree will be quite different from those that you will have on the job. The educational routine to which you have become accustomed will not be the same routine that comes with employment. Ask professionals what an average day is like for them. How do their activities change from day to day and from month to month? How has their career changed over time? What direction do they expect their careers to take in the next five to ten years? How does the major they chose relate to their current occupation?

In talking to students, faculty, and professionals, try to get as many opinions as you can. Talking to only one person can give you a distorted perspective. The more people you talk to, the clearer and more accurate will be the picture that you construct of any particular major or career. At the same time, ask yourself how similar you are to the individuals you are talking to. Do you share their enthusiasm for the majors and careers you have discussed?

 

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Experience

Experience gained through internships, short-term externships, cooperative learning (co-ops), volunteer work, part-time employment, and full-time summer employment can play a critical role in determining the appropriateness of a particular major for you. These hands-on experiences are often very similar to the activities you would be performing on a day-to-day basis in a job related to the majors you are considering. In some cases, these types of experiences have resulted in students turning away from majors that they had once considered, even after they had already completed some course work in that major. These students discovered that the activities involved in the career they were considering were quite different from what they were experiencing in the college classroom.

Learning about something is often quite different from applying it; knowing how to do something is often quite different from actually doing it. You might enjoy reading and studying about business but not be able to endure the pressures associated with a rigorous, 70-hours-a-week business-world schedule. You might enjoy studying about young children and how they develop and learn, but you could also discover that you just do not have the patience to work with children. This is why, for example, Penn State's College of Education requires students to enroll early in their academic careers in a series of prepracticum courses that allow them to observe the teaching situation and to become involved in related activities.

On the other hand, volunteer work and part-time employment have opened doors to majors that students might not have ever considered or known about had they not been involved in that particular work environment. Part-time and summer employment activities for students are often low level in nature, but they do give students an inside view of the organizations they are working for and of the higher-level positions that might be attractive as postgraduation job considerations.

If possible, try to identify the kinds of things you might actually be doing in careers related to the majors you are considering, and then get some experience in those areas.

For more information about the kinds of activities to consider in trying out the “real world” style, contact your adviser or the appropriate college or campus representative. He or she can suggest ways in which to gain this valuable experience and might also be able to assist you in finding appropriate internships, externships, co-ops, part-time employment, or volunteer work.

 

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Conclusion

Deciding on a major is often not an easy task, but neither is it an impossible one. The implications of your decision may seem monumental. You may feel that this decision will determine much of your future and lock you into one career path or postgraduate program of study. Most college graduates, however, actually change their goals, educational and professional, several times after graduation.

Education is a lifelong process, not a goal or an end point. Choosing a major is one part of that process, but it is not the process itself, nor is it the end of the process. Try to accept the idea that there may not be just one perfect undergraduate major for you; there may be several that are equally appropriate, or there may be no single major that can fulfill all of your needs. The best that you can do is to make your decision based on as much relevant and accurate information as you can obtain and to know that the decision does not cast your future in stone.

Change is possible at many points in your life and is probably preferable, if not necessary. Choices must also be made at many points in your life, and choosing a major is but one of those many, many choices. Make the choice, accept it, and go forward in your academic career.

From www.psu.edu

 

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Myths About Major

When selecting a major and deciding on a career direction, it is important to make the most well informed decisions possible. These decisions should be based on facts rather than myths. They should include a variety of factors -- first, your interests, values, skills, and abilities; and second, your knowledge of the career fields and job opportunities. Commonly believed myths, dispelled below, will not help you to decide on a major.

In selecting a college major you are NOT choosing a career.
While it is true that certain majors such as Engineering, Computer Science and Accounting prepare students for fairly specific career fields, a far greater number of majors do not have a direct correlation with given career areas. Liberal Arts majors often find that they have a wide variety of career options because their backgrounds are so broad. A study conducted by the College Placement Council indicated that the majority of college graduates are successfully employed in fields not directly related to their academic majors.

Job market demand should NOT be the primary determinant of academic and career choices.

Selecting a major and pursuing a career just because it's "hot" in the job market can be dangerous. You may enjoy neither the course work nor the job you get later. The careers in demand when you are a freshman or sophomore may not be in demand by the time you graduate. You are on much firmer ground when you select a major or choose a career goal that genuinely interests you. Job market demand moves in cycles. What is hot becomes cold as supply rushes to meet demand. Also, new career fields and jobs emerge every year as a result of changes in technology, public policy, and economic trends. Factors that influence job market demand are often unpredictable.

Liberal Arts majors ARE employable. :mrgreen:

Liberal Arts graduates develop skills that are highly valued by employers and that are applicable to a wide variety of professional jobs. In a longitudinal study of AT&T employees, humanities and social science majors were found to be stronger than engineering majors and similar to business majors in administrative skills and motivation for advancement, and in the area of interpersonal skills liberal arts majors were the strongest of all groups. The number of liberal arts students being interviewed by employers through on-campus recruiting at UC Berkeley has increased significantly in recent years.

You do NOT need a specific undergraduate major to gain admission to postgraduate professional schools in such fields as business, law or medicine.

While some postgraduate professional schools require or recommend the completion of certain academic prerequisites, in most cases no specific major is required. In other instances, only broad skills are sought, e.g. the ability to read and write well and to think critically. Students with academic majors in several of the humanities have higher acceptance rates to medical schools than do biology majors.

There is much you can do BEYOND course work in your major to improve your chances of career success.

Supplementary courses and independent study projects can be helpful. Important experience can be gained and skills developed through extracurricular activities such as student organizations, athletic teams, social groups, and student government. Internships, summer and part-time jobs and volunteer activities play an important part in developing greater understanding of yourself and the world of work. Employers consistently place a high value on these extracurricular activities, internships, part-time and summer work experiences.