I don’t know how I feel about anything…much less college, but I am trying to figure out what I’d like to potentially do. I’ve made a list of things I’d like to learn. It doesn’t have to be from college necessarily but these are just things off my bucket list:
1.) Public Speaking Skills
2.) Trading and Investing Stocks
3.) Coding and Programming
4.) Economy
5.) Finance
6.) Building things
I’m still trying to decide what I want to do with my life. This is basically a summary of the three main things I’d like to learn/participate in before I die:
First, is to work for the stock exchange. I just think it’d be so cool to work with stocks and trading and the economy, but I also know that I can’t do this because I am more interested in personally trading and investing in stocks and if I am working in the stock exchange, I can’t legally invest in stocks for personal gain.
Second, is to learn programming. I want to learn how to build apps, and code and be able to manipulate computers to do what I want. I want to be able to create apps that help a whole bunch of people, and really show people the power of technology when utilized in a beneficial manner.
Third would be to learn how to build things. I’m not really that good at math or at science, but I would like to learn how to build and create things. I have had a few ideas for inventions that I think are really great (I may be biased on that one), but I really honestly do think that they would benefit the world. I would like to one day open up my own business and become an entrepreneur after learning how to build my ideas. That’s my ultimate dream in life.
So basically, I’m not sure if I want to try and do a double major with a minor and just be done with college after undergrad, or if I want to do a regular major and maybe a minor and then go to graduate school. I also don’t know if I want to go to law school or business school after graduating from undergrad or if I should even do both.
tl;dr: I want to learn how to work with stocks/economy, learn programming/coding, and how to build inventions so I can eventually open up my own business and have a solid foundation. What are some good majors that you would suggest?
I can do a double major with a minor, a major and minor, just a double major or just a minor. I want to try to go to UIUC BTW if that helps at all.
Life is a long time, although you’re focused on the next couple years. You go to college, you start taking classes in areas you never thought of, and you find even more things that interest you. You don’t have to major or minor in all of them in college. Nor do you have to have a career in them. But you maintain your interests in them on and off throughout the remainder of your life. You don’t have to plan it all out now, and college doesn’t have to provide you with a foundation in them if you look at the rest of your life as one opportunity after another to educate yourself.
Yes, I’m deliberately avoiding answering your request for a specific answer because I think that’s what you need to hear at this point. Enjoy all your interests in college, and one or two will swim to the top by the end of sophomore year. That could be trouble if you “always wanted to go to business or engineering school” and your school has tight requirements about admission to business or engineering, but it doesn’t mean you cannot get an MBA or ME later on.
Entrepreneurs often have some specialty knowledge such as bioscience, electronics or software engineering. These days you hire lawyers and accountants to organize the companies, engineers to make the product work, designers to make it market ready and then you use contract manufacturing and packaging.
It’s a big world out there with lots of things that are made and sold and it’s difficult to answer this because it’s so broad, so I will distill it down to;
Learn about something in school
Get a job and experience so you can learn how it’s really done.
What @jkeil911 said. You don’t have to major in anything specific to learn any of those things; an art history or philosophy major could take the appropriate coursework or even teach herself in her own time. Lots of students have learned to code/program, invest, and build things by trial and error/tinkering.
You also don’t have to think about double majoring and/or what combination you can do so you can learn all these things at once. The learning doesn’t end in college, and you don’t have to have it all figured out when you graduate (much less when you start). You will continue to develop your public speaking skills - and the rest, if you choose - as you grow through your career. I’m a much better presenter now at 28 than I was at 22 when I graduated from college, because it’s a skill I focused on developing as part of my own career preparation (which requires a lot of regular public speaking).
Consider majoring in computer science. Computing skills are very marketable; they apply to many different job sectors (including business & finance). CS problem-solving also is intellectually satisfying (for those who like it anyway).
As you get into your major (or before), talk to professors about getting involved in research projects. Many conferences are held every year related to CS research problems. Sometimes these create opportunities for student presentations of project findings. Seek out internships, too. IT professionals often need to report team progress to people who manage or finance their work, so public speaking & presentation skills can be very useful in this field.
Don’t neglect the personal and professional value of a broad liberal arts education, though.