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What should I do in order to simplify my preference if I have several majors in mind that are very different?

As I explored more majors and explored all my interests and how I could pursue them, I settled on a couple which I was told is expected. The thing is my options are extremely varied and do not relate to each other at all which is now causing a problem as i'm choosing my classes for my future years. What I have in mind is either Cybersecurity or Digital Forensics, Forensics, Medicine and healthcare, or journalism. I extremely enjoy and excel in all of these majors' equivalent classes such as computer science, English, and Biology and also enjoy researching and learning about such ideas and participating in clubs or activities relating to them. Is there any major I should be considering which would include all and what are the pros and cons of each?
Thanks!!
#major #medicine #cybersecurity #journalism #english #biology #computer_science #undecided #university

biology university major undecided journalism english cybersecurity computer_science
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Somil’s Answer

This is not an easy task, you will need to ask yourself some difficult questions and do a lot of research to arrive at a conclusion. There are couple of points you can think around to determine the correct direction for your career.

Passion
Which field you are most passionate about? Can you work day in and day out on a given task and not miss otherworldly pleasures. If yes, you arre headed in the right direction.

Skill
Even if you are passionate about a particular field, you may lack certain skills to excel in that area. Determine if you have the right set of skills to work in the field of your interest.

Details
The devil is in the details. A certain field may seem very interesting until you find out what actually it involves. The job of a robotics engineer seems very interesting. But when you find out the details you will see it requires understanding of material science, advanced mathematics and physics, you may or may not be interested to study those. Understanding your field of interest in depth will give you a clarity for taking decisions.

The boring tasks
Event the most interesting job that you are passionate about, will involve a lot of side tasks which may be monotonic/ uninteresting and difficult. Find out what those are for your field of interest. Talk to people in industry who have at least 5-10 years of experience. See if you could power through those uninteresting jobs to work on something you are passionate about.

Future Scope
Find out which field is going to boom in future and which may go obsolete. Again you need to talk to industry experts to get some understanding of where the industry is heading. Find out what all career options you have if you choose to study a particular subject. There are a lot of jobs that exist today which may get automated tomorrow and will not require human intervention. You may want to avoid such fields.
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Sarah’s Answer

While it may be tempting to think that you have too many interests, or that you need to reduce the kinds of topics you would study, I would disagree. There may be points of convergence and intermingling between topics that you might not have seen before.

Although others may ask you to consider what the career prospects are for a particular path, I would ask someone unsure of their future or even just college major(s) to consider what they do in their spare time. What excites you? What do you do without a class assignment requiring it? For one person, it may be coding and developing websites. For another, it may be taking care of sick animals. Finding those passions or interests - especially the ones that have been there throughout your life, even if you don't realize it right away - will help to keep you going for all of the parts of your future job that you don't love.

Remember that a lot of working professionals - myself included - are working in completely different roles than what they would have planned on in college. You might have to redefine and figure out what's next several times in your life and that's okay.
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Pro’s Answer

Try an Interdisciplinary, Liberal Studies, or General Studies major, that will let you combine multiple interests. Or an Individually Designed major that you can even name yourself.
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Alecia’s Answer

When I went to college, I wasn't sure whether I wanted to do Business Administration, Industrial Engineering, of Mathmatics Education - so I chose a quality school that had all 3 to give me flexibility. Here are my steps below...
But most importantly, remember that the most important part is getting a college degree. Many of us go in to careers in different fields and certainly don't know what the future holds - so must get some degree. Follow your passion - and your passion may change over time.

Alecia recommends the following next steps:

Select a college that has the most of your preferred majors to give you options and flexibility to change your mind.
Look at the different curriculums with your counselor and try to take core classes that are synonymous among all of your top 3 preferred majors
Splash in some major specific classes to start to get a feel for if you like the degree - you can always count these as electives down the road
Give yourself some grace & flexibility - better to graduate at 4.5 years or 5 years and have given yourself time to explore - you can even get a minor
Don't put too much pressure on yourself - any degree is a good degree!
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Rachel’s Answer

If you are interested in medicine, you should start by shadowing physicians in fields that you might think are interesting. Additionally, you should consider the path to get into medical school. You will have to complete college with a bachelor’s degree as well as all of the Pre-med requirements (1 year biology, 1 year inorganic chemistry, 1 year organic chemistry + labs, physics, calculus, and biochemistry). GPA should probably be 3.5 or better (preferably >3.8). You will also have to score well on the MCAT. Once accepted to medical school, as long as you pass your classes and perform reasonably well during your four years of medical training, you can apply for a residency.
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Nathan’s Answer

Some great answers here. I would also take into account the growth in the field itself. Take for instance Cybersecurity. By 2021 will be short 3.5 million jobs... Lots of opportunity in many different areas, but I would take that into account in my decision making.
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Bonnie’s Answer

Since you’re undecided I recommend you try the tech field which is very much in demand. I tried Udacity’s free online courses and next earned a Nanodegree online. You never know what you might be passionate about.

Bonnie recommends the following next steps:

Visit Udacity.com and choose from their list of hundreds of free online courses
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Brandon’s Answer

If you have the time available, I would try sitting in on the upper level classes that pertain to that major if you already haven’t and observe how your body language reacts towards each lecture to try to find a preference towards each major. Also what you can do is ask peers or advisors over a certain major and look to see if that’s the type of career track you want to commit yourself towards and if you really see yourself doing that kind of work. :)

Brandon recommends the following next steps:

Map out degree plans for each major
Go on websites like Glassdoor for more outlook
Try to connect with more people within each industry
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