Mistake #1: Trying to please your parents
While it’s natural to want to make your parents happy (or get them off your back), YOU are the one who will be working 5+ days/week in your future career, and what you choose as your major will heavily influence that career. Sure, your parents may be funding your education, but they don’t have the right to TELL you what to major in. If you are really unsure of what you want, tell them you want to take a gap year to figure things out. You can work part-time and take a course or two at a local community college to help you decide. It’s the biggest investment of your life, so you don’t want to decide on a whim, nor do you want to decide based on appeasing your parents.
Mistake #2: Trying to fit in with your high school peers
Again, this is about YOU — no one else. Your best friend may really dig psychology and idolize Sigmund Freud, but that’s HER passion — not necessarily yours. Being a teenager is about finding yourself and your place in the world, and you may need some extra time. If you take the time NOW, you will save yourself loads of time and money in 10-20 years trying to get another degree while making an expensive career change. You also may need to spend time AWAY from your friends to figure out what’s best for YOU.
Mistake #3: Focusing on starting salary above all else
If you’re not sure that your interests are easy to monetize, and are worried about finding something practical, think somewhere between Underwater Basketweaving and Accounting. Some possible choices could lie in combining majors and minors. For example, if you know you like taking care of people but you really LOVE the outdoors, major in nursing and minor (or double major) in wilderness therapy (yes, this field exists!). This way you combine the practical with your true passion.
This is the most important one, actually — don’t underestimate the need for actually WORKING in the field before you invest too much time studying it.
Mistake #4: Not paying attention to your true interests and talents
As mentioned above, even if you feel your true passion isn’t practical enough to make money, don’t ignore it! If you love art history but are not going to become a doctoral-level scholar necessarily, major or minor in art history, but also major in something else. A more practical major that goes well with art history could be business or management, so you could end up managing art galleries after getting your business skill set polished in your first 2-3 jobs out of college. You will be uber-qualified since you will one of the few applicants with both degrees!
Mistake #5: Not paying attention to your personality type
If you buckle under pressure and do NOT tend to think fast, don’t plan on going into a field that requires speed. That means NOT to plan on: emergency medicine, high-end restaurant cooking, breaking news journalism. That doesn’t mean you can’t study these subjects, but have a specific plan in mind. For example, if you love medicine, plan on going into pathology or radiology if you want to take your time. If cooking is your passion but you can’t be rushed, be an apprentice at a bakery to get grounded in basic operational skills of a more relaxed setting. If you love to write non-fiction, get an internship with a publishing company that specializes in non-fiction so you can learn from the non-fiction literary agents.
BONUS MISTAKE: This is the most important one, actually — don’t underestimate the need for actually WORKING in the field before you invest too much time studying it. That means right from the start, you get a part-time job (paid or unpaid) in that field to see how you like it. Get a feel for the work environment and the job skills required. If the job inspires you to study more, then that field is a fit for you! But if you dread going to work, you need to take time to rethink your plan. Analyze WHY you don’t like the job, and give yourself some other possibilities to consider.
So that sums up the 6 mistakes most people make when they choose a college major. They either get over-influenced by their parents or peers, or don’t know their interests or personality type. And then they either don’t get work experience, or they work toward the end of their degree program, when it’s too late to change majors.
