How to Choose a Major
As a college bound student, choosing a major is perhaps the most important decision in your life. The area of study you decide to choose will shape your future and certainly the future of others including your children. For such a crucial decision, it takes more than you to involve in its deliberation. It must be a process that is well-thought. You should involve your family, your close friends and those you think they are in a position to help in your decision making. However, your ultimate decision must be based on your lifestyle and career goals. Consider the following as you narrow down your major choices.
Knowing yourself: You major may determine what you will be doing for a long time. Therefore, what you would like yourself doing for 10, 20 or more years should be one (but not the only one) of the determining factors to narrow down your choice of major.
Expand your horizons: You might know what you want to achieve in life but there are many ways that lead to that achievement. For instance, if you like to make your profession inline with helping people you may achieve that by majoring in Medicine, Pharmacy or Nursing. Learn as many academic programs as you can. First categorize them as (1) Science and Engineering Majors, (2) Social Science Majors (3) Liberal Arts/Humanities and (4) Professional Majors. From these categories, list their majors and mark each with “Considering” and “Not Considering”. For those you marked “Considering”, research more by visiting the website of that university departments. Once you narrow down your most interested majors and have enough information about them, proceed by further narrowing down based on the duration of the program, its rewards and your study interest. Do you enjoy computation and science, absorbing ideas or influencing people? Do you like to interact with people or would you prefer to work independently? Do you like traveling a lot? The goal is to find a major that you will naturally succeed because of your earlier academic curiosity and at the same time will take you where you want to be in the future.
Final Decision: After you thoroughly consulted with yourself and other useful resources, you should declare your major and shift your focus on how to prepare for the admission process. Review your program’s admission requirements, what courses you should take in high school, the ICT test score requirements etc. Befriend and contact with students already in the major. Most programs are competitive and scholarships may be on first come first served basis. Therefore, it is important that you should send your complete application as early as possible.
We wish you all the best in your life journey. Keep climbing the ladder of success!
