What did you consider?
When did you choose it? before hs? during hs? at college already?
What did you eventually decide on and why?
Did you choose your college with your major in mind or your major knowing your college?
Who is the audience for this question? You are asking in the search and selection area where HS kids are looking for college suggestions. So are you asking HS kids? Or college kids who don’t really post here? Or the parent members?
My mom says I knew in 2nd grade that I wanted to be a teacher. Early on in high school, I knew that I wanted to teach math (in spite of having some pretty horrendous math teachers in high school. One, I swear, was teaching only to avoid Vietnam.)
As to the school: I’m one of 5 siblings. Each of us started at community college, no questions. From there I transferred to a local university. I have no idea why I chose that particular school (it was in 1978-- a while ago!!). But I suspect that part of the reason was that everyone I worked with-- my whole social network at the time-- was doing the exact same thing. We worked in a restaurant from the time we were high school Juniors. We hung out together, went away together, had a house in the Hamptons and a ski house upstate together. And we all followed the same academic path, though most of them ended up on Wall Street and not in a classroom.
Keep in mind, though, that all that was way before the internet. So the type of research that you guys do-- into schools and financial aid-- simply wasn’t a possibility. Going away to school wasn’t even on my radar in the mid 70’s.
There’s a similar thread here:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/18674963/#Comment_18674963
The details of how I chose my major come from my post there.
I’m a rising sophomore math and CS major, with a music minor.
Ever since I can remember, I’d always wanted to be a vet. I was seriously obsessed with medicine and animals. I watched all kinds of medical shows as a kid and still know way more about medicine than many of the “pre-meds” at my university (part of it is also because my mom’s a doc). However, freshman year bio at my high school we had to do a frog dissection and I couldn’t stomach it, so I knew right there that being a vet was not for me. Since I was a little kid, I’ve always excelled at and loved math. When I went to the bookstore with my parents all my childhood, my parents would say ok, you can pick out a book. Most kids, especially around age 4-7, would pick out picture books, right? Nope, I’d pick out math workbooks. So when I realized that being a vet wasn’t for me, math was the obvious choice. That summer, I took computer science at my high school. I absolutely loved it and was great at it. It just made sense, like math. The next two years (sophomore and junior year) I actually dabbled in circuitry and electronics (took both analog and digital courses), which I loved, but ultimately senior year came back to computer science. I didn’t discover I loved cryptography so much until second semester senior year when I took a course at my high school. That one semester, it just clicked that that was what I was meant to do. It also reinforced my choices for my majors, since cryptanalysis involves both CS and math.
So, I’ve considered over the years the follow majors and programs: pre-vet, pre-med, biology, chemistry, math, applied math, computer science, interdisciplinary studies (create my own major in cryptography), computer engineering, electrical engineering, music composition, music performance, music theory, historical performance practice (music). I’ve also considered minors in math, computer science, electronics, music, and dance.
I obviously chose my majors before my college, but I didn’t choose my college based on my majors. My choice in colleges to apply to was driven by money. My top two choices were Case Western and URichmond, which I received full-tuition scholarships at. I applied to these schools because I liked the atmosphere, course offerings, and the possibility of merit money. Some of the majors and minors I’ve considered are specific to Case Western, which has a much broader offering, since it is well known for engineering, while URichmond is an LAC. I wish URichmond offered some of these (specifically electronics courses), but I knew that it didn’t before I committed.
I’m a math and computer science major. (I just finished my freshman year, but I have senior standing because I took university classes full-time during my senior year of high school. I’ve taken two computer science classes and fourteen math classes, including every required class other than complex analysis.)
At various points in my life, I’ve seriously considered majoring in computer science, math, nutrition, philosophy, physics, psychology, secondary education, sociology, and statistics.
Less seriously, I’ve looked at chemical engineering, chemistry, classics, cognitive science, computer engineering, electrical engineering, engineering physics, English, finance, materials science, nuclear engineering, and religious studies. This probably isn’t an exhaustive list.
I chose the math major in my sophomore year of high school. I chose the computer science major in the second semester of my freshman year of college, and I actually haven’t declared it yet.
It’s hard to explain why math appeals to me, but I guess it’s because I feel really happy after I’ve solved a math problem. I like puzzles, but I don’t like lab equipment or empirical data. Math is beautiful because all you need is your mind.
