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I really suggest you take a gap year (time off) and figure things out because it seems like you do not have a clue what you want out of life. Maybe your future does not require a college education.
To my knowledge the first year of college doesn't require you to declare a major anyway. It's all about getting Gen ED out of the way.
Don't most colleges also have career centers where you can take skill tests, get information about different types of careers, talk with a career counselor, etc. One of my kids friends, who was undecided, took a career class that basically consisted of a different professor coming in each week to talk about the fields they taught in and what types of careers one might expect with a degree in that field.
I think you still have plenty of time to make your decision. You might even change your mind a few times before you even have to declare your major.
When I was 19 and didn't know what I wanted to do with my life I joined the (Dutch) army since I was drafted a year before. In the army I could think about what I wanted to do in life and which college I then should choose while getting paid at the same time.
A few years ago when I was 'lost' again I spend 3,5 months in Thailand figuring out my life-strategy.
I had the luxury to do this because I came into my inheritance.
Taking a year off for backpacking or doing volunteer work abroad (in a well-oiled professional organisation) usually is a good way to centre yourself and find out who you are (and what you are made of). This way you can think about your future and learn more about yourself while being on a holiday abroad.
If you are in your first 2 years of college you really don't need to declare a major. Not much advantage in declaring a major early either. You certainly could just take your core courses and see what courses are inherantly interesting to you, which are easy for you.
Business is a fine field. Step-daughter just graduated in Accounting. But the "goals" you posted are not really career goals, they are just a complicated way of saying you want to get into a field that is well-compensated (think engineering, law, medicine, consulting) as opposed to poorly compensated (public school teacher, law enforcement, etc.) (bad that these 2 important jobs don't pay much, but, them's the facts on the ground and I don't know how to change them) AND that you want to get into a field that you'll excel at.
Nothing wrong with that, except that it's a vague goal rather than a specific goal.
Get out there and figure out what you want to do. I personally like the books based on Myers-Briggs personality type, that talk about how to determine your personality code (INTP, ESFJ, etc.) and talk about what fields people with this personality type tend to gravitate to.
To my knowledge the first year of college doesn't require you to declare a major anyway. It's all about getting Gen ED out of the way.
It depends on the school. Some colleges are set up so that you get your generals out of the way as an underclassman, and you are able to declare your major sometime before you begin your junior year while others are set up to were if you where to wait until then end of your freshmen or sophomore year to declare a major then you will end up tacking another semester or two onto your degree, or possibly more.
It depends on the school. Some colleges are set up so that you get your generals out of the way as an underclassman, and you are able to declare your major sometime before you begin your junior year while others are set up to were if you where to wait until then end of your freshmen or sophomore year to declare a major then you will end up tacking another semester or two onto your degree, or possibly more.
my school is like that. it's an arts and media school and they start you off w/ you major classes the first year. for my major, it's recommended that half of the classes you take be major courses and the rest be gen eds. this was one reason why I picked this school compared to other schools that make you do gen eds the first two years; you have 4 years to concentrate on your major instead of 2
Interesting conversation. And even more interesting points of view expressed. I am by no means an expert in this area, but I have a few comments to add.
I am in my early 50's, and just finished my Bachelor's degree about three years ago, after working in the field in which I majored for a quarter-century. Believe me, I can relate on a very personal level to the quandary faced by a teenager looking at all the options available today. At the same time, I can also attest to the fact that degree + experience is a whole heckuva lot more lucrative than experience alone.
I also have a couple of early-mid 20's kids, both of whom have struggled (and in one case, is continuing to struggle) with the same questions.
The older, who is 25, tried a community college right out of high school and dropped out after half a semester. After spending 5 years trying to scrape by at a subsistence-level wage, which is all that a high school diploma will get you in this community, she suddenly decided that she was ready to go back to school and now, two years after starting, she's a year away from graduating with a Bachelor's in IT and networking. She's excited and enthusiastic about her field of study, and is eager to move into the professional world.
The younger, 23 now, started right to college out of high school, and is still trying to finish. Current major is "undeclared" because he wasn't willing to do the work for the physics degree and doesn't have the GPA to get into the school of business. He doesn't have a clue what he wants to do in life, he just knows that a college degree is a ticket to better-paying jobs. (Kind of sounds like the original poster, as a matter of fact.) He's got at least 2 more years to finish, and if he ever does collect the degree, it'll come with a debt load of probably $30K or more. Hopefully he does finish, because the debt is there whether he gets the degree or not, but either way, he's probably going to be paying off his student loans until he's in his 40's.
And just as one more cautionary example, my brilliant younger sister graduated high school at age 16 and went off to major in music. Collected the first Bachelor's degree at age 20, by which time she had concluded she didn't want to spend her career in music. Got an Associates degree, worked as a paralegal for a year, decided against that, too. Went back for the second Bachelor's in organic chemistry, got her Ph.D. and is now a chem professor at a state university, and is quite happy. But it took her until she was in her mid-30's to reach that point. And she's STILL paying off student loans.
So there are no easy answers to the original poster's questions, whether s/he is really a high school student searching for insights or, as Hasdrubal thinks, is an adult having a good time punking us all. Whichever is true, they're still valid questions, and an awful lot of people still struggle to find the answers.
I would make one final comment, or perhaps suggestion. When my spouse was trying to break out of teaching but wasn't sure what career path to follow instead, he went to a place called Johnson O'Connor. J-O'C has been doing aptitude testing since the early part of the 20th century, and at this point they've got literally millions of test results in their database, along with insights as to which careers are most satisfying for people with specific aptitudes. He found it an incredibly enlightening experience, and well worth the price (it's not cheap, and it takes two days). There are J-O'C sites in about half a dozen locations around the country, so it's possible for most US residents to get to one of the centers. And that sort of evaluation can prove to yield very useful data to someone searching for a pathway to professional satisfaction. I saw that several others have posted similar suggestions, and this would be one more option.
To the original poster: don't expect fast or easy answers, and don't expect a fast or easy path to a lucrative and satisfying career. Things that are worth doing are worth investing a little hard work, and that includes the task of finding what you love to do in life and learning to do it the very best you can. Good luck to you.
wow you are young and light years ahead of me. i never made any selections at all.
a door opened one closed behind me i walked thru. i did what i was told tried hard, and then it happened again. my identity was utterly wound up in success not in what the success was in. i avoided debt like the plague and things that had a lot of prestige but not much pay. not sure my way is the best way, after all i ended up looking and acting a lot like a chameleon. good luck.
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In the army I could think about what I wanted to do in life and which college I then should choose while getting paid at the same time.
This way you can think about your future and learn more about yourself while being on a holiday abroad.
