# Deciding on a major



## Prakas (Aug 26, 2009)

I'm really stumped on what path to take...I'm currently a sophmore at a community college, and only need about 15 more credits for my AAS. Plus an extra 7 for a college mathmatics and reading class required to xfer to a 4 yr uni.

I want to transfer to a 4 year university to earn a BA, but I don't know what major I should choose. Right now, I'm doing business administration, but I don't know if it's what I want to do. I like the idea of being a teacher, but I'm afraid my GAD will stop me.

I really need to be sure within the next couple of weeks to adjust my classes for the fall semester so I don't take classes I don't need. There are so many options, but I don't know what to do.:afr

What to do...


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## Lasair (Jan 25, 2010)

Make a list of your options and stroke out what you would never dream of and work from there, in the end the decision comes from you.


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## Catlover4100 (Feb 10, 2009)

I say that if your passion is for teaching, don't let your anxiety get in your way. Although it's easier said than done, I think to myself, "my anxiety does not define who I am". Or, "I am more than the sum of my diagnosis!" Nothing worth having comes easily, so go for it and follow your dream! I'm not saying this will make your anxiety disappear, but you can work on management techniques, CBT, counselling, medication, etc in the meanwhile. I don't know how helpful that was, but that's my 2 cents


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## Prakas (Aug 26, 2009)

Thanks for the respones.

I think I'm going to keep on my path towards a degree in Business Management. It's still a long road, but I'll just keep hacking away at it. It seems like a very versatile major and can really be applied to many different areas.

I don't want to say its my dream to be a teacher per say, but it's the idea of being a teacher I like. It's a well respected profession. I just want to be middle or upper class eventually. The good thing is I can teach different things at a community college or even at a school with some certification. It would always be an option.


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## pita (Jan 17, 2004)

I think business admin is definitely one of the more useful & versatile majors. I sometimes wish I'd chosen it, myself. Depending on what's required for your major, you may also have room for a minor. 

I'm not sure how teacher's college works in your state, but here, business qualifies as a secondary school teachable.


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## EFD (Jul 16, 2010)

Funny thing about teaching....if I have to interact on a one to one basis, then I get extremely anxious and even have had panic attacks. But when I've had to give lectures on the college level, I actually enjoyed it--even taking questions from students!

I guess the difference was that 1) in a lecture hall or classroom it isn't personal and 2) I was talking about something which I not only knew but that I knew I knew inside out.....so no anxiety. I enjoyed picking up the chalk and writing on the blackboard to illustrate what I was talking about. It was my confidence in my own expertise that allowed me to transcend my natural phobia of people.

Just thought I'd share that with you, hoping that it might be of some help. Teaching may not necessarily be as scary as you might think. Sometimes the worst anxiety is anticipatory anxiety.


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## Whitney (Oct 2, 2008)

Just remember that it is never too late to change your mind. If you pursue business management now and later realize that you want to do something a little different, it may take a little extra time and money and you may have taken classes already that you don't need, but you will be happier in the end.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that if you pursue business management and you stick with it and love it then that is great. But if you later decide you'd rather teach or do something else, don't _not_ do it because you'd feel like you wasted time and money on something else, or because of anxiety. Do what you love.


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## coldmorning (Jul 4, 2007)

If you're not sure about a major, I'd pick something based on interest (that is also challenging).

I know it's not fashionable to say this. The conventional response is to attack the "follow your interests" advice with lots of stories about people who did this and ended up working at mcdonalds.

But that's really because people can't take responsibility for themselves. There are people with degrees in engineering or whatever that end up working at Mcd. There are people who majored in English who end up becoming CEos, or whatever. If you end up working at a dead end job, blame yourself... not your major, your school, the weather, the alignment of the stars, etc.

Even if you go into computer science, much of what you learn will be outdated by the time you graduate. The point is that you go to college to learn how to focus, discipline and apply yourself, expand your view, grow as a person. If all you expect from college is to learn facts then don't bother going. Facts can be gained from plenty of places without paying 1,000s of dollars for it. 

Go to college for the experience. Don't worry so much about getting a useless degree. Those who end up with a 'useless' degree should never have gone to college in the first place. And it wouldn't have mattered if they went into physics, biology, rocket science, or whatever a 'useful' degree is. For some, any degree they get would be useless.

My only real caveat is to make sure you have the right expectations from college in the first place. Don't go expecting to sit through the motions and get a nice automatic job offer with 7 figures handed to you at the end of it. Go expecting to work hard as heck, challenge yourself, and push and grow.

Engineering majors tend to do better in the job market than other degrees because lazy people don't go into engineering (or if they do they get kicked out of the program - if the program has any standards). In other words, it isn't what major the student picked that made him/her employable, but rather that certain majors attract people with work ethic. On the other hand, some majors are notorious for attracting lazy people. If a lot of history majors end up unemployed it's not because studying history makes you unemployable. Rather, unemployable people tend to pick history. 

But if you are very passionate about history and work very hard, you will be far more employable than someone lazy who picks a 'useful' degree with the expectation that it guarantees a job. 

There was another thread about the curse of being smart. I didn't get a chance to reply to it, but my reaction was that being smart is only 5% of success. Working really hard is the other 95%. Smart kids sometimes grow up expecting life to be easy for them. And that's the real reason why some smart people fail miserably.

So they should revise the 'follow your interests' advice to this:

Follow your interests + work really hard, and the rest will follow.


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