One of the most common questions I've been asked since graduating high school/getting into college has been "What's your major?"

A short, simple question can tell someone a lot about yourself-- your dreams, your aspirations, your abilities when you answer. Sometimes, it scares people, sometimes it's a breeze to answer.

So, my question for the college students (of past, present and future), is what's your major?

Why did you choose this major? Have you changed majors before? What changes have you seen in yourself when it comes to what you've learned?

For those college students in the future-- what are your burning questions about picking a major, or have you made up your mind?
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In the fall, I'll be going into my sophomore year majoring in print journalism. I've yet to declare my major, but that will happen as soon as I get my GPA up and into more journalism classes (I had a rough spring).

I chose journalism after being involved in my high school's newspaper for all four years-- I was known for my involvement and dedication to it-- I was the head editor for two papers twice my freshman year, design editor my junior year, and then editor in chief my senior year. I've always loved to write, and I want to be able to do more informative writing over creative writing, so I went with journalism.  As far as I can tell, journalism/writing has been where I've excelled, so I continued with journalism in college.

I haven't changed majors even though I've been told I should/need to, but I refused to. My alternative choice-- international relations/studies (my minor) takes at least a Master's degree in order to get a decent job, but I'm not looking to stay in school after I get my bachelor's.

As for what changes I've seen in myself-- my editing ability is getting better. I've spent a year copy-editing, so I know AP Style rather well, and apply it to my own writing-- all the experience I have so far is from working with the school paper.

good luck with the journalism regretfully i haave no passion t do any majors so i never did choose anything :/

I let my parents choose for me among my top 3 choices based on my dreams, likes and preferences- Computer Science, Music major, psychologist/veterinarian. They picked Computer Science, so here I am taking up BsCs xD

double post...

My major story is interesting, but I'll give you a brief account here. My mom actually signed me up for journalism based on a conversation we had a few months back, though I didn't know it. I immediately switched to English and did that for about two and a half years, but after hating my American literature class and arguing with the professor (ultimately getting my grade lowered, since I scored well on her tests and rocked the papers - though I never actually saw the final grade of my own paper), I realized that I didn't want to be a pompous professor glorifying children having sex in books or correcting their grammar constantly, as if I'm better than them. I liked debating and politics more than old literary works, so I switched to Political Science. Looking back, I don't regret it, but it's a lot different than what I thought it was going to be. Hopefully I have somewhat of a background for a future in politics, but I think I have a long way to go. Still, I'm glad I switched out of English.

cnsulli : Before entering high school I thought I was going to study film and whatnot, like my older brother. I had always like that sort of thing and still do. Upon entering high school all the TV Pro classes were filled and I essentially had no choice but to choose Drafting, the only other class I at least recognized from some weird class in middle school. I ended up taking 3 levels of Drafting in high school and loved Physics when we were introduced to that in 11th grade. So I was all set to be an Architect and minor in Astronomy (just because it was fun). 

Turns out I had a deeper interest in the format of how things were done rather than creating a new floor plan on AutoCAD every time. I liked adding the details, so my teacher said I should do Engineering instead. Lo and behold turns out there's such a thing as Aerospace Engineering, which I thought was a perfect combo of Engineering and Astronomy haha. Such has been my major ever since entering college. I have the mess-ups of high school advisers (not signing me up for TV pro when I asked because they told me marching band counted as a class, hence my empty slot) essentially to thank for where I am now. 

danielbelitch : I like your story-- it's cool how you found Aerospace Engineering. But the power of just being put in random classes in high school changes your future.

Now, educate me, oh wise Aerospace Engineering major-- what do you have to focus on in your major? What kind of classes do you have to take? Do you need to take a minor?

pray75 : That sucks that your professor lowered your grade when you argued with her-- that's not fair at all O_o I've heard of professors liking you and willing to bump you up a letter grade if you're straddling a percentage, but not lowering you a grade. (I've had professors who've liked me-- I had plenty of awkward conversations with my technical writing professor at Starbucks after class and my constant emails with questions that I'm sure he liked me. I think...) 

But I understand changing out of being an English major for your reasoning-- I can't stand talking to English majors about books. It's not a simple conversation on a level you can understand, and why I'm afraid to take an English class now.

Good luck to you and your Political Science career, though ^^ Politics is an interesting topic to discuss, especially in today's political climate.

Juliet : Two out of three posts here so far have said that their parents picked the classes/majors their children are going into. My experience with that has been completely independent of my parents', besides listing off classes and which one I should take, but not them actually picking out the class.

So, my question is-- how has that influenced you so far? Are you picking your own classes, or are your parents picking the classes? (I don't mean to be rude, but I'm curious-- when we picked out classes for the first time, we were separated from our parents and send into a small room with a lot of other people, also picking out their classes.)

cnsulli : "Oh wise Aerospace Engineer?" lol?
Need to take a minor? Definitely not. Taking a minor would set me back a semester of school! Everything I take is required for my degree. Already set myself back a bit by taking electives (like band and psych) first semester when I didn't know that. Focus and class type seem like the same thing for my answer. Prereqs/'Beginner' courses included an overview/classes from most of the other engineering fields as well. Took the Calc series+Diff EQ, some chemistry, some physics, and Gen Ed stuff. Now I'm onto Intermediate/Advanced courses (their words) that deal a little more toward my major. Took Mechanics of Materials, Statics, Dynamics, Thermodynamics, essentially more math and physics with some application. Mechanics was all about material properties and how/when they fail. My focus from these classes so far is about design and design application. Even took a class called Design and Manufacturing lab (more Mechanical related so far, Aerospace is like a specialization of Mechanical, so it's just a few extra classes to do both) where we had to design a robot to perform that year's task.?
Have I sufficiently answered your questions??

*whoops, sorry about sandwich post