Choosing Your Path: Strategies for Deciding Your College Major

Webinar Transcription

2023-08-21 – Choosing Your Path: Strategies for Deciding Your College Major

Hi everyone. My name is Juliana Furigay, and I am your webinar moderator today. Welcome to “Choosing Your Path: Strategies for Deciding Your College Major.” To orient everyone with the webinar timing, we’re gonna start off with a presentation. Then answer your questions in a live q and a on the sidebar. You can download our slides and you can also start submitting questions in the q and a tab.

Now let’s meet our panelists. Yeah. Hi everyone. My name is Lily Xu. I am currently a PhD student. I’m studying microbiology and immunology. And then before that I graduated from Washington University in St. Louis at the class of 2020. I’m really excited to talk to you guys today about, you know, different strategies for choosing your college major.

Throughout my time as an undergrad, I started out as a biomedical engineering major, and then halfway through I decided to add various minors and then ended up double majoring and then ended up finally taking on a dual degree within computational biology and then also with a minor in computer science.

So I’ve gone through a lot of different majors and minors, dual degrees and whatnot. So I’m really excited to tell you guys more about my journey and also how you can explore different areas as well when you’re choosing your own college major. No matter what stage you’re at right now. Great. Thank you so much for the intro, Lily.

And right now it’s actually time for a poll. So what grade are you in or what grade is your child in if you’re a parent? And I guess in the meantime, Lily, I would love to ask you, what’s your favorite course that you took in your undergraduate career that fell under your major requirements?

Yeah, I think for me, I took this like protein modeling course. It was in the biology department and before that, like I felt like a lot of my biology electives had been really more geared towards maybe more intro courses or more foundational courses. And this was like the first one that really allowed me to like, specialize into a certain area, made me really made me feel find like my love for proteins in general.

And so I think that was maybe my favorite lab-based class. But I really liked just how, it was a really specialized area of study compared to what I had done before. Yeah, that definitely sounds amazing. And I guess right now it’s time to share the poll results. So the majority of you guys are seniors at 41%.

The next largest group is the juniors at 36%. 18% are sophomores, and only 5% of people tonight are freshmen. So closing that poll and back to the presentation. Yeah, so just getting started starting from the basics, you know, what is a college major? This is what you’re gonna be studying within, you know, college when you’re earning your degree.

You could have, you know, a single major, you could have a major and a minor. You could have multiple majors. Sometimes in rare cases you hear about people doing triple majors. It really depends on your school and what kind of requirements are needed for each kind of I guess like, you know, each kind of major or minor or double major, dual degree, et cetera.

Within this list I pulled just a bunch of different topics that can fall under various categories. And so for my undergrad Washington, St. Louis these were the actual like four colleges within the university itself. And so for a lot of these majors, I pulled these from either Washington’s page or Stanford’s page and combine them together.

You can see that in the arts and sciences section you have basically a lot of different areas ranging from STEM all the way to the humanities. And this is a more broad area where maybe if your school isn’t broken down into various colleges, maybe all of the majors will be in this category. Along with that I also have the engineering section.

So anything with the word engineering at the end of it will be in this category as well. You can think of this as, I guess more of like a specific area of STEM that you might be focusing on. And there are sometimes some overlaps in the areas between arts and sciences and engineering where maybe you can, you know, earn a computer science degree through the arts and sciences or also earn one through engineering.

And so each school might have different requirements based on how you’re earning your degree for your major. After that there’s a bunch of different business related topics as well. So I’ve included these. And then same thing for art and architecture, and then again for art and architecture, you might see some overlap between what’s available in the arts and sciences with what is available in more of an art school.

And then I also wanna add, so I feel like a great way to look for different college majors is just go on any kind of college website and browse all of the majors that are available. You’ll see that there’s gonna be a lot of overlapping majors across, you know, schools if you’re comparing two different schools online.

And then some schools might have really unique majors or different names for things. And so one that came to mind for me is from, is the major P n P at WashU. So that stands for philosophy, neuroscience, psychology and that’s, I guess its own niche of what kind of major. And then I guess a really similar major that has a completely different name, but similar-ish categories is symbolic systems at Stanford.

And so that encompasses like computer science, linguistics, psychology and philosophy. So it’s kind of like p n P with a computer science component. And so across different schools, maybe the exact name of the major that you wanna pursue is gonna be a little bit different. And then I would definitely read more about each major, especially if there are these differences, to see what are the nuances.

For that major. So what makes that major stand out at a certain school and how do the requirements differ a little bit? And how do your areas of study differ? Your college major is gonna be super important for, you know, determining your career directory, a career trajectory, and also where you’re gonna be studying in college and you know, a lot of what kind of activities you also might be doing in college.

I think just enough. Your college major going to determine what kinds of classes you’re going to take. At the beginning, usually for your freshman year, you’ll be taking a lot of intro courses, maybe, you know, large lecture courses. And so at this point it’s, you know, totally fine if you wanna change your major.

You have a lot of flexibility to you know, explore different areas and really see if you know the major that you maybe go in with or if you’re undecided if that’s like the right area of of study for you. And so academic-wise, usually you’ll start out with more general topics and then as you get into, say, your junior and senior year, you’re gonna start taking really specialized electives to complete your degree.

And this is where you can take more advanced classes. Kind of like that protein modeling class that I took later within my undergrad. Along with that, so, you know, as you pursue your college major, you’re gonna see a lot of the same people in a lot of your classes. And those will be, you know, people who make up your college community and your college network later on.

And so some people will end up joining clubs that are related to the major also, you know, join a bunch of clubs that are completely, you know, just for fun and, and completely, you know, separate from your major itself. But I guess your college major will help determine the community that you’re a part of.

And so a lot of times college, you’ll have maybe a study group for people that you’ve met through your major, you know, people that you’ve been taking classes with for all four years, along with, you know, people who maybe you just meet on your freshman floor and then you, you know, you might be completely different majors, even different colleges, which in a school within a school and, you know, you guys can still share what you, what you know, from different areas.

And then lastly your college major is gonna help guide what you wanna do after college. You know, we’re, right now we’re talking about, you know, what to choose for majoring going into college. So don’t worry too much if you don’t know exactly what you wanna do career-wise afterwards. But I would say based on what college major you end up choosing, you can then look into different paths to see what do people usually do after college when they have that major, what are the different options that you have available?

