I need help choosing a major. I’m starting college this fall and am currently a marketing/advertising major. I’ve always seen myself having a creative career because I’ve always been interested in design and art, but I chose to do business since I didn’t think I could get a good job with an art degree. I was valedictorian at my high school and my best subjects were science and math. I recently got my AP Calculus test score and I got a 5, and now I’m questioning my major choice. I know I don’t want to go into the medical field because I can’t handle blood or needles or anything like that at all. I’ve never been interested in that stuff, but I feel like I’m wasting my abilities if I’m not doing something math or science related. I love animals and I’ve always wanted to work for a vegan/cruelty-free business of some sort. I don’t see myself being an engineer or physicist; I think I would want to do something with biology (but like I said, not medical). I’m really stuck; I can’t seem to find a career that really fits me. I’m afraid that if I major in some sort of science I won’t want to do any of the “sciency” jobs.
Well, you don’t need to figure out your career now. I know a lot of people suggest working backwards: selecting a career and then choosing a major to fit. There’s nothing wrong with that, but a lot of people don’t know what they want to do. It’s also okay to follow your interests forward: select a major that’s interesting to you and then develop skills that make you valuable or marketable, then see where opportunities arise. (Honestly, I suspect that’s the way most people do it. Life is a winding road.)
But I daresay that you can have a creative career in marketing and advertising, too - putting together ad campaigns, designing posters or commercials or bus wraps or whatever, dreaming up copy or ideas…that can be a relatively creative endeavor. You can also major in a science field and end up not working in a “sciency” job at all.
It’s not a “waste” of your abilities to not do science or math. You can be good at many things, and choose to specialize in one of them.
Marketing has become increasingly science driven : statistics or data science and psychology become as important if not more important than business skills. Since you’re strong at math, why not major in stats or data science or similar, adding marketing and psychology minors? Or reverse the major/minors: marketing major, stats and psychology minors. 