Hey. I’m new to College Confidential. I’m trying to decide what majors to pick that I would be passionate about. I might double major and actually want to double major, but I know that one major is good enough for me. I was looking at apparel merchandising, ceramics, library technical assisting, veterinary assisting, and visual communications. They are all so different from each other and was wondering which two would be good together and if it’s weird if the two are different from each other. I just need one goal. Thank you.
If you’re planning to attend a four-year college, just be aware that library technical assisting and veterinary assisting are not offered at most four-year colleges. Those are technical degrees that are usually offered in a 2-year course of study. They’re also not well-paying jobs in the long-term - vet techs average around $32K a year, and the top 10% only make in the $50K range. I’m not even sure if libraries still hire library assistants (getting a librarian job is competitive enough), but reports show that their median salary is in the $27K range. These aren’t starting salaries - these are averages for everyone in the profession, even experienced folks.
I don’t think a job has to pay a ton of money if you’re interested and passionate about it, but those salaries are the kinds that make living even a middle-class lifestyle a struggle, especially in or nearby an urban area.
Apparel/fashion merchandising and ceramics are only offered at some four-year colleges, usually large public universities or arts schools. Arts schools tend to be very expensive and don’t give much financial aid. One of your state’s public universities might offer one or both of those majors. Visual communications is also an unusual major; often the major is called something else, like ‘communications’, ‘design/graphic design’, maybe even ‘media studies’ or something similar.
It’s not weird if your two majors are very different, but you do need to answer for yourself what you’re gaining by majoring in both rather than just taking some classes or minoring. In some fields, double-majoring is difficult because of course sequencing. For example, if you were doing a bachelor’s of fine arts (BFA) program in ceramics, it might be difficult to double major, especially in something like apparel merchandising.