And then a lot of times these can sort of be broken into two components, maybe getting a job summer or continuing with more of schooling afterwards. And so I’ll talk a little bit more about career and some of the leader slides as well. I, so in terms of where you are right now, so I know this group has a lot of seniors and juniors.

I would say it’s gonna be helpful to choose your college major. One for the, you know, purpose of. Submitting your college applications and helping guide your school list but also just to sort of guide like what kind of things you wanna explore in college. I know in high school, you guys, you know, the courses that you choose are gonna be limited by what your school has to offer and you know, just.

Your own scheduling and how much you can fit into your high school schedule. In college, you’ll have a lot of flexibility to choose your own schedule, to choose your electives, to, you know, really choose how you wanna spend your time when it comes to your coursework. And so I would say be if you know what you wanna major in or you know what majors you want to explore in college, that’s gonna be really helpful for building your schedule once you enter college.

Going back to more of the college application side of things, I would say it’s really helpful to have either a single college major in mind or a few in mind that you’re interested in when you’re looking at building your school list. And so if you already know what college major you wanna choose, it’s really helpful to just, you know, Google what schools have a great program in that major and choose schools that are able to support the major that you’re interested in, especially if it is a niche major.

Along with that, I think it’s really helpful to use your major to guide the rest of your application. And so say if you want to major in mechanical engineering and you wanna specialize in robotics maybe that’ll help you, you know, maybe push to take on a leadership role in your robotics club at school, and then also maybe do some kind of independent study or an independent project or passion project relating to that.

And you can maybe find ways to fit your activities to follow that theme throughout. And so I would say like your college major doesn’t have to be your theme. It’s probably better to have something else that, you know, can encompass a diff a bunch of other activities, but maybe throughout your college application theme, yours is problem solving.

If you want to, you know, pursue that robotics example from earlier, and maybe that’s something that you’re gonna tie into your athletics and, you know, any kinds of other extracurriculars you’re also a part of to really make your application really cohesive. I think it’s also helpful to, you know, know about your college major when you’re interacting with different colleges.

So either when you’re going on college visits or if you’re talking to any current students or alumni it’s really helpful just to ask them like, you know, how is the major at this school? You know, how does setting this major at this specific college? Like, what kind of support do you have and how does you know that college really stand out compared to other schools that also offer this major?

And so you’ll be able to do some research on how that major is structured, if you’re, if you already know what major you want to pursue. Along with that, I feel like it’s also just nice to help guide what courses you wanna take now. So maybe if you know, coming from the STEM side, if you know that you’re gonna have a lot of math that’s gonna be within your college coursework, maybe you’ll be able to focus more on math within high school just to make sure you have that foundation and that you’ll feel prepared when you go to college as well.

And then lastly, something that I do wanna touch on is the college essays themselves. And so it’s really typical for schools to ask you, you know, what major do you wanna pursue at x, Y, z college? And y. And so it’s really helpful to have a major in mind or have something selected that can help you guide your narrative to answering that question.

And so I would say for why major essays, a lot of people will start by talking about maybe, you know, what first sparked their interest. So if there was a moment or someone that you met or some kind of event that you did that really got you interested in the topic. Then a lot of times students will talk about maybe what they’ve done within the classroom to pursue that interest, and then after that, maybe what they’ve done outside of the classroom.

So any kinds of clubs that you’ve joined, any kinds of things you’ve done over the summer that can support your interest in, in your major. And just really whatever you can to show that you’re really passionate about this area of study and this is what you wanna do in college. In terms of, you know, how to find out what major you wanna do, I would say if you’re starting from, you know, the very beginning, you are open to a bunch of different majors.

I would start online honestly and do some research about what kind of majors are available what kind of, you know, jobs they lead to and then what kind of schools have these majors in general. I know when I was starting out, when I was in high school, I really knew, like I really liked stem. I wanted to do something that had some kind of a math component, but I didn’t really know what exact major to choose at that point.

By the time I was applying to colleges, I settled on biomedical engineering just because I felt like it was at least kind of a versatile major that would allow me to study a bunch of different things and then maybe specialize later on. And I definitely found that to be true when I was in college where after studying biomedical engineering, I realized I really liked the biology side of things, especially studying viruses in particular.

And that’s what shaped what I’m doing now in terms of like research areas within biology. I would say going back to some of these resources the US News and World Report has a college majors quiz, and so you can take that and just actually see, you know, what kind of majors could you, could you be considering, and then maybe see if there are any majors that you hadn’t thought of before that this quiz is able to tell you more about.

The college board also has, you know, their big future section of their website and they talk about different majors as well. And so I think this gives a good overview of what majors are available again. And then niche.com also has just a list of popular majors for each school. So for example, if I’m looking at Wash U and St.

Louis you can scroll down to the middle of the page and there’s a section that just says, what are, you know, the top five majors that are really popular at that school? And that can also give you a sense of, you know, how big will your community be, who are also studying that major if you go to that college.

Along with that, I would say for every single college that you plan to apply to go on their website and look for their list of majors. Part of this is to just see like, How is this major different from other schools? So, for example, within biology, like different schools will break things down differently.

Where at WashU we had biology, but then you could specialize in computational biology and genomics, where you could specialize in ecology and evolution. And so different schools will also break this down differently just because some of the topics are just really, really broad. So say if you know you’re majoring in design it’s a really broad topic.

Maybe you want to focus on design, but focus on communication design or you wanna focus on digital design or, or you wanna focus on fashion design. And so I would definitely use whatever research and whatever tools you have to through disposal to figure out if you can specialize within your major.

And then also what kind of options are available within a certain category. Along with that, if you guys have an advisor with college advisor we can definitely help with, you know, helping you figure out what majors you could be considering helping you find new majors that maybe you hadn’t thought of before.

And then also just taking a look at, you know, what kind of things you’re really passionate about and pairing that with, what kind of essays you can use to support what kind of major you want to choose. And then I would also say by yourself, try to reflect on the things that you like and what you don’t like.

I feel like something that is really helpful is just honestly figuring what you hate when it comes to different academic subjects and then figuring out what you don’t wanna major in. And that way you can help also narrow down the list, especially if you’re interested in a bunch of different things.