I didn’t have a strong opinion about math until my sophomore year of high school, when I took plane geometry and honors Algebra II. The teacher had a strategy where he gave us worksheets full of problems and let us try to solve them on our own before he taught any lessons about the concepts behind them.
Everyone else complained, but I always got really excited about these worksheets. I went home and stayed up late doing the problems, and every day I presented a bunch of my solutions in class. :-B Whenever my classmates didn’t understand something, I explained it to them. The teacher saw that I was advanced, so he gave me a graphing calculator and two calculus textbooks and said I could study from those or other math books during his class.
By the end of my junior year, I had tested out of my school’s pre-calculus and calculus classes. I took the AP Calculus BC exam, which allowed me to take six higher-level university classes in my senior year. At that point, I couldn’t imagine not majoring in math.
I want to get a Ph.D. in math, but I probably won’t become a professor because it’s too competitive. I need a lot of backup plans, and this was the motivation for my double major in computer science. I’ve enjoyed my computer science classes because the kind of thinking required isn’t very different from the thinking required in mathematics. My ability to write proofs has often helped me with programming, and my (limited) knowledge of programming has helped me with MATLAB-based assignments in my applied math classes.
When I took my first programming class, I worried that I was “selling out.” I don’t feel like that anymore because I’ve realized that math and computer science complement each other. Exposure to both fields will help you get jobs in either one.
I want to triple major with philosophy, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to fit the classes into my schedule when there are so many other electives I want to take.
I knew I would major in math when I chose my school, although my school isn’t known for math. I chose the computer science major later, but it wasn’t really because of my school.
What did you consider?
A LOT of things. I mean, almost everything except for math-focused majors was on the table. Some of the biggest contenders were linguistics, marine biology, Spanish, genetics, political science, opera, English education, and elementary education. A wide variety, I know!
When did you choose it? before hs? during hs? at college already?
I decided the summer before my senior year of high school. I am about to be a sophomore in college and I am still happy with my choice, which is a relief!
What did you eventually decide on and why?
I chose elementary education as I slowly eliminated everything else. I love young children, I love school, and I love answering questions. That made teaching a natural fit. Teaching also gave a platform for me to use my many talents, which include music, art, general academia, and writing. It was hard to choose between teaching a subject at the secondary level versus elementary education, and I may eventually seek certification in a subject for teaching middle and high school. As I have spent more time working other jobs and learned more about myself, I am certain that teaching is a good fit for my personality. I am not motivated by huge salaries or prestige, but rather by my interests (duh!) and by positively impacting others’ lives. It’s really important for my to feel like my everyday work is meaningful to someone in a big way.
Did you choose your college with your major in mind or your major knowing your college?
Neither, really. I wanted to go public in state so that I could save money, and as long as the college could offer my program decently, I knew I would be happy. At one point, I had considered out of state for marine biology, but I am thankful for in state tuition, living at home, and scholarships. So, money was a big factor, but that’s mostly because my parents aren’t paying and I wanted to avoid debt like the plague. As a future teacher, I think that it was a good idea - most teachers struggle to pay off student debts. Anyway…
So…yup! That’s the story of choosing my major. 
I wanted to be a doctor for a long time, but in middle school and early high school I realized how little I enjoy dealing with people, especially when they are uncooperative or don’t listen to me. My cousin’s then-girlfriend was going to school for Biomedical Engineering, which intrigued me, because it had all of the aspects that attracted me to medicine (helping people, biology/anatomy), but also added my fascination for math and building things. Plus it gives the option for med school if I so choose later.
My prospective major definitely affected my college choice. I wanted to go somewhere that had the major, obviously, but also had a good reputation in that major. Other than that, it was mostly regional for me as my parents really wanted me to stay in the Northeast.
I originally wanted to be an Animal Science major, but gave up on it after failing my Algebra 2 and gen chemistry courses multiple times, so I decided to major in East Asian Studies instead. I was that major for a while after I transferred from community college, but then in my last year of university, I decided I wanted to add Japanese as a double major. However because there were two courses I needed to take that were required for each major (Japanese Linguistics for Japanese and East Asian Civilization: Japan for East Asian Studies) and both courses are offered only one quarter a year, I had to choose one, and since I was more interested in learning about Japanese linguistics, I ended up switching to a Japanese major. But since I was already on the Japan track in my previous East Asian Studies major, it wasn’t any different, and by the time I switched I had already knocked out 9/10 of the requirements for the major.