Anonymous
Post 01/12/2025 18:39     Subject: Help my DD pick a major
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:She does NOT need a major!!! What she needs is a large university, not a small college, so that she can explore various pathways before settling into something she likes. She does not need to declare a major in most US institutions as a high school applicant. She will have to choose as a sophomore or junior.


Completely agree with this. Not a LAC. Big school. She might be excellent at going deep in a field, and producing research/case studies in STEM, lots of reading, lots of mental activity. For example she could explore
Pharmaceutical Marketing
Drug Safety
Engineering Innovation
Food Sciences
AI applications
Health Innovation

These are majors and minors that aren’t typically offered at LACs

Most of those aren't majors to begin with.
Anonymous
Post 01/12/2025 18:39     Subject: Help my DD pick a major
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:She does NOT need a major!!! What she needs is a large university, not a small college, so that she can explore various pathways before settling into something she likes. She does not need to declare a major in most US institutions as a high school applicant. She will have to choose as a sophomore or junior.


she needs a story though....


No she doesn't. wtf is wrong with you people?? She's a 16/17 yo kid, not a brand. Let her enjoy reading, sports, friends, her classes, and see what happens. The worst that comes of it when a coach asks her what she wants to major in is this response "I always assumed I'd do math/cs, but my heart is in reading and I'd love to also spend a lot of time in college exploring that. Your school is amazing for both, which is exciting for me!"


This. My ivy kid did essentially the same in their apps.
Anonymous
Post 01/12/2025 18:37     Subject: Help my DD pick a major
Anonymous wrote:Still in 11th, so there is time. She has always said she wants either Comp Sci or Math as a major. She's a 4th generation math major (I'm #3 lol)- but definitely no pressure there. She is great at math, too. But her passion is reading. Recently she said to me "I wish there was a job where I could read books all day". And I said, "sure, publishing". Her eyes went wide with excitement.

I think she's been so focused on STEM for a career that she hasn't truly thought about what she loves to do.

Any suggestions for advice I can give her?


Apply undecided to T30 privates: no need to apply as a certain major or get accepted into major at those, and they can sample many things and declare a major based on what they like at the end of sophomore year! Maybe it is true further down, too.
Anonymous
Post 01/12/2025 18:31     Subject: Help my DD pick a major
Publishing is woefully underpaid and you do not get to read books all day long. Come on, you make her sound like a dumb 12 yr old.

Stick to Math.
Anonymous
Post 01/12/2025 17:59     Subject: Help my DD pick a major
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I would go into college assuming that her major might change. I went to school with a lot of STEM majors who successfully switched to Humanities majors, or things like education or communications. I don't know anyone who successfully switched the other way, because the way STEM majors are structured often means you need to take certain courses up front, and because STEM majors are more likely to be restricted enrollment.

Given that, I'd research options for switching majors at the various colleges, and plan to do distribution requirements in majors she might be interested in early, but enroll as Comp Sci, or math in the beginning.

Dp, I also know a lot of STEM majors who realized halfway through they weren’t good at it, but stayed because of lost time. STEM builds on itself which can make it a lot more difficult to leave.


Halfway through — yes it’s hard to leave anything but freshman year when you realize your English distribution requirement is your favorite? It’s generally much easier to go CS to English and that time than the opposite.
Anonymous
Post 01/12/2025 17:54     Subject: Help my DD pick a major
Anonymous wrote:She does NOT need a major!!! What she needs is a large university, not a small college, so that she can explore various pathways before settling into something she likes. She does not need to declare a major in most US institutions as a high school applicant. She will have to choose as a sophomore or junior.


Completely agree with this. Not a LAC. Big school. She might be excellent at going deep in a field, and producing research/case studies in STEM, lots of reading, lots of mental activity. For example she could explore
Pharmaceutical Marketing
Drug Safety
Engineering Innovation
Food Sciences
AI applications
Health Innovation

These are majors and minors that aren’t typically offered at LACs
Anonymous
Post 01/12/2025 16:37     Subject: Help my DD pick a major
Anonymous wrote:But her passion is reading. Recently she said to me "I wish there was a job where I could read books all day". And I said, "sure, publishing". Her eyes went wide with excitement.