I think something else you can also think of is, you know, say if someone was to take a look at all of the courses you’ve taken and all of the activities that you’re a part of, is there any kind of common trend? You know, does your application as it stand right now, does it really say, you know, I really wanna major in psychology?

Or does it say, you know, I really want to go to art school and so I would maybe take a look at what kind of activities you’ve been involved in already and see if I’ve already devoted so much time to this. Is it because it’s something I’m really interested in? And could it, could it be something that I could study in college?

In terms of figuring out if you know the major that you choose is right for you you can look at a lot of these similar categories as well. And so I would start, you know, with the coursework, ’cause you, this, this is gonna be something that you’re gonna be studying for four years in college. And then maybe more if you know you’re gonna be doing a job in this area or going to grad school afterwards.

And so I would really think about what kind of courses you really like from high school. Especially like when it comes to the content of those courses. And then if possible some things that can help is just talking to other people who are now pursuing the majors that you’re interested in college and just asking them how, you know, it’s different between college and high school and how the subject matter changes.

I think it’s also helpful just to maybe preview what kinds of classes you could be taking if you were to pursue this major at a specific school and just see like, are these classes ones that are really interesting to you? And so for example, say you really like computer science right now in high school.

Maybe, you know, find a school that you’re planning to apply to or that you’re interested in. And then look at what kind of degree requirements there are for the computer science major there. See if you’re interested in the elective classes. See if you’re interested in some of the advanced classes.

And is there a specific topic that really excites you and that you wanna learn more about? I know for me, when I was looking into biomedical engineering, I was really interested in creating like, biological simulations and really learning more about, you know, how to code a simulation. ’cause that that was something I hadn’t ever done before.

And so when I was looking at different courses within Wash U which is where I ended up going in the end I. Found that there’s this cost called quantitative physiology and that had a component with a bunch of hands-on components, but then a completely computational part where you basically code simulations.

And that’s something that I learned to do throughout college. And so think about what you really wanna accomplish, like what is, you know, your dream goal for what you wanna accomplish within your coursework and what you wanna learn basically within college. And then see if that college is able to offer you that through the classes that are there.

In addition to that, I would also definitely keep in mind you know, what kind of careers are there after you pursue this major and also, so that’s something that you’re really interested in. I feel like exploring career, that’s something that you’re gonna do a lot more once you’re in college itself.

But really helpful ways to do that, whether it’s in high school or in college, is to, you know, do an internship in this career area or to, you know, shadow someone or even ask someone more questions if they’re already working in that area. And so I know a lot of students They might do internships or they might go to like summer camps.

And maybe see like if you were to be, you know, living in this career is it something that you really enjoy? Is it something that you can see yourself doing long-term after college? And so for me, when I was in high school, I was really interested in research and I just wanted to see like, what is research, like what happens when you’re working in a lab.

And for my high school summer experience, I realized that I really liked research and I really wanted to learn more. And for me, at that point, it was something that I wanted to continue in college. And then after college, as I did more research that, you know, I became more independent, I learned to design more experiments, I realized, yeah, this is something that I wanted do for, you know, the rest of my scientific career.

Okay. So now combining your major with the different extracurriculars that you’re in yes, definitely. You know, try to look for activities that will correspond with your major. I feel like joining different clubs is a really helpful way to just show. That you are really, really interested in this area, you’re really passionate about it, and that it’s something that you wanna devote yourself to when you’re in college itself.

I would say if there are any clubs that are relevant try to join them, try to gain leadership roles in those areas. Try to mentor younger students once you’re in upperclassmen. And then afterwards, I guess you can use that to really, you know, I guess see if you really like that area, but then also talk about your interest in that area within your essays.

In addition, say if you want to major in something, but your school doesn’t really have a club for that yet. So, for example, maybe you wanna study philosophy, but there’s really no kind of philosophy club that exists. See if you’re able to start a club or do some kind of passion project to really explore that interest.

So maybe if you can get a group of friends together who wants to talk about, you know, ethics and philosophy and, you know, maybe the history behind it you can see if you can find a faculty sponsor to start a club or maybe see what process your high school has for starting new clubs. And do that.

Otherwise maybe if you know it’s just you or you’re not able to start a club at your high school, maybe you’re gonna write a blog and really investigate different branches of philosophy and use that to create your own passion project and really explore this interest that you have. And so I feel like if you’re able to I would definitely try to either join a club or start a club that corresponds with what you wanna major in.

And hopefully, you know, that process will be really fun because if it’s a topic that you really enjoy you’ll be able to, you know, just have fun exploring it. In terms of applying as an undecided major, it’s totally fine to apply undecided as well. I think here, you know, it’s, it’s really hard to make that decision about what you wanna major in especially at this point in high school.

I would say if you are applying undecided, some things that can be helpful is to still have a few areas that you’re considering. But you know, I understand like if you don’t want to officially, you know, start as a certain major, if you still want to leave the door open and explore a few different other areas.

I would say in this case, for your college essays try to justify the different areas that you are interested in and then use, you know, all of your academic experiences and your extracurricular experiences to justify why you’re still choosing between all of these different topics. And I think here one thing that you can try to convey is that you have this passion for some kind of subject, a passion for learning, you know, a passion for asking questions.

Maybe try to tie the different subjects that you’re interested in together. In addition to that. So if you do apply undecided depending from school to school, there is gonna be a deadline where you do have to choose a major. I think at Wash U, this was like in the middle of your sophomore year.

But for every school it might be a little bit different. But in that case, definitely use the time that you have within your early years of college. Just explore whatever you can. And so whatever, you know, subjects you’re really interested in and wanted to continue considering take, you know, As many electives as you can fit in your schedule in those areas.

And just see what you like and don’t don’t like. I know for me, when I started college, I really, really liked creative writing. When I was a senior in, in high school and I was like, I’m gonna take in a, a creative writing elective in my freshman year if I can fit it in. I was able to fit it in.

I absolutely loved it. And I think from that process I was like, I really like these electives. I wanna take more, but only if my schedule will allow, but I don’t think it’s something that I’m going to major in. And so I feel like it can also help you find what kind of hobbies or what kind of extracurriculars you still wanna pursue in college as well.

And then I think down the line, as you take more and more courses, you’ll eventually be able to narrow down your interest and, and really decide on what you wanna major in and also what kind of career you want to pivot towards afterwards. I also wanna add, some colleges will also have a shopping period.

