Comet’s Definitive Guide To Choosing A College Major

Selecting a major can be one of the most exciting aspects about going to college. Why? Because you finally get to choose what you’ll be learning. However, it’s an important decision that requires honesty, self-reflection, and thorough research. With approximately 1,800 majors to choose from, this may seem like a daunting task, but rest assured, the following guide will help you narrow down the options and determine the right major for your unique goals. And remember, your intended major is not carved in stone, so don’t be afraid to make your best guess now, as you can always change your mind down the road - 1 out every 3 college students ends up switching majors. 

Picking a major is an opportunity for you to dive into an area of focus, and it all starts with YOU learning more about yourself (your preferences and strengths), the world around you (academic fields and job opportunities), and then making the match. This guide will help you do just that. 

So take a deep breath, strap in, and get ready to ask yourself some challenging questions that only you hold the answer to. 

Feel free to jump to the section that interests you the most.

• Basics

• Steps to Picking the Right Major

  • Step 1: Identify your Interests

  • Step 2: Identify your talents

  • Step 3: Examine your interests and your talents.

  • Step 4: Explore potential career options.

  • Step 5: Match career ideas to college majors.

• Other Commonly Asked Questions

  • What if I just can’t decide on a major?

  • What are the pros and cons of switching majors?

  • What if I’m really interested in an area that doesn’t have a strong career outlook?

Basics

WHAT IS A COLLEGE MAJOR?

First, let’s start by defining a college major. It’s a specific subject that students specialize in while aspiring to a college degree. Typically, at least half of the courses you take in college are in your major or closely related to it. By completing a major, you demonstrate sustained, high-level work in one subject. In some majors, you prepare for a specific career path.

WHEN DO I HAVE TO DECLARE MY MAJOR?

Most students declare a major in the first two years of college. Generally, it’s just a form you submit to your college registrar. Contrary to popular belief, you usually don’t need to declare a major on your college application. Instead, your “intended major” marked on your application is used to evaluate your potential to succeed in that major in college and may be used to assign you to an advisor or community group as you enter that school.

CAN I CHOOSE MULTIPLE MAJORS? WHAT ABOUT MINORS?

But what if you’re interested in both English and computer science? Do you need to pick just one major in college? Some students have the desire and ambition to double major, in which case, they take the required courses in two different majors. Other students decide to minor in a second subject. Minoring in a subject generally means taking a certain number of required courses in another subject other than your major (though fewer courses than for a major), and students who minor in a subject will receive that designation on their diplomas and transcripts. But in most cases, on your college application, you’ll only have the option to select one major.

WHAT IF I STILL CAN’T DECIDE?

But what if you’re choosing amongst more than two interests or if you really have no idea what you want to major in? You might have such wide-ranging passions--from astrophysics to Spanish to painting--that you cannot choose just one on your college application. Rest assured--many schools allow you to apply “undeclared” and you can decide by the end of your second year in college. Take your time to explore your interests and understand the fields of study available to you. It’s important to pick a subject you enjoy and will commit to.

Steps to Picking the Right Major for You

The first step in picking the right major for you is to identify what you like studying and doing.

Here are a few suggestions for narrowing down the field:

1. Start by making a list of 10 things you love doing: this can range from sports and activities like clubs at school (for example, you love playing violin) to hobbies like baking sourdough bread or star gazing. Don’t limit yourself by linking every activity with a potential major. Just focus on brainstorming the activities that you honestly love.

2. Look at the activities you spend the most time doing, including everything that you do outside of class. What kinds of YouTube videos do you enjoy watching? Maybe you subscribe to a history-related channel or like travel videos. Do you spend a lot of time practicing an instrument? While you might not want to major in music or hospitality, identifying what you spend the most time doing is eye-opening and can help you identify your passions.

3. Identify the people, causes, or problems you care most about. Do you want to help reduce plastic use? Are you fascinated by artificial intelligence or biomedical technologies? Do you want to ensure that everyone in your community has enough to eat? Which activists inspire you on Instagram? Although you may not be fully equipped right now to address these issues, identifying what you care about can help you in your choice of major.

