{"id":494,"date":"2019-07-19T09:40:36","date_gmt":"2019-07-19T14:40:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/admissions\/?p=494"},"modified":"2019-10-25T14:25:47","modified_gmt":"2019-10-25T19:25:47","slug":"choosing-a-major","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/admissions\/choosing-a-major\/","title":{"rendered":"Choosing a major: Following your passions and figuring out what they are"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"choosing<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This blog post is part of a series that will help you as you apply to colleges. Today, I\u2019ll share my own personal experiences with choosing a major and what I wish I knew when I made my decision. This post is for you if you\u2019re feeling stuck deciding if you should play it safe and choose a major with guaranteed job security or choose a major that you\u2019re passionate about. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are you late to the party and want to know what\u2019s going on? Start here<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is it ok to apply undecided?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It’s totally fine if you\u2019re on the fence or undecided about a major<\/strong>\u2014applying undecided is a legitimate option. This doesn\u2019t hurt your chances of getting in, and a large percentage of students attend college this way each year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

In fact, close to half of students across the country end up changing their major during their time in college. So, you\u2019re in good company if you\u2019re feeling unsure about a major or if you decide to switch at some point. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

AND! If you do apply as undecided, almost every school has a Career Services Center<\/a> that will help you as you figure it all out. Career Services at UML even offers personality tests and one-on-one sessions to help students discover career paths of a particular major. The cool part is that these services are offered to you the<\/em> second <\/em>you come to campus. You don\u2019t have to wait until you\u2019re in your junior or senior year of college.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What follows is some super quick advice that I wish someone had given me when I picked my major in college.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Advice from someone who took a while to figure out how\nto land a good-fitting job: <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When choosing a major in college, stick with something you\u2019re passionate about, but be realistic about what types of jobs there are in that field afterwards. Ask admissions counselors what folks in certain majors do with their degrees after graduation. I wanted to be a writer when I grew up, so I majored in English.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I played into the Millennial stereotype and literally chose my major with my eyes closed and didn\u2019t think about anything other than how excited I was about all the books I was going to get to read for class. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It took me a long time to figure out what I wanted to do. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking back, I could have saved myself time, money and\ninsane amounts of stress if I had just minored in marketing or something else\nto supplement my English degree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This day and age, it\u2019s very easy to double major or minor in two areas of study. There\u2019s even the option to participate in an interdisciplinary program, where you can approach topics through different perspectives. All of these exist to help broaden your job pool once you graduate. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Check it out: <\/strong>5 Job Search Tips That Will Boost Your Career Prospects After College<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We know it\u2019s a lot to ask that you make a huge life decision like choosing your professional future at this point in your life. It\u2019s ok if you don\u2019t have it all figured out.<\/strong> You\u2019re not supposed to at this point.<\/strong> Going to college and living your life is what gives you the experience to figure out who you are and what you want to do in the future. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Something else to keep in mind: There are some people who find\ntheir inspiration and figure out what they want only after they\u2019ve gained\nexperience working in the professional world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s just my two cents. Obviously, this won\u2019t apply to\neveryone. I\u2019m not saying you shouldn\u2019t major in what you\u2019re passionate about.\nAfter all, I do <\/em>write for a living\nnow and I wouldn\u2019t trade my English degree for anything in the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next week, we\u2019ll talk about some of the things you should do in the fall of your junior year<\/a> to apply to colleges.<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This blog post is part of a series that will help you as you apply to colleges. Today, I\u2019ll share my own personal experiences with choosing a major and what I wish I knew when I made my decision. This … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":754,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14],"tags":[52,53],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/admissions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/admissions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/admissions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/admissions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/754"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/admissions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=494"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/admissions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":686,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/admissions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494\/revisions\/686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/admissions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/admissions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/admissions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}