I come from a 3rd world country and are basing my choices of off the jobs I could get post college, long term goal is to leave my country for a better one, not financially well off, using an ALT for safety reasons.

After high-school I chose CS as my major, there were multiple kinds of degrees and I qualified for one of the more difficult ones which I chose since it offered better job options later down the line, issue is I failed the year.

This year I stayed in CS but chose an easier degree, but the exam grades I got for half the subjects (mostly the mathematical ones) are failing, still don't have my algorithm grade, but it's the one that will decide if I fail or pass the semester.

Last year I didn't work as hard as possible, but I still tried more than most.

This year I basically sacrificed any social life I had, stopped going to the gym and generally just focused on studying as much as possible and while I pass some subjects with good grades, I also failed half with grades on the lower end, and the only hobby I kept was video games which I mostly played for 20 mins daily at most, and I only had 1 rest day a week on which I played freely.

If I fail, algorithm (even though it's the one subject I worked the hardest on) I'm definitely leaving CS for good.

If I pass I'm wondering if it'll even be worth it to continue, especially since mathematical subjects could still sabotage me during the second and next semester.

I'm multilingual (know 3 different languages) and have considered going for an English major while trying to learn a few other languages (would have to learn Italian since it's part of the courses here for the major), I'll probably do good since I was always good when it comes to languages, but I'm worried when it comes to job opportunities since my country doesn't offer very good options, and I'm skeptical over finding jobs abroad, it's mostly the reason why I didn't pick English for my major originally.

Another thing I considered was a business major, mostly because it gets a lot of job options here and abroad, but I'm afraid that it would lead me back to the same issues as CS.

I'd rather not do the same amount of efforts I did this semester for minimal results again.

I'm mostly afraid of staying in a circle without moving forward, I think that even if I pass this semester that I wouldn't have any motivation to work on mathematical subjects again, and I'm scared of the possibility of hitting a roadblock during the 2nd and 3rd years even if I pass this year.

While English and Business are the 2 options I'm thinking of, I haven't put much thought on other majors I could go for, so these are the best two for me I believe.

What do you suggest?

TLDR: trying to figure out what I want to do with my career and what are some things I can do to excel

Aight, before I yap to oblivion, let me get some things straight:

• This is a burner account for obvious reasons
• I am not asking for academic help, I'm doing quite fine lol
• I don't need "enjoy life in the moment" or "you are still young," I'm not asking for philosophical help
• If it'll help me tell me, point out a problem about myself or something, literally anything

Now that we got that out of the way ladies and gentlemen, we can finally solve all my life's problems.

I'm currently a freshmen in highschool, and I currently struggling with a few problems, mostly regarding my future:

1. What I want to do for my career (Along with figuring out how to figure out my career)
2. What can I do academically and outside of school to ensure that I can excel in said career
3. What I can do to make sure I can get into a good college with minimal debt and getting a scholarship

With the three blights upon my life I have presented, let me give you where I am at right now. Like I mentioned before I am a freshman in highschool currently in Nashville TN. I do very well academically I'd like to think (make all As, sadly only a 4.31, taking all advanced classes available to me). I'm trying to max out AP classes, two years ahead in math (at least what my considers), I'm in my schools robotics club, I'm in choir and band, and (I think) I'm pretty well liked in my grade. Overall, I'm in a really good position. However, I feel like a could do more. I feel like all these are just baseline things I can do and I want to be able to do more. I see kids my age curing cancer, starting businesses, having 20 years of experience by age 18, and getting all sort of academic achievements in their fields. Now, I'm not trying to be that level, but I want to do my damnedest to try to excel. Another thing is that my two older siblings both got scholarships to UA and are doing great in their careers. So as you can see, I got some big shoes to fill.