4. If you have a hard time coming up with things you like, make a list of the activities, subjects, or things you do NOT like doing. If you’ve really struggled with physics, then it’s likely that engineering, which would require advanced physics courses, may not be a good choice for you. Ruling things out can help if you really don’t know what you like.

5. After completing the first four steps, choose the top three things you enjoy and rank them.

For example, Julie is a rising 12th grader who enjoys her calculus and honors English classes. She’s passionate about causes that empower girls and minorities in STEM, and spends a lot of her free time tutoring younger students in math. She’s also on the Homecoming Committee at her school and has been organizing multiple dances and pep rallies throughout the year. After looking at her list of activities she enjoys, she realized that the top three things she enjoys doing are tutoring kids in math, organizing events, and hanging out with her friends.

Now that you (and Julie) have identified what you enjoy doing, let’s identify your competencies--what you’re good at doing. This is the second step to picking the right major for you. Here’s a simple process that will help you figure out what your strengths are:

1. Start by making a list of 10 things you’re good at doing or things people have said you’re good at doing. Remember that this list might not be similar to the activities that you enjoy--you might like watching Netflix, but could you be considered “good” at it? Instead, think about the compliments you’ve received and good feedback you’ve gotten in the past year or two. 

2. Identify the classes you do well in. This one is pretty straightforward. We tend to excel in subjects we’re naturally gifted in and grasp readily. Look at your transcript. Accounting for tough (or easy) teachers and grading policies, where do you feel like you’ve succeeded best?

3. From the first two steps, determine the top three things that you’re best at. 

Let’s see what happens with our friend, Julie. After asking her friends and teachers, along with her supervisor at her tutoring job, Julie received the feedback that she’s talented at organizing people and events and also good at communication. Julie is clearly a “people person” who thrives on interacting with others and making things happen. She’s energized by seeing her plans come to fruition and setting the tone as a leader for her team, whether that’s her community service team or her prom planning committee.

Be realistic about what is a good fit. It’s time to take a good, hard look at both your interests and your talents. What you think might be an ideal career may not match up with your abilities. But that’s okay--there are plenty of major and career options that will fit your skills and interests!

At this point, it’s helpful to see where Step 1 and Step 2 of our process overlap. Take a moment now to look at where your lists might overlap and give you ideas for majors or careers to explore.

Maybe you love hiking and being in nature and feel strongly about policies affecting environmental protection. According to your peers--and your speech and debate performance--you’re also an effective communicator and are good at marketing the Environmental Club at school where you’re serving as a club officer. While you’re not doing so well in your biology class and can’t see yourself studying ecology (environmental biology), you could potentially major in politics with a minor in environmental studies so that you could help protect the environment on the government policy level.

In our case study, our student Julie is good at math and has thought about a career in accounting like her mother. But after talking to some of her mom’s colleagues, she realized that a career in accounting would only tap into her math skills and not her passion for promoting STEM education for girls or leading teams. She doesn’t want to be looking at spreadsheets all day when she could be leading the charge. She’s wondering if there’s a major that combines her ability in math and her ability to organize and manage events and people.

Like our case study above, the next step of our process for finding the right major for you is to explore different career goals. This might sound like jumping ahead, but sometimes it’s helpful to begin with the “end” in mind. You might not have given much thought to what you want to do after college, but one quick way to start reflecting is to make a list of all the jobs and careers your friends and family are engaged in and then mark the ones you can see yourself doing and those you can’t see yourself pursuing.

You can also ask your teachers, mentors, and parents which careers they feel like would suit your personality and skills best. Make a list of their suggestions and commit to researching the ones that most appeal to you. 

Another way to identify relevant career opportunities is by taking a personality assessment like the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) HERE first, and read up on the results. The 16 types cover different aspects of how we interact with the world (extrovert/introvert), process information (sensing/intuitive), make decisions (thinking/feeling), and structure the outside world (judging/perceiving). These spectrums will make more sense after you’ve taken the assessment and read the descriptions.

