From talking to a number of people here at school in my major, aerospace engineering, it seems like a lot of us only picked it because we couldn't think of anything else to major in. I'm beginning to think that this isn't the major for me. I'm curious, what are your majors and how did you pick them. If you aren't to college yet, just post what you plan to major in. I'll stop saying major now.

I'm in software engineering, and I picked it for obvious reasons. (see sig) :p

picked it randomly by choosing a number between 1 and 20.

Aerospace engineering is teh roxorz.

Mine was simple, I didn't get into anything else that I tried to get accepted into on my first try directly out of high school: Architecture, Industrial Art (i.e. concept design), and Political Science. Granted though, that almost all of those are notorious for taking multiple attempts to get into.

So, I got into the English Language department at Helsinki University *shrugs*. Thought that I might as well try since I had spent over half my childhood abroad attending English-speaking schools. Besides, a Master's Degree's pretty much as good as any Master's Degree. I'm too naive to admit that I have a good chance of ending up a teacher, but on the positive side, I have a good chance of getting abroad. Depending on my minors, the EU and embassies are prominent employers of English Masters, which would be places that I don't think that I'd mind working.

In general, I'm very uncomfortable "compromising" myself, specializing, comitting and limiting myself to only one thing. It would feel so constrictive.

To be honest, I'm not sure if this is my "true calling" yet, if you believe that each person has one, but at least I'm studying something. Besides, I'm still young enough to be able to change direction completely without much consequence. I'm still developing.

I've been tinkering with computers since I was...8. I felt it would only be natural to carry on something that I've been able to pick up easily early in age.

BTW, Computer Science.

I'm still undeclared.

Natural Resource Management. I took a couple of classes my freshman year and I really liked them. Haven't looked back since.

i came to the conclusion in the latter part of the 11th grade while riding in a car. i realised that i love to paint; even though i hadent had an art class in over 3 years at that point. and i thought the idea was stupiod at the time, so i didnt tell anyone abotu it for almost another year. but it seems to have stuck on me, and i have gotten less shy with my art.

yall may laugh, but at one point i actully wanted to be a libraian. then i realised how futile an occupation that would be for me.

I wanted to be an astronaut. seriously.

The only job I could come up with that I even vaguely wanted to do was that. I happened to be quite good at physics and I enjoyed it, so I thought I may as well follow the pipe dream. First woman on Mars, that's me!!

As it is, I have no idea what I'll be doing with it, but it's a good degree to have anyway.

I'm not really sure why I picked my major (criminal justice)..except that I find it fascinating, and what little hands-on experience I've had was great.

CECS here. It just seemed like the thing to do. Though I keep having second thoughts...

I chose nursing because it's something I can do. I ended up spending a lot of time in the ER and Trauma ICU back in my freshman year, and just started developing an interest in the medical field since. I'm thinking about doing nursing for awhile and, if I enjoy it, I may go to med-school to be a doctor.

Comp Engineering - parents picked it for me :p

That's lame.

Physics and math... physics because it interests me and holds such a wide variety of fascinating topics to focus in on. The math double major just fits the physics major really well, schedule-wise. Plus I've always loved math, too.

Chemical Engineer.

My other choice was CSCE, which I think I'd be good at, but I don't want to come to hate something I enjoy, which seems to be the case with a lot of people.

I also liked chemistry a lot, and I chose chem-e over chem because I'm superficial and like to see something that I made actually in action, as opposed to research and never see it applied.



I still do, but the chances of that are almost none, but I did read somewhere about chem-es going along on shuttle missions, so I figure thats close enough for me.

Probably English/Literature/Journalism. I'd like to be a writer, but seeing as that doesn't pay too well usually, I might just go into Journalism for my main pay check. I would also be quite interested in Web Design, but I'm not sure how easy it would be to combine the two at college!

i guess it started with me getting dark forces. once i started playing that i knew i wanted to learn how to do make games and stuff. btw, im going into computer science

Joint honours in pure Math and Physics. Picked on a bus, half drunk.

Because I got into it. It was about my 6th or 7th choice, and it seemed better than sitting around doing nothing.

So now 6 years later I'm stuck with an Economics degree I want nothing to do with. Seemed like a good idea at the time...

Hmm...I'm not sure if you'd agree with or consider how I chose my major, but I'll go ahead and tell you anyway, since it did work, regardless.

I'm currently a Communication Arts major with a film emphasis (it's a really wordy name--i'm actually leaving some out of it). At first, I was going to be a Bible major. It wasn't really my decision to switch majors, as if I found out that Bible wasn't my cup of tea. What happened is that I got a call from the Financial Aid office saying that the state of Kentucky would revoke my scholarship money from high school if I didn't switch to a non-religious major that the state could officially endorse. Rather than feel oppressed by the gov't, I went ahead and switched majors with an open mind and a positive mental attitude. I wound up switching to the Comm Arts major, since my folks seemed to think I was going to go farther with that than Bible anyway, and found that getting the call from FA was really a blessing in disguise. I've only really questioned that decision once and I almost became a History major, but it just didn't seem right to "sell out."

Okay, well you might not disagree with changing majors just because I had to and because my parents recommended the right thing (after all...they raised me). What you might disagree with is how I view the whole thing.