And so this is a time where you can basically take any class you can add and drop that class at any point in time. You can just pop into that class, get the syllabus, you know, go to the first few lectures and see if it’s a class that you wanna take. I know some classes are really dependent on the content.

Some classes are gonna be dependent on, you know, who’s teaching the class that year in terms of like, how interesting, how exciting it might be. And so definitely take advantage of just shopping around for classes and, you know, taking your time to decide what classes you wanna take before finalizing your schedule.

And then lastly I would say if you do apply as an undecided major I know it’s gonna be hard because, you know, if you know what major you wanna choose, you can sort of have like a very streamlined way to choose all of your courses in college. If you are undecided, don’t worry, you’re not gonna be behind.

Something that can help is looking at what kind of classes will overlap across different majors and across, you know, what degree you’re considering. And so I remember for me I think when I was exploring different classes something that you could do is, like, I know a lot of students who started in biomedical engineering, sometimes they would really find a passion for a different kind of engineering and they would completely pivot.

But there are some courses that you have to take for all of the engineering majors anyway like inter computer science. And so for some students who are still exploring different majors, if you choose different electives that still count for another major that can really help you with just like checking off boxes and making sure that you still have the pre-reqs to take the advanced courses and that you’re not gonna be a semester behind if you didn’t start out at that major.

Okay. This is a question that we get a lot when it comes to, you know, putting together your major and also your school list. Yes, you can definitely put down different majors when applying to different schools. Sometimes this is gonna take the form of, you know, writing down two majors. For one school or it could mean, you know, separating what majors you want to apply to based on the school, based on what the school’s strengths are.

I would say it’s totally fine to split up what kind of majors you’re interested in, but definitely, you know, keep everything organized and straight when you are writing your essays and also when you’re answering interview questions and make sure that you know what exact major you apply to for that college.

Something that you know can be a red flag when you’re interviewing is when you say, oh, I wanna major in this major in this college because it’s something that you wrote for one of your previous applications and your interviewer goes and tells you, oh, that major doesn’t exist at this school. And you sort of have to backtrack and explain what stuff you’re interested in.

I would say when it comes to writing different majors to say for one school I’m gonna apply for neuroscience ’cause they have a really good neuro program, but for a different school I’m gonna apply for their psychology program because it’s still, you know, cognitive science, but I wanna focus on that at this other school.

I would say, I would definitely try to explain each major really thoroughly. And so even if you have these two majors that you can both talk about for each of these schools definitely talk about like why that school will be like a good choice for you for this major. So what kind of strengths can that school bring and within the major itself, and then also for each major still justify why you’re really, really interested in it.

I think something else to keep in mind when you are, you know, if you are applying to different majors is just, just for every single school, just check if there are any kinds of rules or extra requirements for either changing your major. Especially if you are interested in multiple things you maybe want to pivot once you actually get to college.

And so one example for this is I’m applying to computer science at Carnegie Mellon. Where you basically have to apply into the major. If you end up getting into Carnegie Mellon with a different major, you have to reapply into computer science if you want to switch into it. But it’s not like a guaranteed process.

And so I would say for a lot of schools it’s pretty flexible to change majors, but for some cases in some majors it might be more selective if that major is really competitive at that school.

Hi. Just to jump in here, I think for time’s sake we’re gonna skip through the poll, so I’ll give it back to you, Lily, for the presentation. Alright, sounds great. So from here so different, you know, majors might be notorious for, you know, being really difficult. I know for a lot of classes, like pre-med classes, there might be, you know, introductory science courses that are going to be weeded out classes that will make it really hard to maintain a good G p A.

And so when it comes to considering hardest majors, I think also consider like, will your g P a matter for you based on the career choice that you want afterwards? Still continuing with pre-med as an example. A lot of times, like your G P A will be very, very important if you are applying to med school.

But say if you are getting a job in industry they won’t really care as much about your G P A. They just wanna see what skills you have and, and what kind of science you wanna do afterwards. So I think when considering what majors are really hard, I think like do a little bit of reading about like what actually makes the major hard?

Is it the subject itself or is it something about the school that’s making it really difficult for students to do well? And then I think once you sort of pin down what is making that major really difficult ask yourself, you know, is that, is that a challenge that you want to go through throughout college?

I think, you know, sometimes you get really lucky and you find a subject and you really love it and it, it just comes really naturally and really easy to you. And that could be, you know, a way where you can really balance out your work-life balance and, and have a great college experience while, you know, kind of cruising through the academic side.

On the other side say if you really, really want to experience this challenge, you really want college to be rigorous. Maybe you do wanna choose a really hard major because you enjoy problem solving, you enjoy the challenge itself. I think no matter what if you end up choosing a really difficult major keep in mind that at one point everyone fails in college.

And so, you know, if that major is really, really challenging, how are you going to bounce back? So, you know, do you have enough of a support network at that school where when it is challenging, can you rely on help? So say if a course is really challenging within your major are there gonna be, you know, peer tutors available or can you talk to your academic advisor?

Or are there study groups? So I would definitely see like, I guess when it comes to harder majors, what is causing it to be really difficult. And then afterwards, what kind of support will you be able to access at that school to get through that difficult major.

Okay. Coming back to careers I would say once you have mapped out what kind of majors you’re interested in also think about what kind of career options you’re also interested in. And so I know for me when I was like, oh, I definitely want to major in something related to stem, at that point I was completely unsure.

You know, do I want to get a job after college? Do I wanna go to med school? Do I wanna get a PhD? And so for me, I ended up choosing my major biomedical engineering because I realized it would be a major where I could really pivot into any of those areas. And something that can also help is just either asking your academic advisor or asking older students, like, where do students go after college when you are doing this major?

I remember for the intro B M U courses that we had in the very beginning of school, they told us, they told us the little like breakdown where a third of students get a job, a third of students go to med school, and a third of students get a PhD. So I was like, well, this seems like a good program for me.

Because I’m hoping that within the, the next four years, I can figure out which route I want to take. And so I would say things to consider with career as just, you know, from the major, what kind of careers can you have, but then also for the careers that you’re interested in, what kind of majors usually feed into those careers.

