ASG Academic Advising: Picking a Major – Starting with Your Strengths & Passions

A large part of the Advising Program at the American Scholar involves helping students choose potential majors for study at U.S. universities. It’s an important question for guiding how you enrich your 5 Factors of U.S. University Admissions.

If you are not sure about what kind of career you want after high school is over, try looking at which majors fit with your strengths and passions.

Don’t Worry About Choosing the Wrong Major

Many students at U.S. universities change their major while getting an undergraduate degree, and some will go on to work in jobs not directly tied to their major. Still, employers in many industries look for university degrees on the resumes of job applicants. The value of such degrees goes beyond a specific major or job.

While this can seem daunting, life is rarely a straight path and you can take advantage of the twists and turns.

Building on your existing strengths, passions and subjects of interest can pay off along the way and help you stand out among other candidates.

Building on Your Strengths & Passions

How can you build on your strengths or passions at university?

Start by researching which majors are related to them

• Curious about why past civilizations collapsed and whether it could happen again? Consider history or archaeology.
• Want to make new drugs for diseases and new substances for more less wasteful product? Sounds like chemistry is the way to go.
• Want to know how people choose to spend their money so you can help create social change? Economics might be right for you.
• Love spending time outside and playing in the dirt with rocks? You’re a geologist and don’t even know it.

Get help from people, books, and websites that can offer descriptions of majors and what they entail!

Once you have some possible fields of study in mind, you can choose one as your major. You can also select minors, electives, concentrations, or even a double major to add more value and interest to your university studies.

• Major: Your primary field of study at a U.S. college or university
• Elective: A course not necessarily related your major
• Concentration: Courses that let you focus on a particular area within your major
• Minor: A secondary field of study independent of and not pursued as in depth as your major
• Double Major: Adding a second major area of study and earning an additional degree

Combining Majors

Having trouble deciding between two different strengths? There is always the option of combing two very different majors!

Example: Math & Art
An ASG student was torn between majoring in math or art. Instead, they were suggested to either double major or to major in one and minor in the other.

These two majors could lead you to careers in:

• 3-Dimensional Modelers: useful in science and medicine, or making things like movies, TV shows, and video games
• Product Designers: merging the beauty of design and function for products like phones, cars, etc.
• Architects: designing large structures such as buildings, bridges, etc.
• Statisticians: using math for research then representing it in appealing and intuitive ways

Example: Biology & Business
Let’s take another combination – biology and business. Biology is the science of living things, while business is about making & selling things. How could those two topics fit together?

These two majors could lead you to careers in:

• Project managers in businesses tied to biology: Options from pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms to pet sales and animal control
• Marketing & Public Relations for businesses involved in biology
• Consultants for environmental and ecological regulations affecting business
• Business operations at natural history museums, aviaries, zoos, and aquariums

Families of Majors

To help give a sense of the types of majors available for study at U.S. colleges and universities that might for your strengths and passions, we will be exploring the more common “families” of majors, such as the Humanities, Sciences, Engineering, Business, and more.

Do you have a dream career, or a hobby that you are passionate about? Have you ever wondered how you could pursue it? Join us for our tour of majors.