It seems to me that there was a little bit more behind that phone call from Financial Aid than just the Gov't making sure it didn't sponsor a religion. There seemed to be some good behind it, caused by something greater than me, that was trying to nudge me onto the right path in life. Once I got there, doors started opening in favor of the new major. I took all this to mean that I'd found my lot in life. (Or at least the path to finding that out.) Really, doors have opened to the future and the past since I became a film major. I look back at the things I did as a kid and see how much they related to movies. Of course, Star Wars started it all. SW was my life when I was a kid. I was so into it that I started to wonder how it was made. Then I just kind of expanded out from that to learning about other movies. I started to really get into Spielberg in 8th grade and that's when I started thinking about actually making movies for a career. I got sidetracked into the Bible thing because I became a Christian my sophomore year of high school. Really, it seems like film is my default setting. It's what I was programmed to do when I was born. All the chemicals and tissues in my body formed in such a way that I get a high from watching movies and making them.

What do I hope you'll take from this? One: to pray and have faith that you'll be put on the right path and you won't wind up wasting your life away through indecision or laziness. Two: what you've always liked to do in life, ever since you were a kid, might be some useful insight into where you should think about going.

Really, I'm like the kid who wanted to be an astronaut and actually did it. (Actually I am that kid. Filmmaking just won out.) It's just that I think I've been too blissfully ignorant and naive to let reality squash my dreams and aspirations. Maybe that could be mistaken for dedication? All I know is that I REALLY don't want to do anything other than this unless I've got a good reason to. I've learned an incredibly great deal from this whole experience and I wouldn't want to throw that away if I didn't have to.

Like the above poster, I am a film student. I sat down one day and said "what do I like? I like movies. I should go to school to make movies." And then I did it. It was really simple.

Wonder if simplicity is just a film thing?

Well, I spent 3 1/5 years as an Architecture major until I found out that math doesn't really agree with me. After failing a number of classes, I'm now a Graphic Design major.
I want to be a level designer.
So I love architecture and really enjoyed the classes but I just couldn't pass them.
So... yeah.

I think it's stupid how people sit around and "figure out" what they want to do. Figuring out what you want to do should consists of thinking "what do I enjoy. That's what I enjoy." And then you have the answer to your question.

Mine was Computer Science til I realized that I didn't have a good enough memory to remember a buttload of little bits of coding (plus I got a D in the class). So, I switched to Psychology.

I picked International Affairs because it's what I'm interested in. I love politics and travelling and history so everything that I love is in my major.

I originally picked Civil engineering, because of the job outlook, pay, and I was mildly interested in it. I then decided to pursue a degree in CS, since I found it was my true passion.

Bill, it's not always so simple. I'm going to cite myself as an example, because I'm kind of going through this problem now.

I've always loved computers. Since I got my 386, one of the first things I wanted to do was to program games on it. My parents bought me a qBasic book and it started there. Few years later got a PII and a C++ book. Whole new can of worms. I loved what I was doing then.

I get to Uni. I take the intro course. It was fun, as we got to program games and the like. Simulations. Next two classes turn out to be hell. Nothing but data structures and complexity notation. I hated it. I know that's what I'll be doing the rest of my life if I continue. However, it's not always so easy to change. I have 20 courses left to take (~70 hours), and I can easily graduate in four years if I keep going.

However, I'm just not really enjoying it anymore. My GPA (3.355), though not terrible, should be a lot better(I blame this on Calculus 3 and Differential Equations). I'm seriously thinking about taking a fisheries and wildlife course. The prospect of becoming a park ranger somewhere in Alaska or managing a state's fisheries seems really exciting. Problem is, I don't have time in my schedule for the course. Another problem is that I'm so deep into what I'm already doing that I can't easily change paths so completely. It would add a lot more time at school, which I really can't afford. Another problem is that now my parents are expecting me to do what I'm doing. I don't want to let them down. And finally, I still don't know what kind of lifestyle I want. While it would be exciting being a park ranger or something similar, it completely contradicts my vision of a nice home in suburbia with wife and kids. Owning my business and making a lot of money. And thus the dillema is born. I'm sticking it out for now, but I'm not terribly happy with it.

It's not always cut-and-dry.

At first I thought I wanted to be a computer programmer, but after some thought I realized that it would leave me bored and unfulfilled. I am, and always will be, an arts student at heart.

Now I believe that Ancient History is my true calling. Nothing seems more interesting too me than the ancient world and its workings. I feel even better about my decision when people ask me what I'm studying.

"So where are you going?"

Me: "Trent University."

"What are you taking there?"

Me: "Ancient History. So far, Greece and Rome"

"Wow! That sounds really interesting."

And people actually sound interested by it; it's not just the obligatory small-talk courtesy.

I hope to get my masters and PhD, and go on to be a professor.

The cool thing about film is that when people ask you what you do, you can be like, "Ever see that little movie ______? I made that." The cool thing about being a Christian director is that you make people piss their pants because they won't believe you're talking to them, since the point of your existence to be the nicest person possible and most popular directors aren't that nice. Okay, well maybe they are, but some of them just have oil tankers shoved up their butts it's incredible. Sometimes you wonder how so many buttheads got their breaks to rise to the positions they get.

I chose by using a dartboard.

....name a famous christian director.... I'm stumped.

Ditto

Tom Shadyac. He directed Bruce Almighty. But I was actually talking more like what I'd like to be. I'm not all about making movies that work in a sermon about giving your soul to Jee-sus in the worst spots. If anything, I just want to express myself through film, same as any other filmmaker. Incorporating my faith into that would just be one of my many trademarks (and hopefully what makes my movies good to all audiences).

Mel Gibson.

Incorporating your faith directly into your movies will make them come off like a hustle. It'll alienate alot of people. But if you do it indirectly, it'll come off as a genius allegory.

Example:
The Matrix Versus the Passion of the Christ

i enjoy sitting around doing nothing, so i guess you're not correct when it comes to what people should do.

I hardly sat. Rather, I took a bunch of classes in a bunch of different subjects to see what I liked.