By Apsara Chopra
Meet with your college academic counselor.
The first step you can take in figuring out which college major you want to pursue is to meet with a college academic counselor. Your college academic counselor can provide you with helpful information regarding ways you can explore your career and academic interests. Your college academic counselor can also help you make sure that you are meeting all your college requirements and are on track to graduating within your desired time frame.
Choose a major that you love!
Oftentimes, students may choose a major because they feel it would be best for applying to graduate or medical school. However, they may not like the general course offerings for the major as much compared to other courses outside of the major.
In this type of situation, it's important to choose a major that you feel the most excited about! :) For example, if you want to attend medical school, but you also would really like to learn more about sociology, how would you fulfill both interests?
Answer: You could major in Sociology!! Yes, you can major in a subject that may not be directly related to your career goals. :) You can still fulfill your requirements for medical school by taking the required classes along with your major classes for sociology.
You can pursue any major you like; you don’t have to major in biology or chemistry to apply for medical school. If you have a strong interest in also learning about art, history, or dance, don’t be afraid to choose that as your college major because in college, you are going to have classes relating to the subject throughout your four years, and it's important to choose the one that you are most interested in!
Research career prospects for the majors that interest you
If you are not sure if you want to go to medical school and want to learn about majors that can lead to multiple careers, you could research the different career options for the majors that interest you. For example, Psychology is a major where you can pursue a career in the medical/health field, but you also can pursue a career in business, law, marketing, and human resources. If you dive more in-depth into course offerings for each major that interests you, you will be able to see how the skills and knowledge you learn from courses can be applied to various careers.
When you research the different careers of majors, you are able to learn about all the possible avenues you could pursue with each major. Sometimes, you may be surprised to learn how some majors may be related to your dream career.
Learn more about the financial prospects for the majors that interest you
It sometimes may be helpful to also learn about the expected salary range for your major once you graduate. Some majors may have a higher expected salary than others. It depends what you hope to do after you graduate college and what desired salary range you may want to start with that could help you decide which major you want to pursue.
Pursue one of your interests as a minor
If you are interested in learning about Sociology, you could also pursue it as a minor! :) Having a minor allows you to explore your additional academic or career interests while pursuing your major. If your strongest interest is biology, you could choose biology as your major, and if you have additional interests in sociology or dance, you could pursue that as your minor if you like. Minors are shorter and concise versions of what a major would be like, which allows for more flexibility in exploring your interests.
P.S
No matter what college major you choose, you will find immense success in your college journey! Every major will provide you with the opportunity to develop further your hard and soft skills, which will aid you no matter which career path you pursue. You all got this!
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