When it comes to different pre-professional tracks you can also consider what major you wanna choose there. I know pre-med is gonna be a common option among some students who are really interested in stem, where, you know, you can apply with any major for pre-med, but if you do major in a stem major, it can be helpful for knocking off all of the electives that you sorry, all the prerequisites that you have to take just ’cause you do have to take a fair share of science classes to actually apply.

And then for pre-law you can have any major, you just need to have a good G P A and then, you know, get a good lsat. And so I think depending on what kind of pre-professional tracks you might be interested in, whether you wanna go into business or you want to, you know, get a job right after see what kind of requirements there are.

See how important are things like g p A, how important are things like the exact subject matter that you study. And then from there you can really decide like what kind of skills you really wanna gain from your college experience, and then whether or not your major needs to be attached to those skills.

Along with that for a career. I would also just consider, you know, when it comes to choosing a career, there’s gonna be more than just the job itself. Once you have a job, you know, you’ll be living there, you’ll be, you’ll be working there, and, and that’s gonna be, you know, your adult life from there on out.

And so consider based on the careers that are available, like are any of the restricted by geography. So say if you wanna study marine biology, you probably need to be an area that allows you to actually do, do that kind of research. Or, you know, how’s the job market there. So are there a lot of jobs available right now, or is, you know, the job market sort of in a crisis right now where it’s really hard for people to find jobs.

Along with that, you know, how is your work life balance? So will you be able to You know, spend your time and split it well between working and then, you know, having friends or having social life or, you know, having hobbies and having a family. And along with that, you know, what kind of pay do people usually get after pursuing that career?

And then will any kind of majors or any kind of extra degrees be helpful in determining your salary after graduation.

All right. So I have a few final topics. And so when it comes to minors or additional majors people always ask, you know, should I get a double major? Should I get a minor? This is really gonna be up to you in the end. And also what kind of courses you’re gonna be interested in in the terms of getting, you know, minors and double majors.

A lot of this school depends on your school’s requirements and, you know, how many courses does it take to actually get one of these additional, you know, distinct, like, I guess one of these extra, you know, specializations within your, your major. I would say for minors like, They can be nice to have, but they probably aren’t going to be, you know, as important as your major when it comes to applying to either grad schools afterwards or applying to jobs afterwards.

But I feel like minors are a great way to show that, you know, you’ve put in a lot of work in terms of a subject that you’re interested in even if it isn’t going to be your official major. I know at Washington St. Louis a really common minor that a lot of students in STEM got was the computer science minor.

Someone actually said it was the most common accidental minor because you can get it by taking five computer science electives. And so if you take a few for your major and then you realize you’re really excited about that topic, you take a few more, bam, you have a minor. And so that was a really common minor that I saw at my school, but the requirements will differ from school to school.

I also remember at one point I wondered, should I get a French minor? And so I saw, okay, I need seven electives to take to do this. I think I got through maybe like four or five of them, and then I was like, I think. I just wanna take STEM classes from here on out and so end up not pursuing that minor.

But I think, you know, if I really wanted to continue taking more French classes, I would’ve tried to get the minor in the end. Along with that for double majors, so this is gonna be, you know, another area of interest that you’re able to specialize in. I would say double majors, like they do count as much as your primary major does.

And then a lot of the times in order to get your double major, you’ll have to take way more electives than you would compared to a minor. And then depending on how you earn your double major different schools will have requirements about of how many electives you have to take and then whether or not they can overlap between, you know, the first major that you go in with versus the second major that you add either at the same time or later on throughout college.

And then something that some schools will also have as a dual degree. Where basically it’s really similar to a double major except you earn a second diploma itself. But then the caveat here is you might have to take more degree requirements. And so for me, I started in the engineering school with my biomedical engineering degree, ended up trying to do a double major with within like computational biology where I took a bunch of biology electives.

And then at one point I realized I was maybe just a few courses away from getting the, the second degree where I had to fulfill my liberal arts education requirements. And so I had to take a few electives that were completely not related in stem, but would fit within the College of Arts and Sciences in order to get both degrees.

And so I would say going in consider, you know, what subject is the most exciting to you that would be great to pursue as a major. See if there’s another topic where you’re really interested but you don’t know if you wanna invest a ton of time in it in terms of, you know, your coursework and, and what free time you have to work on your studies.

Maybe that could be a great minor just to show that you have put in the work and you’re really interested in this topic. But it’s maybe not something that you’re going to pursue, you know, career-wise afterwards. And then also if you have another area of interest that you’re really, really excited about, maybe that’ll be a great double major.

And then sometimes if you, you know, align your schedule well enough, maybe it’ll end up becoming a dual degree if you’re willing to do the requirements for both degrees.

Okay, so from here, this is just my final advice. I would say as much as you can try to explore everything you have so much time within high school and also within college just to take, you know, what kinds of classes really excite you. And so I feel like it’s a great time to just figure out what you’re really passionate about and also what you just dislike, you know that way you don’t end up pursuing something that you don’t, that yeah, that, that you don’t enjoy.

Throughout the rest of you know, your life after college. I would say from, for people who are currently in high school your major is gonna be really helpful to guide what courses you wanna take and also what clubs you wanna join, both in high school and in college. And then once you’re in college your major is gonna be really helpful to figure out what you wanna specialize in, so maybe what kind of electives you wanna take, and then what kind of jobs you’re interested in afterwards.

And then I think something that is, you know, something you could note is if you talk to current students in college, we change our majors and minors and, you know, whatnot all the time. And so the major that you choose right now as a senior in high school, it could completely change once you actually start college and you get more experience in that area and that’s totally fine.

And so I would say try to decide your college major early if you can, but keep in mind that it can change over time as well.

All right. So that is the end of the presentation, part of the webinar. So I hope that you all found this information to be helpful. And also remember that you can download the slides from the link in the handouts tab. So we’re gonna move on to the live q and a here. I’m just gonna read through the questions that you submitted prior, as well as in the q and a tab.

Put them in the public chat so you all can see them and read them out loud before our panelist, Lily here gives you an answer. So as a heads up, if your q and a tab is not allowing you to submit questions, just double check that you joined the webinar through the custom link in your email and not from the webinar landing page.

So the first question that I will throw your way, Lily, is, I know you recently spoke about the ability to, you know, switch majors. When would you say it’s too late to switch majors? Yeah, so this maybe depends on your school and its degree requirements. I feel like at Wash U it was sort of like it was never too late as long as you were maybe willing to take an extra semester or even an extra year if you are maybe like a senior and you completely pivot.