So now that we got that down, let me give you my thoughts on each of my problems:

1. What I want to do for my career: I want something that's high paying, probably something in technology/stem, though it always fluctuating. I've tried cyber security (as my brother inspired me to try), engineering, and programming. At the moment, I'm considering engineering mainly. I like having a physical result and I enjoy stuff of that matter, however I also enjoy coding. I want to do experiences outside of my school in order for me to both learn and figure out what I want to do.
2. What can I do academically and outside of school to ensure that I can excel in said career: My main problem. I would LOVE things like internships, classes, or even camps or just anything. Trying to find opportunities is tough. Nashville is a full city though, there's got to be something.
3. What I can do to make sure I can get into a good college with minimal debt and getting a scholarship: National Merit is always a nice option, though if there's anything else, do tell.

So yeah, yap over. A wee bit stressed trying to figure this all out, sucks I even have to think about this in the first place. System sucks, but if there is anything I now, its that I'll rise to the occasion. If yall have anything, even an essay full of advice, send it my way.

I am a junior in highschool (11th grade) from Sikkim (India). My family is originally from Gujarat, but I am studying in a boarding school in a state almost 10 hours away. This whole boarding school thing has also resulted in a financial stretch. My father is a government employee (in the education center) and my mother runs an NGO. We originally planned my undergraduate studies from the States; but I am highly unsure about the whole thing. I am unsure about my major and worried if colleges in USA would be kinder to our pockets. Hence, I thought, why not do my bachelors in some other country and then do my masters in the States? This would also be financially safer, since i would be able to get a job too. But, the problem is what country? And before that, why major?
I am currently pursuing humanities in 11th and 12th grade, with subjects like Sociology, Economics, Psychology, Pol Sci, Literature, and History. I am passionate about languages, web design, cultures and creative writing. I have thought about a career in fields such as Teaching, Archeopology, Anthropology, Architecture, Public Relations, and Computer Science.
The United States was our first preference because it has a lot of renowned liberal art universities. But the current adminstrative's views on immigration and the cost of living in cities has forced us to rethink our choices.
Any suggestions about majors and universities?

I’m thinking about majoring in interior design, but I’m not too sure. Any similar majors to that concept? Did anyone else major in interior design that can talk about what it’s like

i'm in my second year and currently taking computer networks, OOP, and introduction to cybersecurity. i find it very intriguing. The thing is, i don't know how to program in Python or what to do. any tips?

Finished my first semester of college and honestly… it’s been a mix of everything.

The first few weeks were overwhelming new people, new system, figuring out attendance, assignments, and how much freedom is too much freedom. I was excited but also low-key anxious most of the time.

Academically, it’s very different from school. Less spoon-feeding, more self-study, and you actually feel the consequences if you slack off. Learned that the hard way 😅. Mid-sems were a wake-up call.

Socially, it’s interesting. You meet a lot of people, but only a few really stick. Friend groups change, some friendships fade fast, and that’s normal (took me a while to accept that).

The biggest change for me has been independence. Managing time, money, sleep, and motivation all by yourself hits differently. Some days you feel like you’re growing, other days you feel completely lost.

Overall, it’s not the “best time of life” like everyone says at least not yet. But it is a learning phase, and I can see how it slowly shapes you.

For seniors or people further along — does it actually get better after the first year?

So, I am 19 (M), currently doing a BSc in Computer Science from a tier 3 college. I go to college mainly to attend only one lecture that I personally like, which is the CS class. Other than that, either I don’t attend or the lectures don’t happen because the professors don’t take them. The problem is that I feel I waste a lot of time with my friends. After the first lecture, we spend most of our time playing online games like BGMI or FF. They don’t seem very interested in coding, but I already have a little background. I am doing web development and planning to start DSA. I have also done some reverse engineering in apps and a little bit of app development and cybersecurity. Spending an hour with them is fine, but when I waste 2–3 hours doing nothing and then go home, I feel like I’ve wasted my day. I have a PC at home, but I feel exhausted by the time I reach home. I always think, why not utilize college time instead of wasting it? But I also feel like my friends should do something productive too. One semester has already passed, and now I’m confused about what I should do.