Certain MBTI types are more drawn to careers in certain fields because it’s a good match for their temperament. Here are a few ideas for you to explore based on your specific type. Do NOT feel confined to only the careers listed for your type--look at all the suggestions for a broader list of options and see what resonates with you.

MBTI Types

After compiling a list of career ideas, rank the top three careers that match up with your skills and interests. 

In Julie’s case, she thought that she might eventually enjoy working in finance in a decision-making capacity or in project management at a start-up company or in educational leadership as a school board member. As an ENTJ “Commander”, she enjoys environments where she can take charge, create structures, and engage in problem-solving. Of course, she may not be able to pursue these opportunities immediately after college, but having this kind of picture for what’s possible has motivated Julie to “reverse engineer” her education to prepare her for these types of careers.

Most pharmacists complete an undergraduate degree in some kind of science (generally chemistry) and then go on to graduate school to earn a doctorate degree in pharmacy. 

Or if you want to be a psychologist, just completing a psychology degree won’t get you there. But the concepts and skills you learn as a psychology major will give you a leg up in preparing for a graduate degree in that field (i.e. a master’s degree in counseling).

College is an opportunity for you to both build your knowledge base and to explore new academic interests. Remember, your intended major is not carved in stone, so don’t be afraid to mark your “best guess” on your college application for your major..

Now as our case study Julie sits down to think through her major choices, she’s realizing that all three of her top career choices have leadership and management as a key aspect that appeals to her. While she’s great at analyzing English literature and solving equations, she realizes that a degree in business or economics would not only utilize her math skills but also tap into her other abilities as well. She’s excited by college courses about leadership development and strategic management. Furthermore, majoring in something like business or economics gives her the flexibility to enter a huge range of careers after graduation should she change her mind. Therefore, Julie is going to choose business as her major on her college application!ow that you have some ideas for your future career, it’s time to match them with possible college majors. If you want to become a high school French teacher, you should major in French language and literature in college. If your ultimate goal is a career in software development, it makes sense to major in computer science. If you want to design buildings, you’ll likely major in civil engineering or architecture or some combination of the two. 

However, not every career will be a straightforward match like major in biology → work as a biological lab researcher. There are some careers like pharmacy or law that may not have a direct match in an undergraduate major but rather require an additional graduate degree.

What are the pros and cons of switching majors?

Hopefully, the big pro is that you’ll be switching from a major you care less about to one that you’re more interested in and motivated to complete! The cons, though, depend on where you are in your college career. If you’re a junior or a senior, it may be difficult to switch majors if the fields are completely different and there is less crossover with the classes you’ve already taken. 

The ease of changing majors also depends on if the major you want to change to is impacted (i.e. there is a lot of demand for that particular major). Engineering or computer science majors might be more difficult to transfer into; on the other hand, if you are switching from philosophy to history (generally housed in the same college), as long as you complete the requirements for a history major, it should be fairly straightforward.

What if I’m really interested in an area that doesn’t have a strong career outlook?

A degree in classics or anthropology may not seem to lead to strong job market prospects after college or lend itself to preparing you for a specific career (unless you want to become a Latin teacher!). But remember what we discussed above about majors not leading to specific careers? Beyond teaching you field-specific facts and techniques, your college education should most importantly equip you with critical thinking, research, and communication skills. 

The fields that seem “least able to make money” like anthropology or sociology, may be the most helpful in empowering you to lead a team through organizational or cultural change because you understand how organizations evolve. Or, they’ll teach you how to navigate cultural challenges and promote good group dynamics. When not working on his novel, the creative writing major might discover an equally compelling career in marketing, helping companies craft memorable and convincing descriptions of their products.

No matter what you choose to major in, remember that the world of education is vast and varied, and you should explore as many different fields as you can before you make your decision. We hope this guide helps you refine your list of possibilities. The goal is to find a subject that you truly love and that you will succeed in.