I think here I would say it’s really helpful to try to, you know, solidify what major you want by the end of your sophomore year. I would say that’s maybe one of the last points where it’s gonna be flexible enough where you can change majors, you can still get all of your requirements done and then still graduate within four years.

I also know people who have completely decided to change what they wanted to study and they have already graduated. And so in that case you can also do a master’s in a certain area or, you know, find another way to continue your education in a different area, especially if you wanna do a career there.

And so I knew a lot of engineers who, you know, finished engineering school and then realized I want to work in computer science and it’s really helpful to get a computer science major and internship experience there. And they’ve gone on to do master’s in computer science and then get a job afterwards.

And so I would say in a broad sense, it’s never too late to actually, you know, pivot. But if you do wanna graduate in four years, maybe you wanna get a job right after college. I would say try to decide by the end of your sophomore year. Definitely. And we have a student here that’s wondering if you could delve more into the difference between majors and minors major again.

So what would you say is kind of like the use case of minors or what are those utilized for? Yeah, I would say, I guess like your major is what’s going to guide, you know, your, your college degree and what you’re gonna do after. I would say minors are sort of like, if you wanna show that you also have, you know, skills in this area, you have an interest in this area, but it’s not going to be like the major that you’re pursuing.

It’s not gonna be what’s going to guide your entire academic trajectory. I feel like it’s a nice way to show that you do have skills and an interest in that area. And so for me, like I guess all of my majors have been more, you know, in the biology or engineering side of things. Then I have a minor in computer science.

And so that’s helping me show that, you know, I do have computational skills in addition to my interest in biology, but I’m not planning to like, pursue computer science as a career afterwards. Definitely. And if a student has multiple interests that are kind of unrelated what would you suggest to them to integrate them into a coherent, major choice?

Yeah, so I think for this, maybe consider a little bit of like what you wanna do after college. You know, see if, I guess first, see if there’s a major that does like a career path or major that does combine all of your interests together. I’ve seen a lot of weird combinations where, you know, someone was really interested in like arts, physics and engineering, and then they were able to combine this as, you know, someone who designs a really specific kind of spacecraft.

And so there are sometimes like jobs where you can find these combinations of all of your passions. If your passions are really, really different. I. I think maybe see like what kinds of careers or what kinds of jobs you would get from each of those majors and see which ones you wanna explore more which ones you want to, you know, delve more into in college.

And then, you know, in the end you have to choose one of them. When it comes to, you know, determining what you wanna do after college I would say what can be helpful is just take a few classes in each of those areas that you’re interested in, and then just see if there’s one that stands out more than the other, or one career path that you’re more interested than the other.

And then for those other interests that you still have, maybe those will end up being double majors or end up being minors for you when it comes to your degree. But I feel like in the end, try to combine ’em if you can. If you can’t, you’ll end up choosing one. But over time it’ll be, you know, once you take more classes and more electives and once you start specializing at one point you’ll have, you know, a moment where you just ha you find out what your calling is and you know what you wanna study.

Definitely. So a student here is wondering were faculty profiles part of your decision to attend Wash U? And I guess in relation to that, were you looking at the faculty profiles of the major that you were interested in? Yeah, I think for me, so I feel like looking at a bunch of faculty is like really overwhelming.

There’s just so much information and every, every school has really great faculty. I think for me, I looked a little bit more at like what courses were available than the faculty themselves, just ’cause I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do within biomedical engineering and just such a broad area.

I think for me, like I realized that the faculty at WashU are incredible. You know, they really care about their students. They are really good at teaching their classes and they’re really passionate about each of the subjects they do teach. And so I feel like I ended up just going to a school that had great faculty in the end.

But I think for me, when I was doing my school search, I didn’t look at faculty a ton. Just because I didn’t know, you know, what to make of, you know, faculty descriptions and what different faculty were studying. For me it was a little bit more helpful to look at what courses there were and then compare those courses to other schools as well.

Thank you. The next question was submitted prior and it’s what advice do you have for students who are torn between a practical major that could lead to stable employment versus a passion driven major that might be riskier in terms of job prospects? Yeah, I would say in this case, maybe try to talk to someone who works in each, you know, area each career and ask ’em about the pros and cons.

I totally understand like trying to balance, you know, like a job where there’s a lot of opportunities available. You’ll probably, you know, be able to get a job or you have job security versus one that you’re really passionate about, but it’s just maybe harder to find work. I would say, I don’t know.

I think I would talk to anyone who’s working in those areas and ask them more about work-life balance. Ask them more about, you know, financial situations, if that is a factor with job stability. And maybe just ask them like how they’re able to manage their, both, their career and their life. And then maybe just ask them if they have any recommendations for any courses to take within college to explore those areas more.

I think in the end it’s, it’s a really hard decision to make, but try to choose what makes you happy, but also allows you to live within your means to be happy still. And so some things that you can also do within college is maybe do an internship and just see what it’s like to work in those areas and then see, you know, is this something that makes me happy?

Is this something I can see myself doing long term? And then maybe talk to an advisor and try to budget out the situation if you do end up choosing a job where you’re really happy, but maybe it’s gonna be harder to find work or your salary isn’t gonna be as high. Definitely. And then on that note, going into college, did you know what career you wanted to pursue?

Or did you just know the general, you know, area and major? Yeah, I would say just the general area. And then the major. I would say I just really was torn on like whether I wanted to, you know, continue with grad school afterwards or if I wanted to get a job and I didn’t even know what jobs were available.

I didn’t know what grad school options there were. And so I feel like I was like, I definitely wanna do something in stem. I wanna do something somewhat related to my major after. But I really needed a lot of college to, to decide that. And so for me it was helpful to do research over the summers.

And it was something that helped me realize that that’s what I wanted to do after college. And then I would say just anytime that you can get more experience, whether it’s through, you know, really specialized electives or through different extracurriculars or some kind of internship over the summer that experience will be really helpful for just determining if that area is something that you want to pursue for the rest of your life.

Thank you Lily. And at this point in the webinar, I actually wanted to include a little plug here for College Advisor. So College advisors team of over 300 former admissions officers and admissions experts are ready to help you and your family navigate the college admissions process and one-on-one advising sessions.