Any suggestions for advice I can give her?


I hope you advised her not to go into publishing unless she has a trust fund.
Anonymous
Post 01/12/2025 16:35     Subject: Help my DD pick a major
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:She does NOT need a major!!! What she needs is a large university, not a small college, so that she can explore various pathways before settling into something she likes. She does not need to declare a major in most US institutions as a high school applicant. She will have to choose as a sophomore or junior.


she needs a story though....


OP says she's a recruited athlete -- that's her story. She'll need rigor, grades and maybe test scores good enough to get into the school, but her sport is her EC's and her "story". She won't need more outside of those.
Anonymous
Post 01/12/2025 16:33     Subject: Re:Help my DD pick a major
Like reading fiction? Yeah, we’d all love to not have to actually work.

I started out in publishing. It’s a rough job and has much less security than most careers. It’s one of those jobs that’s super cool when you haven’t done it, but ultimately very bureaucratic and toxic. Id take being a policy analyst and reading boring agricultural policy papers over publishing.
Anonymous
Post 01/12/2025 16:27     Subject: Help my DD pick a major
Does she like to read, period, or just fiction books? Because those are two different things.
Anonymous
Post 01/12/2025 16:14     Subject: Help my DD pick a major
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:She does NOT need a major!!! What she needs is a large university, not a small college, so that she can explore various pathways before settling into something she likes. She does not need to declare a major in most US institutions as a high school applicant. She will have to choose as a sophomore or junior.

She needs a medium sized university that doesn’t have crazy requirements for transferring majors.


^ +1

OP, publishing, around here, means working for an association, larger nonprofit or government agency that you probably didn't initially have a passion for. Reading all day sounds great, but if you're reading about asphalt mixes or fertilizer policy all day... My spouse does something like that but it's not for everyone.
Anonymous
Post 01/12/2025 15:33     Subject: Help my DD pick a major
Anonymous wrote:She does NOT need a major!!! What she needs is a large university, not a small college, so that she can explore various pathways before settling into something she likes. She does not need to declare a major in most US institutions as a high school applicant. She will have to choose as a sophomore or junior.

She needs a medium sized university that doesn’t have crazy requirements for transferring majors.
Anonymous
Post 01/12/2025 15:32     Subject: Help my DD pick a major
Anonymous wrote:I would go into college assuming that her major might change. I went to school with a lot of STEM majors who successfully switched to Humanities majors, or things like education or communications. I don't know anyone who successfully switched the other way, because the way STEM majors are structured often means you need to take certain courses up front, and because STEM majors are more likely to be restricted enrollment.

Given that, I'd research options for switching majors at the various colleges, and plan to do distribution requirements in majors she might be interested in early, but enroll as Comp Sci, or math in the beginning.

Dp, I also know a lot of STEM majors who realized halfway through they weren’t good at it, but stayed because of lost time. STEM builds on itself which can make it a lot more difficult to leave.
Anonymous
Post 01/12/2025 15:22     Subject: Help my DD pick a major
Anonymous wrote:What ECs does she have? What jobs? What research?

How competitive of school is she looking for?


OMG she does NOT need research in 11th grade. Don’t fall for this private college coach scam, OP.
Anonymous
Post 01/12/2025 15:03     Subject: Help my DD pick a major
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:She does NOT need a major!!! What she needs is a large university, not a small college, so that she can explore various pathways before settling into something she likes. She does not need to declare a major in most US institutions as a high school applicant. She will have to choose as a sophomore or junior.


she needs a story though....


No she doesn't. wtf is wrong with you people?? She's a 16/17 yo kid, not a brand. Let her enjoy reading, sports, friends, her classes, and see what happens. The worst that comes of it when a coach asks her what she wants to major in is this response "I always assumed I'd do math/cs, but my heart is in reading and I'd love to also spend a lot of time in college exploring that. Your school is amazing for both, which is exciting for me!"