I have an unusual situation choosing a major - advice?

College Majors
1

I’ll try to keep this as short as possible. I truly value and admire the insight this community has to offer and made an account for the sole purpose of posting this. I’m hoping someone could shed some light on my situation.

I’m a student pilot. I’ve been training for a year now at my community college, which I have been attending for 3 years. I’m on track to become a commercial pilot, but this requires that I earn a bachelor’s degree in any field I choose. I have a 3.7 GPA. My two lowest grades were C’s and they were both in math classes. I originally wanted to major in physics to compliment my career, but my poor math skills deterred me from this.

My passions lie in science and English. I absolutely adored and excelled in my marine bio, astronomy, criminology, psychology, first aid/emergency/CPR, and “investigating homicidal behavior” class. So mainly sciences which require little to no math. I have loved every English class I’ve ever taken. So I narrowed my options down to three majors along with the different universities I would apply to:

Psychology: UCLA, CSU-SLO, SFSU, UCD
English: UCLA, CPP, SFSU, UCSD, UCB (a reach), UCD
Geography + Environmental Science at UCLA

I’m severely lacking in knowledge regarding what my best route would be. I mean…severely. I enjoy them all the same but they also happen to be equally useless at the extent I would be taking them. Ideally, I would choose a major which best helps me in the real world alongside my piloting career. I’ve had someone tell me to do psychology because it “looks better.” I still don’t know how to feel about that remark.

In a perfect world, I’d like to finish my bachelor’s within 2 years of transferring. Is that even possible with any of these? Again, I’m ignorant on the subject and would love any input from this community. I don’t have a reliable advisor to turn to in my life, so am hoping to gain some knowledge from this!

Any insight would mean everything to me. Thank you so much in advance!

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Do you know whether any of the schools on your list could reasonably be called a “safety” with a 3.7 GPA? It looks like a somewhat optimistic list to me.

I would think you should pick the major that has the best chance of resulting in a career that you would like if the pilot thing doesn’t work out. My understanding is that a psychology degree would require a Master’s to lead to a career. I am not actually sure what people do with a degree in English or Geography.

3

Spend some time on assist.org to figure out which credits transfer. Then look at each major and see how many more courses are required.

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@AroundHere I’ve finished all of the required courses for both psychology and English. The only major I’d have to take classes for would be Geog/Env, but only 3 classes total. My question was regarding how long it usually takes after transferring - sorry for the confusion.

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@DadTwoGirls I’m not sure I would be accepted to any of them at all. It is definitely a hopeful list which I’d have to sort out closer to my transfer. From my understanding, all 3 of these majors require a Master’s to lead a career. But I’m confident in securing a career in the field of aviation even if the piloting plan does not come to fruition. Either way, I would not be pursuing any of the 3 further than a bachelor’s degree.

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My H was a psych major and didn’t pursue a masters. He went on to law school and has always said that his psych background has helped him with his legal career. Likewise, even if you don’t pursue a masters, the knowledge and insight you gain from psychology can help you deal with co-workers, supervisors, angry passengers and the like in whatever field you choose. If you do decide to be a psychologist, you will need graduate work.

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“He went on to law school and has always said that his psych background has helped him with his legal career.”

One of my daughters was interested in psychology at one point (plans have changed since). My comment at the time was that this would only be useful if she wanted to end up working in a career where there were people involved in any capacity (co-workers, employees, customers, patients, boss, or anything else). I have not yet figured out any career where this doesn’t apply.

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@techmom99 I’m so thankful for your response. This is exactly what I was thinking when I narrowed down my options. On one hand, psychology will help me understand a broad range of people in different situations, and on the other, English will strengthen my communication skills significantly. Your reply will definitely be at the forefront of my mind.

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@DadTwoGirls forgive me if I misinterpreted your response, but are you suggesting psychology would overall be the better choice in this case, regardless of how far I take the degree?

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How long it takes to graduate after transferring depends on how many credits you arrive with and how many required courses are left to go. This takes going through all your classes to see what transfers and through your potential majors to see how many classes are left. There’s no one answer.

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@AroundHere aaah, I see. I’ll begin pulling up the majors through each school’s catalog to see how many classes each will require after I transfer. Thank you!