Majors

[SMZ]

About two years ago if anyone here remembers, I made a thread about myself being foggy about what major I was gonna choose.

Here I am now, second year in Medical Laboratory Sciences. I picked it, because I enjoy Biology and Medicine, and this just fitted the bill for me.

So, I'm curious about other Smogoner's majors, and why you guys choose them.

 

[cookie]

physics, motherfuckers

while I'd've been pretty happy studying a multitude of other fields (english, geography, biology, mathematics, medicine to name a few), physics stood out as it:
1. gave me flexibility in terms of careers available, which was pretty damn important to my 18-year-old self who had no idea what he'd be making a living doing
2. it's the subject I was best at
3. the scope of physics is pretty wide: in a general sense you are learning about how the entire universe works, so it's the ultimate meal to sate my appetite for knowledge

I'd've considered english if, you know, it didn't basically guarantee unemployment unless you like studied it at cambridge
medicine would be something I'd consider seriously if I lived my life again but at the time I never thought about it enough and as such didn't have the sufficient preparation
I almost did mathematics but glad I didn't because with a huge workload the extreme abstraction of the subjects is intolerable

 

[Alan]

I chose economics. I had been wanting to be a chemistry major all through high school until I took AP Macroeconomics because it was the most interesting class I ever took (besides psychology which was going to be my minor or a double major). So I fell in love with economics and I and currently on track to be an Business Economics Major with a Minor in Spanish.

reasons for economics major:
1. i enjoyed learning a class where stuff is actually practical to be applied in the real world in every day situations
2. i could get a job on wall street which is where i would love to work because i could live in the city, which is the greatest city on earth
3. i could probably get a job in marketing relatively well, which seems fun

spanish minor
1. i wanna be fluent in a language that isnt english but is still practical to know otherwise
2. pretty much garuntees a job in south florida or nyc

 

[Xaqwais]

I guess I'm sorta well rounded when it comes to school (I'm 17, going into college next year), but always had a knack for math. My parents, due to the Indian subcontinents fascnination with medicine, wanted me to go into be a doctor, but it looks like I'll be testing the waters of engineering first. I'd like to think that I might get into something like Chemical or something like that, but in all reality I'm pretty sure that I'll end up in Computer Engineering or Computer Science or something. Only problem is that CS isn't something my parents will respect compared to being an engineer, and CS has a much bigger job market where I live compared to the other.

Shame I have to take my parent's culture's retarded ass notions of status instead of doing what I really want. I'm fine with engineering, but only since I've been raised to think like that. I'd loved to do something like Journalism. We'll see how that plays out.

 

[tape]

Chemical Engineering. I love science, chemistry.

One thing I like about it is the gigantically wide area of jobs I can work with this major. This wasn't important in deciding about picking this career, but I've heard from too many people and places that they get paid really well, too :)

My other options would've been plain outright Pharmacology, or Software Engineering. I'd LOVE to Major Psychology (most specifically Psychiatry[seeing a pattern here?]), but I don't see myself enforcing it. Just would love to learn it by itself.

if you study anything very closely-tied to chemistry you're a super cool person

 

[Rocket Grunt]

I'm essentially retarded but one of the few things I can actually do is draw cartoons, so I chose graphic design. I picked that over illustration or animation because the average illustrator notoriously has a tough time finding regular work, and I'm not as passionate about animation as I think someone should be to be competitive in that field. Trying to be realistic here. Right now I'm going to school at the art institute of new york. The school's reputation is not very credible relative to some of the other places in the city, so I'm going to try to transfer to the School of Visual Arts or Parsons, the New School for design. They're both in manhattan. I just gotta get through all the foundations bullshit and create some more respectable things for my portfolio before I try.

 

[ginganinja]

Double major

International Relations and History

Good at both of them and I like learning about it. The job field is rather small so im staying til I get my masters which pretty much means that I can walk into a high paying job the moment I leave uni.

 

[whistle]

one kid I know always makes fun of me because he says I change my major every two weeks. that's not completely true although he is right that I don't have my major completely set, but currently I'm planning on math with a specialization in economics. I don't plan on doing anything theoretical, but I like how math classes teach me to think. it also seems like a very flexible major in terms of what fields I can go into, which always a good thing. I'm semi-seriously considering a chemistry major because it makes sense and is very interesting. if I do that I'll probably drop math and go for economics + chemistry. weird combo but they're both fields I really enjoy, so whatever...

 

[Polis4rule]

Biomedical engineering, and no premed track either.

It's a pretty broad field and seems to be quite interesting, but I doubt I will get a job in biomechanics, as those usually go to plain vanilla mechanical engineers. Luckily, there's still plenty of other specialties within the BME field (neuro-engineering seems to be fairly interesting).

 

[TaiCrunch]

Communications with a concentration in Public Relations. When I picked it I still had no idea what I wanted to do after college, and you can do a lot with a communications degree. Now I've decided I want to get into the music industry and I'm talking to a couple music venues down in Nashville about getting a summer internship.

 

[Firestorm]

Joint Degree in Interactive Arts & Technology and Communications. Concentrating in Media Arts and the Information Society.

It was originally IAT and a minor in Publishing but they developed a joint degree program at the end of my second year and I loved many of my Communications courses so I switched. Don't regret that at all. The combination of the two have made me quite a bit more valuable on the job market than either one alone. Originally I desperately wanted to get into the video game industry but right now I'm considering other tech options as well.

