How to Choose a College Major (Step-by-step)

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When I work with high schoolers, I sometimes hear them say something like:

  • “I’ve already decided what I want to do after college, and I want to major in .”

Much more frequently, however, I hear them say:

  • “I can’t decide which major is best for me.”

  • “I’m leaning toward for my major, but I don’t know.”

  • “I have no idea what I’m going to major in or what I want to do with my life after college. I’m undecided.*’”

*YOU are not ‘undecided’—or ‘decided,’ for that matter. You are an amazingly complex human and are pretty much constantly  (unless you’re sleeping) in a decision-making process: you make approximately 35,000 decisions each day—226.7 on food ALONE!

I’m guessing you probably relate to one of the last three statements and are wondering “Which college major is right for me?” or “Which college major is best for me?”—which is a great place to start your major decision-making journey.

In fact, I would challenge that even “decided*” students will benefit from this step-by-step process for how to choose a college major.

And here’s why: I believe this process will not only make it easier to complete your college applications and declare your future major with confidence, but also allow you to find more joy and purpose in your high school work right now. 

WHY IT’S BETTER NOT TO WAIT UNTIL COLLEGE TO START FIGURING OUT YOUR MAJOR

Has someone ever told you, “Don’t worry, you’ll figure out your major once you get to college!”? 

While well-intended, this statement may have led you to believe that you should focus on doing as much difficult and impressive work at the highest level you possibly can for four years straight in order to get into the best possible college.

Unfortunately, then, this statement probably added more pressure instead of relieving it, and you might be feeling overwhelmed or disengaged with high school and questioning its relevance to your actual future.

Now, I’m NOT saying:

  • figuring out your major will solve all of your issues with high school

  • you must figure out your major in order to choose which colleges to apply to

  • that you’ll be forced to major in what you put on your applications (you won’t)

  • you can’t ever change your major

  • changing your major is bad

In fact, the ‘don’t worry’ statement’s greatest value lies in its encouragement to stay receptive to what you’re experiencing and learning in your first year of college to see how it might shift your interests and goals.

The good news is that just spending a little focused time now on the process below will expose you to some new ideas and major options while helping you get to know yourself better (and possibly discover or affirm your purpose). 

And all of THAT can restore what Paul Cook-Deegan calls a sense of “whyness” in your present education while building a sense of excitement about what lies ahead.

Sound good? All you need is yourself to get started.

In this post, you’ll learn how to:

  • Discover Your Superpowers 

  • Get Your Aptitudes Assessed

  • Investigate Majors You’ve Never Heard Of

  • Narrow Down Your Options

But — keep in mind that what you ultimately choose may not end up mattering as much as you think (I’ll share a resource on that later, so stick with me).

How to choose a college major

STEP #1: FIND YOUR SUPERPOWERS

Before going out and seeing what everyone else has to say about how to choose a college major, it’s super important to go inward and discover your superpowers.

Start with this 5-minute Values Exercise.

Why? Think of values in this context as the glue that holds together the different pieces of you. 

As you gather information from the outside world in order to pick a major, filtering it through values you strongly identify with will help you avoid getting unintentionally swayed by others’ opinions and ultimately help you narrow your major options.  

For example, is collaboration one of your top values? You’ll probably want to prioritize degrees in your list that incorporate group-based work, internships, or co-operative learning communities.

The Values Exercise also serves double duty: because your values are a glimpse into who you are and what you’ll bring with you to college, they’ll also be the cornerstone upon which you’ll build various pieces (i.e., your personal statement, activities list, additional info, and supplemental essays) of your college application.

Next, here’s the What Are My Superpowers? exercise from our Uncommon Applicant program to help you identify your superpowers (with a little bit of help from your trusted inner circle). 

Tip: get your circle’s uninfluenced opinions by having them respond to the questions before you share your own reflections. Then, if you need help looking for patterns before the final step of the exercise, grab someone from that inner circle to help you.

What Are My Superpowers?

What are your superpowers? You’re not alone if this question is difficult for you to answer. Introspection is hard work! This is a three-part exercise intended to help you find and name your biggest strengths. Download a copy of the exercise here. 

