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Reasonable Plan to Help You Decide on Your Major:
1) Think about what you enjoy. When choosing a major, keep in mind that if your major dictates what you will be doing for a living, most people who are 20 today can expect to work for 50 or more years in their lifetime! Choose wisely or be open to the idea that you will at some time during your life retrain to do something else.
2) Given the above, be prepared to spend considerable time and energy choosing your major. The beauty of community college is that courses are inexpensive and this gives you the opportunity to experiment with what you think you may enjoy. Taking a class that is not intended to transfer or may not eventually work in your major may be well worth taking if it provides you with information about whether or not a major works for you.
3) Talk to people in fields that interest you. How do they feel about their work? What's the best thing about their work? The worst? If possible, arrange a "shadowing" experience with someone who does work that you are considering training for. Shadowing involves you basically following around, for a period of time, usually one day to one week, a person whose job you consider doing.
4) Take a personality inventory. Those computers in C-100 mentioned above include a software program called SIGGY-PLUS. Siggy walks you through a series of questions that helps you to evaluate what is important in your life by allowing you to clarify your values and beliefs. This can be very helpful when you are deciding on a major. For instance, Siggy will ask you what is more important to you: earning a lot of money or having free time. If you choose earning lots of money over free time, a number of majors (such as education) can be eliminated because in education, the potential to earn money is limited but you are compensated by having more control over the amount of time you work. If you choose free time over earning lots of money, you can probably eliminate majors such as business and law where you must work many hours but the potential for earning money is very good.
5) Also try DISCOVER and GIS on these computers for further information about careers, majors and what schools offer which majors. Be prepared to spend time and energy in making these important decisions. Doing so will help you to avoid taking classes that do not meet requirements for your major. For instance, if you know that business is your major, you should incorporate both macro and micro economics (ECO 102 and 103) in your Social and Behavioral Science General Education Requirements. This helps you to meet both prerequisites for your major and General Education. If you do not know that business is your intended major, you may experiment with Psychology, Sociology and Anthropology courses to meet your Gen Ed's but then later, you'll still need to take economics when you should be completing other business prerequisites. Bottom line: You'll end up taking two additional courses because you didn't know what your major is!
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