So we’ve already helped over 6,000 clients in their college journeys, and after analyzing our data since 2021, we have found that college advisor students are 3.6 times more likely to get into Stanford. 4.1 times more likely to get into Vanderbilt, and 2.7 times more likely to get into Harvard. So you can increase your odds and take the next step in your college admissions journey by signing up for a free 45 to 60 minute strategy session with an admission specialist on our team.

So be sure to scan the QR code on the screen with your phone. And during this meeting, we’re gonna be able to review your current extracurricular lists and application strategy. Discuss how those align with your college lists and overall outline the tools that you need to stand out in this competitive admissions world.

So moving back to the q and a. Here. The next question that I would love to ask you, Lily, is student was wondering, does applying with a certain major help your acceptance probability or are some majors more difficult to get into a college when applying with Yeah, so this again depends from like, I guess from school to school and then that major within the school.

Usually, honestly, for this situation, I usually, you know, Google or I, I try to look at the, the school stats online just to see if any kind of majors are more competitive at the school compared to others. I feel like computer science at Carnegie Mellon is like the main example that I always come to.

When I think of just like a major where it’s, it’s way more competitive to choose that major, but you need to apply to that major to actually pursue it there. Some other cases especially for like Washington and St. Louis is like, there are different stats within the different colleges of the school, and so applying into arts and sciences is gonna have a different acceptance rate than applying to engineering.

And then there are sometimes some overlapping majors like computer science again for both schools. And so I think what’s helpful is like seeing if there are any statistics online from the school itself. So just, you know, not just like random statistics from forums, but like official stats from the school saying what their acceptance rates are for different majors, if they do differentiate those.

And then also for, I guess any kinds of sub colleges or colleges within that school itself. I think those stats can be really helpful. And then I feel like aside from that, a lot of the times there aren’t like huge discrepancies between like, acceptance rates, four majors. So in the end, if there is the flexibility where you can change your major, you, you know, can really like apply for whatever you want apply for what you’re most passionate about because that will really show through within your essays within the different coursework that you’ve taken with the, within the different clubs that you’ve pursued.

And so, I would, I guess, try to apply with the major that you love the most and also the one that your application shows that you are really passionate about. Yes, that is definitely great advice, Lily. Thank you. The next question that I’ll be asking is, how important is it that the college I choose has the major that I’m interested in?

Yeah, I would say this is, this is fairly important. If you, you know, say are dead set on studying, you know, astrophysics I would definitely check that your school has that as an option. I know for that example, maybe some schools will have physics but they won’t have an astro department or they won’t have any kinds of courses in that area.

I would say if it’s something that you really wanna study, definitely, definitely try to find a school that has that major. I know the flip side of things sometimes, you know, you don’t you don’t figure out what you wanna major in until you actually get to that school. So say if you go in undecided, you realize that there’s a topic that you’re really interested in and you don’t know if that school has that major because you know, you’re already admitted.

And so for that, a helpful bit of advice that I, I learned when I was in high school was if you don’t know what you wanna major in or you just have so many things that you’re interested in, try to choose a school that has a good general education and that way you’ll be able to pivot and choose something else.

I know for example, I think Caltech pretty much only has these engineering majors. And so if you, you know, are like, I love STEM and I love the humanities, maybe choose a school that will allow you to pivot to the humanities. That way if you end up going to Caltech and then you study engineering, you realize, oh, I actually really wanna study something else.

You’ll still have the option to either double major or minor or pivot completely and, and choose it as your major. That’s great advice. Thank you. So I guess what advice do you have for networking with professionals in different fields in order to get a better understanding and practical experience on that major?

If, if that’s something that you did back in high school? Yeah, I feel like for some categories, like I really just asked my high school teachers because they’re people who, you know, have studied that degree and then they just know people who work in those areas. I know like something that was common within my high school was like if anyone was interested in some kind of science, they would just ask their teachers like, do you know anyone who does this kind of research?

Or, you know, do you know anyone a local college that you’re friends with that can maybe tell me more about that area? And so I feel like your teachers are gonna be part of your network. It’s kind of, you know, different to think of. ’cause you know, they’re, they’re, they’re the people who are teaching you every day.

So I think talk to your teachers also talk to just. You know, literally any professionals that you know, so this could be, you know, your parents, this could be your friend’s parents. If you think about everyone that you know, they might know someone else who is gonna be in the area that you want to, to have a job in afterwards.

And so even if, if it’s, you know, a friend of a friend, of a friend, of a friend they might still be able to introduce you and help you learn more about a different career option. And then also keep in mind it’s like a lot of people who are working, you know, we like talking to people who are interested in what you’re doing.

We really wanna help in terms of, you know, sharing our experiences and help helping you guide, guide yourself into what you wanna study and, and what you wanna pursue afterwards. And so I’d say a lot of people are pretty open to chatting. And it’s really helpful to have a connection. So either from your network, so people that you know at school people who you’re related to, people that you know you are friends with that can all be really helpful resources.

Yes, I would definitely agree with that. And I guess just adding onto that back in high school I knew that I was interested in consulting and so I was able to apply for and get accepted into a program where I was shadowing Accenture consultants. So I would definitely suggest looking at what programs are available either online or in your area, or sometimes these companies will even fly you out to intern for them for the summer.

So definitely just check out those opportunities. And I guess the next question I will be asking you, Lily, is what strategies can I use to deal with the pressure of choosing a major, especially when there are societal or family expectations involved? Hmm. I would say I feel like this is always, always difficult.

I feel like there’s always like something where it’s like your family’s telling you to pursue STEM and you wanna pursue the humanities ’cause that’s what you love. I. I would say in the end, like your college degree is gonna be your degree. It’s, it’s gonna be something that you’re gonna pursue, that you’re gonna be passionate about and that you’re gonna have a job in afterwards.

I would say if you do have family pressures, see if maybe you’ll take, you know, a course that is within that area that still fits your degree requirements for what, what you actually wanna pursue and at least show, you know, your family, that you are willing to explore this area, but you get the final to say and the decision in the end.

I know for me, like I was always like, oh, like, you know, do I wanna do a minor in music or do I wanna do a minor in French? Or, you know, I, even though I knew I wanted to do a career in stem, I was always really interested in the humanities still. And so for me, the way that I was able to work through it was just choosing electives and using my free time to just explore those areas that I was really passionate about.

