How the hell do I choose my major in college?!!!

Mastadon
Thu, 02 Nov 2017 17:50:29 +0000

The paradox of engineering education is that “you need to be an engineer in order to figure out what kind of engineer you want to be”.

The underlying problem of committing to a major before you have much information is actually common to all majors. The degree of difficulty of the problem does vary though, and it is directly related to the the number of graduation requirements associated with the various majors that are under consideration, and the extent to which the requirements overlap.

In your specific case, an accredited Civil Engineering degree has a large number of requirements because: the total number of courses required is high (often 5 per semester), the types of courses required are tightly specified, and the order in which courses are taken is tightly specified. The requirements for “Architecture” vary depending on whether it is an “Architecural Studies” degree or a accredited Architecture degree. “Veternarian Studies” is usually not a degree, but a minimum/recommended set of courses/activities that Vet schools require for admission (which can vary between Vet schools). The requirements associated with CS will tend to vary depending on whether it is an Engineering or Liberal Arts degree.

Here is a general approach to selecting a major that I have found valuable for both myself and my children.

The most important part of any decision is “deciding when to decide”.

In this case, there is value in trying to maximize the amount of information one can gather about each major before one makes the decision.

In essence, this is a “path optimization” problem where the goal is to try to keep a path to each degree open as long as possible, while attempting to schedule courses/activities that allow you to evaluate each degree option as early as possible.

In order to perform this path optimization, you need to gather the general graduation requirements for your school, the the requirements for each specific degree and any restrictions associated with declaring a particular major, or taking a particular course. In large universities these restrictions can be extensive because there can be hard boundaries between individual departments and/or schools/colleges within the university. Quite often, something called a “degree planning sheet” or an “example schedule of courses” is available for each major. Many schools will have advisers available to help. Some schools will have “pre professional” societies or clubs for people interested in a particular discipline/career paths. If your school does not offer student chapters of a professional society, then you can try to hunt down a local chapter. Don’t be shy, professionals are often eager to help.

After gathering the general degree related requirements, look for overlap and mutual exclusion (some combinations just may not be possible in a given time horizon). The next step is to try to put together your own “schedule of courses” for each option. In the cases where specific courses are required, make sure to consider what semesters/years the courses are offered (in small schools/departments courses may not be offered every semester, or a professor may go on sabbatical) and how difficult a course is to get into (sometimes declared majors get priority). One needs to repeat this process every semester before signing up for courses.

Typically, the best strategy is to behave like one is already committed to the degree with the most stringent requirements until one decides not to pursue it- all the while keeping as many other options open as possible. Each semester one may be faced with dropping a degree option, so it is good to plan for plenty of time for making course selections each semester.

Best of luck!

Here are some representative examples of documents/resources for degree planning.

Civil Engineering
http://students.tufts.edu/sites/default/files/BSCE2021-DegreeSheet.pdf
http://engineering.tufts.edu/cee/groups/
http://www.tuftsasce.org/

Architectural Studies (Pre Archiitecture)
http://students.tufts.edu/sites/default/files/AASDegreeSheetBSEAS2020.pdf
https://ase.tufts.edu/art/architecture/resources.htm

Pre Vet
https://sites.tufts.edu/tuftsprevetsociety/applying/general-requirements/

Computer Science