1. Ask 2-3 people who are really close to you—family, close friends, mentors—what they think your superpowers are. Here are some questions you might ask these people: 

  • What do you think I’m particularly good at? 

  • What are my greatest strengths?

  • What do I seem to really enjoy doing? 

  • When do you think I’m most engaged? 

  • How do you think I’ll leave my mark on the world? 

Record their answers.

2. Make a list of activities you participate in not because you have to, but because you want to. Describe the activity in a short phrase. Estimate the amount of time you spend doing these activities each week.

Important question: Do you enjoy some aspects of these activities more than others? Highlight those in bold. 

3. Now some big picture work. Look at steps 1-2 together. Notice patterns and connections.

After talking with people who know you, mapping your activities, and keeping your values list in mind, what do you think some of your superpowers are? List them below. These can be values (family, friendship, success) or activities (violin, coding, math). 

Here’s an example:

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Bonus: If you had a superhero name, what would it be? For example, some of my superpowers are energy, resourcefulness, and play, and one of my favorite superhero names for myself is Bonsairambo. 

STEP #2: TAKE SOME TESTS THAT YOU DON’T HAVE TO STUDY FOR - APTITUDE ASSESSMENTS

You get the final say on what major is best for you, but it might be helpful (not to mention fascinating) to see how some psychometric (cognitive ability and/or personality) tests compare to the insights collected from Step #1.

My favorites for students: 

All three services have visually pleasing, interactive exercises to present you with tons of great personalized career and educational pathway content. Check to see if your school already pays for YouScience or CareerExplorer before you buy through their sites. FutureScape is 100% free and users can even arrange for some free educational and career coaching via the app.

Here are some other great or fun free tests designed to help you gather more data about yourself to evaluate future major or career fit:

Majors:

Career Pathways:

Character/Personality:

Remember: these are only tools to help you plan your college and career future. They’re not replacements for deeper exploration, so be sure to discuss them with an inner circle member and keep on going through Steps #3 and #4.

STEP #3: LEARN MORE ABOUT WHAT MAJORS ACTUALLY EXIST

A note: you’ll find lots of blogs and articles (including one of our own) about why your major doesn't matter as much as you think.

And I agree. Regardless of your major, developing your communication, adaptability, and critical-thinking skills in college will be more important in helping you pivot within or between jobs or industries over the duration of your career.

While reassuring, that fact still doesn’t help you choose a best fit major to help you expand in those areas—especially if you don’t know what you don’t know.

When I ask students about what college majors they’re interested in, I’ve found that most students relate to this body of knowledge pie chart.

 
 

Students tend to be interested in what they know, and they know what they’ve seen or heard about.

You’ve probably heard of or know people who have majored in marketing, psychology, or biology. But what about American studies, decision sciences, or biotechnology? (All of those are offered at San Francisco State University, by the way.)

It’s really difficult—impossible, really—to be interested in a major or career you’ve never heard of.

But now you’ve got lots of info from Steps #1 and #2 about your values, strengths and interests, so you’re ready to compare all of that with the majors that you don’t know you don’t know by:

Researching majors themselves (with a focus on interdisciplinary studies)

There are plenty of comprehensive lists of majors on the internet, but there are few with descriptions of what these majors actually are all about—which is what you need to do your research.

My favorite: College Board’s BigFuture Major and Career Profiles, with MyMajors.com as a close second. Both of their major lists come from the reliable National Center for Educational Statistics, and they are easy to navigate—allowing you to get pleasurably lost reading about interesting majors.

Remember American Studies at SF State I mentioned earlier? Check this out from BigFuture. It lays out what American Studies is, its typical major courses, related majors and careers, what work you might be expected to do in the major, and a link to what colleges offer this major.  

It also lists helpful high school courses (AKA if you like the ones listed, you’ll probably dig that major).

So if you love history, politics, and English, and are thinking about eventually getting an MBA, consider how choosing a pre-approved ‘American Studies’ or other interdisciplinary major could:

  1. Help you craft your college list

  2. Make you stand out on your college applications

  3. Make your personal statement, “Why Us?”, and “Why Major?” essays easier to write 

  4. Require less work than creating your own major (yes, that is also a thing), but with many of the same benefits.

  5. Allow you to take courses across disciplines and departments while making timely progress toward a single 4-year degree

  6. Still equip you with the aforementioned skills and abilities that the blogging experts agree matter more than the major itself.