And, you know, they were just topics that really made me happy. And so I feel like you have control of your own schedule. Most. Degrees will involve, you know, not just one single subject. You’ll have to diversify and choose a few different options as well to actually fulfill your degree requirements.

And so, you know, say if you end up, you know, majoring in English and your families, like you must study stem maybe just choose a few STEM classes that will fit your requirements if you have to take a STEM course to actually graduate. And that way you can show that you are, you know, exploring that interest, but you’re still gonna be majoring at what you wanna major in afterwards.

Definitely. Thank you. So for those of us in the room who are kind of undecided and don’t really know what career they wanna do or what academic pathway they wanna follow what advice do you have? What steps do you think they can take to explore different majors and subject areas before making a decision?

Yeah, I would definitely do some online research. Take a few quizzes about what kind of options are available. And then I think maybe just start by writing down all the potential majors there are at any kind of school that you’re looking at. And then just start crossing things off or trying, try to start ranking things based on your own high school experiences and what you know you enjoy.

From there, try to narrow things down until you get maybe just three main topics that you think you might study and do some more reading on each of those majors and what kind of careers they could lead to. And then I think in that case, like it’s totally fine to apply to college undecided, as long as you can still talk a little bit about what kind of majors you are interested in, what majors you wanna explore afterwards.

I would say within college, your freshman year, take as many intro courses as you can just to really explore these different topics or, you know, shop for classes where you can drop into an elective course and maybe see what that’s about and see if it’s something that you wanna take more courses in before actually finalizing your schedule.

And so I would say you can definitely use college to really explore each of those different topics that you’re interested in. And then from there, if there’s a class that just really captivates you, just take the next class in the sequence and keep going and see if it’s something that you want to declare a major in by your sophomore year.

And some of our students who are applying undecided are a bit worried that their essays might falter because, you know, they don’t have that strong story of I’m choosing this major because of these experiences. So what advice do you have for creating compelling college essays if you are applying undecided and your interests are a bit more scattered?

Yeah, I would say in this case try to choose stories that I guess like really pinpoint like why you’re interested in each of these different areas. I feel like say, you know, if you have two people and they’re both really interested in, you know, painting, physics and English and those are the three things that you’re considering, they’re completely different.

If you have another person who’s also interested in those three exact things, Like, each person will have really different stories about why they’re interested in each of those topics. And so I would say for your essays, really try to pinpoint and craft a story around why you’re choosing each of those areas.

Instead of saying more generally, like, I really like these three things because I took these three classes and I thought they were cool. Instead maybe if you can pinpoint, you know, maybe like an art experience where you created a piece and it really just, you know, you got really, you know, you, you just deep, you, you delved really deep into the process and you knew it was something you wanted to keep doing in college.

And then maybe for physics, you know, you had a period of problem solving where you just really couldn’t figure something out. And then you ended up, you know, finding a whole nother path to solving this problem. And you got really invested in it and you were basically just learning a ton outside of the classroom beyond the assignment.

And then maybe for the last part, you know, English, maybe you are doing some kind of creative writing and you’ve done a passion project and you are just super excited about this. This is, this is what you do in your free time. And so those three examples, you know, I’ve made all of these up. But for each person who is interested in all of these different areas, you’ll have your own stories for explaining why you’re so interested in these areas and, and why it’s so hard to choose in the end.

And so I would definitely try to personalize your justifications for each of these majors as much as possible. And the more stories and the more specificity you can add the more it’ll be a con compelling answer. And would you suggest that one’s like personal essay, such as the common app essay, be related to the major that they’re applying for or just be more general?

Yeah, I think this really depends on, I guess like how important your major is to who you are. I feel like as like, you know, say if I didn’t know anything about someone’s applicant profile, I would usually recommend writing two separate essays where maybe your personal statement is gonna be something that is going to sort of tie together your whole application.

The reason why I only say that is just so that when you end up answering your why major essay, you, you have something else that you can also talk about. I feel like it can be hard where, say if your main essay is about, you know, how much you want to be an engineer and then you get the supplemental question of, you know, why do you wanna choose this major?

Like, tell me more. And it’s really hard where you’re trying to like, not repeat the essay, but also tell something new and it’s a little bit hard. And then the admissions committee just doesn’t get to see all of these other sides of you because you’ve spent both essays talking about really similar topics.

I would say on the flip side, say if you know what you wanna major in is like the main thing that is tying your whole application together. In that case you definitely can, you know, talk about similar topics for your both essays, but I would definitely try to tell different stories for each one.

And so maybe if your y major essay is gonna be focused more on say, the academics of what you wanna study, maybe your personal statement is gonna be more about how you, you know, the journey that you took to actually get there. Maybe it’s gonna talk more about what you’ve done in high school to pursue that interest and what you’re just really excited about.

And so I would really try to, I guess like make sure that if you do talk about your major. And it’s a driving force In your your personal statement, try to make it so that it doesn’t overlap with your I major essay. And then also that if you do have to talk about both, try to differ the stories that you end up telling

and how might one determine which particular major they want to study within a specific area of study. For example, if you’re interested in engineering, how do you choose what specific engineering you’d like to pursue? Yeah, I think from here you can think a little bit about like what kind of jobs really excite you or like what kind of topics in engineering really excite you.

I guess for the second part, say if you know you took any kind of engineering or STEM related class, what parts of the class were most exciting to you? Was it, you know, the part with electricity in that case maybe electrical engineering is gonna be your thing. Was it the part that had more hands-on components?

Maybe you’re gonna be more interested in hardware and mechanical engineering, or was it a lot of the computational work? Was it everything that was virtual? Maybe you’ll be more interested in computer engineering, computer science. And so I think within different types of, you know, engineering or like with any, any type of like more general major try to think of like what topics specifically you are really interested in.

Or like what kind of jobs you think are really cool and then what majors lead to those jobs. Yeah. Alright. Thank you so much Lily. And I guess in terms of time’s sake we’ll have to wrap up the webinar here. So big thanks to everyone for joining and big thanks to you Lily, for presenting tonight.

We had a really great time telling you about deciding on your college major. So this is our August webinar series, so this was actually the last webinar of the month. But we’ll see you guys for some new webinars in September. So have a good night everyone. Bye. Great. Bye. Thanks so much. Bye.