Choosing a Major that Fits You

Should you worry about what major you choose?

Students often talk to advisors about choosing the right major. Consider this statement from Academic Advising News:

The fact is that there is little connection between academic majors and future career paths among non-technical majors. A look at alumni employment surveys...indicates that titles of the graduates' majors bear little relationship to either their entry level work or subsequent employment. Even among the more vocationally oriented majors such as accounting, nursing, and engineering, where there is a greater correspondence between major and career, graduates may ultimately take a variety of career paths in management, sales, personnel and consulting which only indirectly utilize their major course background. Further, no one major, whether liberal arts, technical or business, guarantees that a graduate will obtain a certain job in a certain field or continue indefinitely with that job. It is, after all, individuals who are employed, not majors.  (Marianne Ehrlich, Univ. of Delaware, in Academic Advising News, Vol. 14, No. 4, Sept. 1992, p. 1)

Majors can lead to various careers...careers develop from various majors. Many individual department webpages include information about careers and graduate school options.  Majors and careers helps you see possibilities including:

   *What is a typical day like at xxx job?
   *What is the salary?
   *Are jobs available?
   *And much, much more

The Career Center has great resources to learn about your interests, values and skills. Putting these pieces together helps you choose a career path that fits you, so explore the possibilities!

You can also explore possible majors by running a 'What If Analysis' through Web for Student . In your CAPP report, you can change your major (unofficially) to re-sort your courses to see how your courses work in the new major AND see courses needed to finish that major.  Read course descriptions of what you need - Can you imagine yourself taking these courses?  Do these interest you?  This information can help you clarify if that major is a good fit.

Talking with advisors, family and professionals in that area about your ideas can add to clarification.  Volunteering, internships, job shadowing also give you actual experience.  More great ways to make the right choice!

Please contact Camille Girardi-Levy (girardi@siena.edu), Director of Academic Advising, with any questions regarding this page.