If you know you want to eventually get a graduate degree in a highly tracked field with little room for electives or want a degree resulting in some sort of a certification, then these probably aren’t for you.

But as a jumping off point to investigate major options or re-evaluate your perceived commitment to a particular major, their built-in flexibility makes them great for deeper exploration.

STEP #4: START NARROWING DOWN YOUR OPTIONS

If after Step #3 you have a couple options you feel good about, you don’t necessarily need to whittle those down. Having more than one potential major can help you develop a more robust college list that you can refine with help from a counselor. Plus, on many college applications you can mark several areas of academic interest, and 

But here are two ways to dig even deeper to find out which major is number one for you right now:

1. Ask yourself why — five times

“Five Whys” is a deceptively straightforward exercise: identify a problem statement and ask ‘why’ five times (give or take or few).

Originally conceived to diagnose and resolve root causes of manufacturing issues in Japan, this exercise can also be applied to more abstract problems—as Smiti Nathan does with some additional framework in what she calls “Five Whys for Life Design.”

With her approach, it’s easier to pinpoint assumptions or deeper values and motivations behind big personal decisions—like choosing a major or career—without getting tangled up in the limitations of the exercise.

Added bonus: during all steps of this process, the Five Whys will help keep your college major goals clear and separate from other people’s goals about your college major.

Here’s how it might look for making a grad school decision:

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Get real-world context: observe, communicate, & experience

This step could be a whole blog post unto itself, but here is a short-list combining the best tips I’ve found (and a few of my own) to put all of this major and career exploration to the test.

It boils down to this: you can’t “follow your passion” or purpose if you don’t know what it is, so you must do the work to nurture your interests until you discover what your passion or purpose is.

Some things you can do before and during your first year of college to determine whether a potential major or career path feels aligned with your developing sense of purpose:

  • Go beyond Reddit—put yourself out there and ask to email commenters for more information about comments that intrigue you

  • Ask your counselor to put you in touch with any alumni from your high school that are majoring or working in a field of interest to you.

  • Arrange informational interviews from colleagues of your relatives, older students, faculty, and other people in jobs you’re curious about (see the end of the Five Whys article on tips for using this method to prepare for them!)

  • Ask to shadow someone in a potential major or career

  • Audit a class (or watch a free online lecture) for course in a major you’re considering

  • Take a variety of classes your first year that will help you determine what to declare

  • Leave enough time in your college schedule to gain practical career and life experience in the form of research apprenticeships, internships, study abroad programs, or jobs.

Conclusion:

Once you learn something about yourself from Step #4, repeat the whole process until you feel assured about the path you’re on.

As a reminder:

  1. Discover (Or Review) Your Superpowers 

  2. Assess (Or Re-Assess) Your Aptitudes

  3. Investigate (Or Keep Investigating) Majors You’ve Never Heard Of

  4. Narrow down your options

Not only will you be setting yourself up for college experience filled with more purpose and joy in a major that suits you well, you’ll be able to better appreciate how high school fits into the big picture right now.

One last suggestion: committing to this work is a courageous move, so the next time someone asks you about your future plans, boldly flip the script on those statements from the intro:

  • “I can’t decide am DECIDING which major is best for me.”

  • “I’m leaning toward for my major, but I don’t know I’m STILL EXPLORING.”

  • “I have no idea a few ideas about what I’m going to major in and do with my life after college. I’m undecided.   I’m FIGURING IT OUT.”

More resources when it comes to “ease” in the college application process: 

More for when it comes to “joy” in high school (and in life): 

More for when it comes to “ease, joy, and purpose” in high school (and in life): 

Special thanks to Mindi for writing this post.

Mindi creates a sense of belonging and growth in students through helping them produce clear, specific, confidently vulnerable application content. As a classically trained soprano, Mindi creates a sense of community with her audience by producing sound in a clear, vulnerable, and lyrical voice—often with a comedic (and these days, socially-distanced and digital!) twist.

Top values: Empowerment | Communication | Meaningful Work

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