 

[Nexus]

Chemistry major going down the pre-med track. Decided on a Chemistry major during my last year in HS when I took AP chem, I really liked the subject, so I thought it would be something I'd enjoy in college. I decided on pre-med because it was where I saw myself going career-wise, instead of pursuing work in chemical research. Also, I like volunteering at a local hospital, which reinforced my decision to become pre-med.

 

[supermarth64]

Still a senior in college high school herp derp but probably doing electrical/computer engineering. I like computers, I like technology, and might as well pick up electrical stuff for the hell of it. Alternatively doing comp sci if I don't like ECE enough.

My other alternates that I was thinking about were chemistry because I liked AP Chem a lot (I later chose not to do it because chemistry is a general science and easily outsourced) and economics because I'm taking AP Econ this year and I like it (even moreso than chem). However, all the best econ schools are out of my reach so that idea is scrapped.

 

[Llama]

I'm an IT major, I like computers a lot and I would like a job dealing with them, but I'm not the biggest fan of math, so I didn't want to do Computer Science. I'm minoring in economics because it seems like a pretty good minor (I just picked my major and minor, taking my first courses for them starting tomorrow).

 

[Midnight Show]

I'm a freshman majoring in Communications. I'm considering concentrating on Mass and/or Organizational Communication as both interest me and can open up many career options. I like the aspects of broadcasting, advertising, public relations, etc. that Mass brings, but I also like overall business slant of Org Com. I've been interested in HR and consulting lately.

I really like to read and write, so I wanted to major in English at first. I ended up choosing Communications because it calls for creativity while providing more career options than English.

The issue right now is coming up with a minor. I guess it depends on which concentration(s) I end up doing. I go to a small school, so the choices are limited. I might look into Organizational and Social Psychology, Information Technology, and Business Administration.

Any suggestions?

 

[WalrusCove]

Chemical Engineering. I love science, chemistry.

High five. Second-year in chemical engineering. I'm not gonna try to bullshit anybody and say that I love the material and stuff we do in my ChBE classes, but I do find chemistry to be interesting, and the job field is real good.

Also planning to minor in Spanish. A lot of the jobs are gonna be down in Houston and in the Gulf area (for environmental and energy) and I figured I might as well try to get some edge.

 

[TaiCrunch]

The issue right now is coming up with a minor. I guess it depends on which concentration(s) I end up doing. I go to a small school, so the choices are limited. I might look into Organizational and Social Psychology, Information Technology, and Business Administration.

Any suggestions?

Marketing, if your school offers it. It goes hand-in-hand with a lot of communications concentrations.

 

[Blln]

I was pretty sure I was gonna major in English or comparative literature but lately I've been thinking I might switch to international relations because it's very interdisciplinary and I think my interests are a little too broad to be confined to one department. Instead of taking 12 English courses in IR I would take like some anthropology classes, some polisci, some history, some econ etc which I feel would make me less likely to get bored of my major in my junior year or something.

If I do that though I think i might try to double major with English or philosophy or modern culture and media or something I'm actually more intellectually interested in, because while IR sounds and looks pretty cool, I don't know if I exactly have a 'passion' for it.

 

[porygon3]

I'm currently in chemical engineering (freshman year of college) but am 99% sure I want to change. Sadly i don't have any idea what to change to, chemistry was the only thing i liked in high school which is why I picked this but i am hating college chemistry a lot as well as the major.

I feel like I need another semester after this one to decide what I want to change to, but i don't want to stay in this for a 3rd semester and don't want to "blindly" switch to something that I somewhat enjoy just to switch again a couple months later, so i'm not sure what I am going to do :\

 

[Firestorm]

The issue right now is coming up with a minor. I guess it depends on which concentration(s) I end up doing. I go to a small school, so the choices are limited. I might look into Organizational and Social Psychology, Information Technology, and Business Administration.

Any suggestions?

If you are interested in HR, that's something that could definitely complement your Communications degree. Definitely take at least a few courses in Design though. Design + Communications is an awesome combination as I've found. You go instantly to the top of the pile for a lot of jobs.

 

[Gabe]

I'm an English major. Stupid decision, but I love to write, and my goal is to be a writer. I realize how astronomical the odds are against me, but I do believe I am capable of achieving success.

 

[icepick]

I'm doubling in mathematics and economics, though admittedly I don't really have any ideas of a career path and am just majoring in them because I like them. I'm also considering picking up a minor in computer science since it seems like a necessary skill for my majors outside of the world of academia.

 

[Midnight Show]

Thank-you for the advice, TaiCrunch and Firestorm. I'll research your suggestions.

 

[TEA_DEMON]

i'm doing a linguistics major but may switch to a linguistics+finance double major; i'm not sure yet. i really don't know why i chose to do them, but i just decided to do completely different courses last year and that's what i came up with.

 

[Mikoyan]

I'm going for a mechanical engineering major and ROTCing hopefully starting from next year. It's figuring how everything works and the logic trip that gets to me; research is appealing (if I hadn't chosen engineering, I would have definitely done physics), but I'm a bit more fond of the real-world applications and such because there are so many more restraints and challenges to solve the problem, which appeals to me in a convoluted way. I'd hopefully eventually apply this to engineering robots for a military-oriented company (iRobot, though making Reapers or whatever the next gen platform is at GAASI would be pretty cool too), so having some experience would help quite a bit.

I'm trying to decide between officer training or just finishing undergrad and enlisting, though; I wanted to be a combat engineer at first (I know that it doesn't have to do much with actual engineering as it does with fabrication), but then one of my deployed friends told me that it sucked to be a grunt.