3 Questions to Ask Yourself When Trying to Choose Your College Major

3 Questions to Ask Yourself When Trying to Choose Your College Major3 Questions to Ask Yourself When Trying to Choose Your College Major At this point in the academic year, college freshmen are largely settling into their routines. The initial flurry of activity that comes with living independently for the first time, establishing study routines and, lets be honest, partying, begins to slow down, and students start to think mora seriously about what they want to get out of their next four years. And the question at the top of many students minds is, What should I major in?Often, the best way to answer that question is with another question - or rather, a series of questions. If youre struggling to decide what you should study, ask yourself the followingCollege typically lasts only about four years - but your career will last you a lifetime. So when considering a particular field of study, its important to think about what kind of job opportunities it opens up after graduation.One Glassdoor study took a look at the most common jobs for college students, and the different majors associated with each. Here were the top fiveYou can also search keywords like entry-level or college graduate on Glassdoor to reveal tens of thousands of jobs, many of which list desired or required majors right in the description. For example, the listing for this Management Development Program position at Geico states that the company is looking for a Bachelors degree, preferably in Business or a related field. Youll likely find that certain majors like Computer Science will lead directly to specialized titles (such as Software Engineer , App Developer , Data Scientist , etc.) while more general majors like English or Psychology have less of a direct career path, and can lead to a variety of job opportunities (such as Sales Representative , Marketing Coordinator and Customer Service Manager ).Im a firm believer that salary shouldnt be the only thing you consider when deciding on a college major, but its certainly worth thinking about. After all, you need to be able to earn enough to cover your basic costs (and ideally, a little bit more).Hopefully, the exercise in the first section of this article helped you identify a few different job titles that correspond with the majors youre interested in. If so, you can search salaries for those jobs on Glassdoor. For example, a salary search for Public Relations Coordinator - a great career option for those studying Communications - reveals that the average base pay is $60,474.Glassdoor also conducted research into what different majors tend to pay - here were the five most lucrative we identifiedAs you can see, science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) majors dominated the list, but other majors such as Nursing, Economics, Architecture and Business also made the cut.Call it sappy, but as somebody who majored in more creative fields (English and Spanish for the win), I really believe that people should study what theyre interested in. If you find yourself particularly drawn to a certain field - be it photography, data science , anthropology or anything else - theres no better time than college to explore it. Even if you decide not to major in it, you can always pursue your passion as a minor, or just take a few classes in it. Otherwise, you might regret not learning more about what interests you while you had the chance. You dont necessarily stop learning once you enter the working world, but you usually dont have easy access to formal classes and expert professors on nearly every topic imaginable, like you do in college.Not quite sure what youre passionate about? Dont worry - theres nothing wrong with that Taking a wide variety of classes that satisfy your general education requirements can help you figure out what you like and what you dont. You can also meet with your academic advisor to brainstorm a few ideas.Choosing a major is a big deci sion - probably one of the biggest ones youll make in your first couple of years in college. But even though making big decisions can be stressful, you shouldnt worry too much. As long as you ask yourself the right questions and do your research, youll be able to find the college major thats right for you. Remember theres no one single path to success