How can I decide on a college major when I have NO interest?
You don’t say how far into college you are now, but my advice echoes what everyone has said above – just take classes that sound interesting, and when you find one that makes you want to take more classes in that subject, major in it. I was a psych major but I knew I didn’t want to be a psychologist, I just found the subject really interesting. Most majors in the liberal arts aren’t meant to prepare you for work in that specific field…they’re to help focus your studies in a particular subject and help grow you as a person. If anything, it gives you something interesting to talk about in employement interviews.
It can be a stressful experience when you feel like the only kid who has no idea what he wants to do with the rest of his life. Meanwhile you’re under pressure to decide RIGHT NOW. The good thing is that you’re not the only one with these feelings, not by a long shot. Head down and talk to a professional about this (e.g. career counselor, academic advisor, therapist). They’ll be able to help you cope with your anxiety over this commitment and perhaps even guide you toward a major that you might have overlooked. And don’t worry so much. It may feel like the biggest decision of your life, but it’s not that big of a deal. You can always switch majors as an undergrad, or go to grad school for something completely different. Upon a second glance at your question, if your days are truly devoid of any interests other than sleeping or reading a book every now and then, you may be clinically depressed. It’s not uncommon for students your age to suffer from anxiety/depression over issues like yo
My first comment probably wasn’t all too helpful, sorry bout that. I just graduated two years ago and Team OS is right, a lot of people don’t know what they want to do. I think the main thing is don’t rush into anything. You can take general type of courses for your first couple years that won’t trap you into any one particular major. At my school there were courses that everyone had to take regardless of major (foreign language, english, math, arts and humanites courses, statistics, that kind of stuff.) Talk to your advisors, find out what courses would be good for a variety of majors and take those your first few years. I wish I would’ve done that, I jumped into Bio courses in my first year, 6 out of 8 of my courses were science. Now I realize I hate science and want nothing to do with, but that’s my major. Even if you end up making the same mistake I did it doesn’t matter, just like the Light Fantastic said it’s more about just having a degree, people could care less what it’s in.
Seconding What Colour Is Your Parachute. I finished it and still haven’t entirely worked out what job next to work towards, but it helped narrow the field and that’s certainly something — and definitely enough to help you pick something as broad as a major. Same with the Myers Briggs analysis something else mentioned — it’ll narrow the field, which is useful. Ridiculously enough the list of jobs the results suggested are all exactly the ones I’ve considered over the years while I’ve been unhappy with my current career. Save yourself the years of pondering each one in turn: do the test and have a think about ’em all now!
For the truly indecisive, some schools offer a liberal arts major (link for my own alma mater’s program). I think of it as a generalists’ major. A little of everything. As someone who also enjoyed books over everything else, I majored in English. It does involve a lot of writing, but they’re not expecting great literature from you. And I am one of the few I know whose degree is useful for their job, in that I am a public librarian – which is incidentally a great career for a generalist (although not for anyone who wants to support a family by themselves).
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