for ADULTS only please!! or anyone with advice?

Question

ok for anyone who went to college, how did you chose your college and your major?

im ony 16 and have a while until college, but i have multiple places i want to go to college, and multiple things i want to do.

how did you decide?

Answer 1

Well, I think aptitude tests are good. Also, imagine what you would want to do if you had all the money in the world. That should help you think of what you would enjoy most for a career.

I don't know what to tell you with the schools, however. I only had one school that I wanted to go to.

Answer 2

I majored in Information Systems with the goal of becoming a Business Systems Analyst. What helped me decide was me turning my hobby into my lifelong career - computers. But computing is a VERY large field and like you, I had far too many directions to go. So I went to the Higher Education Office at the nearest major city's public library and took a Career Development Skills & Aptitude test.

The results were based on my personal & professional interests, aptitude, actual skills, and what I anticipated doing. The results were all over the map, Astronaut, Professor, Nuclear Plant Supervisor, Programmer, Neurosurgeon, Research Associate, Computer Systems Analyst, CIO, Data Modeler, CPA. Most of the choices were in the computer field, so I directed my studies in that field and never looked back.

At 16, you are still young, enjoy your life for now, for you are only young once. Definately take the time to think about your future, but don't get too caught up in it. Eventually, you will have to choose your direction, you may even have to change that direction, but some people never do.

If, at 18, or when you graduate High School, you are so very undecided, it will not be unusual for you to enroll in college as an Liberal Arts student. You can always change your major when you finally decide. At the very least, you will achieve a general college degree.

Answer 3

first thing is pick a few colleges that have majors that interest you. A lot of colleges don't make you choose your major until you reach your sophmore or junior year. Decide if you can handle living far from home or need to be near home in case you want to visit more often. then geographically look for schools that not only have the majors you are interested in but also social activities such as sports you may want to get involved in or other activities like clubs. choosing your major becomes easier as you take exploritory classes in your major for instance if you said maybe psychology and then took your first psych class you may hate the class and then decided next major most of your first two years is getting your regular math science history etc out of the way and also a few exploring classes. Go see a guidance councelor at the school also they help in selecting classes that best suit you and help you to decide your major. remember that in the first two years it is easy to change a major if you pick and decide you don't like it but in the last two years it becomes a chore because you are into your core curriculum and will need to take extra classes to graduate and to change majors. I wanted to be far from home and knew I wanted to work with kids but wasn't sure doing what I visited several colleges to check out the campus life activities and security where i knew I would feel safe then I picked my school. I started with my basics and my councelor threw in a few exploritory classes as my electives so i would get credit for them even if I didn't use that major. I decided my major this way and my school also. Happy hunting and have fun. By the way you can always move schools if one doesn't work out. Just finish your semester so you can get your credits and check out other school and see which one will accept all if not most of the credits you worked on so you can transfer there are always options. Good Luck .

Answer 4

To be honest, my first two years of college I had too many passions and I was worried that I had to pick a major right then and there! But I relaxed and took my gen. ed.. That's what gen. ed and electives are for anyway.. for you to try classes out and see what you're passionate about.. If you are passionate about something now, I would see where that takes you.. But don't fret. Most college students change majors all the time.. I changed mine about two or three times until I realized that I loved writing and English.. I knew since highschool but I just never thought I was that good until I went to college and was told by instructors that I had a gift.. So take your time and really think... Good luck.

Answer 5

I chose my majors by trial and error. And after major number 8, I finally settled on a double major in Spanish and Psychology. Double majoring works best, though, if you choose your courses wisely. A lot of times you can arrange it so a required major course counts for a general education requirement. Find a good advisor once you're in college and they'll help you.

Also realize that you don't have to take classes in every single one of your interests. You can join clubs to help satiate that interest. Take my philosophy major friend that likes photography for instance. He can't take photography classes because he's not in the school of fine arts at my university. Instead, he decided to take a amateur photography class at the local arts center. He doesn't get college credit for it, but he still gets to take cool pictures. He also joined the photography club on campus that funds a number of different photog projects. He's actually getting some of his work showcased in a calendar.

Enough about him, though. Just remember that college has changed since the days of your parents. Nowadays, its less about what you major in while in school, and more about what activities you pursue outside class. Anyone can sit in a chair and take notes all week, but it takes a high caliber person to seek education outside of the classroom.

Answer 6

For me it was easy. I went where my parents when to college, and it was also a private college. In addition, it had a good Biology program.

You need to think about what is important to you when you start thinking about college. Do you want a Christian college, do you want to live at home, away? Does the college you like have a strong program in the area you're interested in? If you have multiple things you want to do, is there a college that you like that will meet your needs? You do still have time...

Answer 7

School is boring so you pick a major you are interested in.
Good paying jobs require a Bachelors Degree but often the type doesnt matter unless you are looking to get into a specfic field.

So Chose something that interests you.

Answer 8

You know, just do what interests you. Remember you can always change most students do anyway. You could do exploratory studies your freshman year. When you apply for scholarships, just make stuff up, most of them won't check to see if you pursued your career as an oncologist. Don't make a commitment that you aren't ready to make. Better to be diverse at the start than to start specific and seem like a waffler.

Answer 9

While I generally wouldn't hold up my undergraduate university application process as a model to follow (indeed, it's more of a lesson in what *not* to do when applying to college :) ), I applied to schools that offered a wide range of programs (sciences as well as liberal arts), and ended up going to my state university. Now, because of the fact that I didn't do a good job on my applications (I suspect that they were almost all received late [I had my high school send them out for me]), I ended up in an engineering program, which I promptly transfered out of (engineering programs tend to be very structured and rigorous, so that you don't get to have much choice in what classes you take, which was something I hated). :)

To be fair, at this point I should mention that while I myself wasn't too sure as to what I wanted to do, my parents and friends all could see that I would end up in the sciences, which starting in engineering hastened. But still I spent two years bouncing back and forth between Computer Science and Physics. My junior year, it seemed that I was going to be going into Computer Science when I took an Astrophysics course (it was going to be my minor), and found that I *really* liked that too. That made me decide to double major in Computer Science and Astrophysics (I had already gone through a lot of the Computer Science curriculum, and I did and still do enjoy programming and computers). It also meant that it took me five years to graduate. I graduated last May and have now started graduate school in Physics.

So, what advice do I have from all of this? First of all, try to pin down what you like and are interested in, and also what you are good at. If you have things which you both like and are good at, those are the things you want to focus on. If you really can't do this by yourself, ask friends and family what they see you doing. My parents both knew I was going into the sciences, even though I didn't. Based on this, pick schools that are strong in the areas you come up with and that you think you can get into. If all else fails, and you aren't able to narrow things down, apply to larger schools that offer a wide range of programs. You might want to look at your state university (or universities) in that case, as they are cheaper and many of them offer lots of programs.

Once you are in school, assuming you still don't know what you want to do, or have several things that you can't decide between, spend the first year or two doing your general education requirements, so that you don't have to worry about them later, as well as taking some of the introductory courses in the fields you are interested in. If you are interested in the sciences, take introductory physics and calculus, as those courses are often required for most science programs. Hopefully at some point, either early on or even later, you'll stumble upon something that really catches your interest. If you do, run with it. When you take a course and find it to be really interesting and something you're good at, that's a good candidate for your major.

Answer 10

Hmmm, to chose or decide on it now? Ask again when you start your senior year in high school.