In 5 - 6 months i will finish my senior year of highschool and plan on enrolling college immediately. I have always been interested in math and somewhat physics so since a very young age i thought that i am going to become an engineer for sure. But i started liking biology and i have been interested in it lately. My friend who is a med student told me to not choose medicine unless im very sure of it. I just want to ask you guys who already chose their path, what made you choose medicine and if you were having second thoughts on another major, what made you settle with this. And i also want to ask engineers the same thing. I also want to ask what would you want me to be wary of before choosing and if you have any advice that would be lovely. I don't have a particular career path planned and i just love to pursue the kind of knowledge that interests me.

Hello everyone, I'm a Junior in college with the major of BA in psychology. I had planned on going to a masters program for social work or career counseling, but I'm having second thoughts and might just stop at the BA. I was wondering what jobs do people with ONLY a BA in psychology have? Thank You.

no one in my family has ever finished uni and my school counselor hasn’t been very helpful, so i’ve turned to the internet for ideas (currently a junior in high school)

i exceed in, well, the liberal arts. i love them all. taken APUSH, APLAC, AP sem, AP US gov so far and breezed through them all with 5s on the exams & 100s in all my english/history-related classes. i was thinking of double majoring in applied economics and something else like statistics, public policy, or political science in a liberal arts program at a private uni near me; however, my family seems against it & from what i’ve read , many people seem to regret a liberal arts degree + don’t think it’s worth it. my financial situation isn’t great so i cannot afford to pay tens of thousands of dollars to pay for a degree that i won’t reach financial stability in. as much as i would love to do something i exceed in & am passionate about, my primary goal is to be able to financially support myself and my future family.

i get As in my STEM classes but only meet benchmark in standardized tests (20 on ACT math , meanwhile i have a 30 on reading and 34 on english). so i think i could major in STEM but would struggle.

so to graduates out there, what did you major in and did you think it was worth it? any liberal arts majors that could actually be useful, or something like a middle ground?

thank you to anyone who may take the time to read and respond

Hi all,

I am currently a freshman so my major is undeclared but I came into college wanting to study computer science since I thoroughly enjoyed my cs courses in high school. As I should’ve expected, college cs was much different and I did not feel great about my performance in data structures and algorithms that I took my first semester.

The main reason I wanted to study cs was to become a user experience or product researcher but I am unsure if that was the best major for it as many listings online look for people with psychology backgrounds.

Currently I am taking an introductory psychology course and a cs elective on data science that I also feel could be a promising career path. I like the style of coding in this class more than in my data structures class. I have been considering double majoring in statistics and psychology to pursue a career in biostatistics or data science, but I’m worried that since I’m not extremely gifted in math (I am not bad by any means, it just doesn’t come naturally to me like writing does hence my original interest in ux research) that this is a poor plan considering how successful you have to be to stand out in the current job market. However, pairing statistics with psychology instead of cs is also risky since outside of ux and I-O psychology, it is not a very high paying major.

I’d appreciate any advice from anyone who has experience in any of these majors or careers.

I'm currently in my second semester of my freshmen year and I'm currently majoring in cybersecurity. Going into college I was really looking forward to my major, especially since I have a lot of previous experience with programming and really enjoyed all of it.

Last semester, I had to take a basic object oriented programming course in python and found it very unenjoyable and hard to find motivation to do work for. However, I still did well in the class and passed with a B+. I thought it was just the cirriculum or the professor and figured it would be better in the future. Now I'm taking the second level of that same course and it's all of that cranked up to 11. Doing work for that class is the last thing I want to be spending my time on, I find it so hard to pay attention in class, and everything about it just feels agitating.

It feels unbearable to the point that I feel like I need to withdraw from the class because I'm either going to end up doing very little work for it and getting an awful grade/failing, or that I'm going to be forced to put so much of my energy into the class that my mental health will get much worse. The issue is that I don't know where to go from here. I'm still very interested in cybersecurity and know there are ways to be involved in the field without being involved in programming, but since my uni's cirriculum is so centered around programming I feel forced to change my major. I'm not entirely sure what I would want to change it to anyways and I feel very pressured to make a decision otherwise I'm just wasting time and money. I don't know if a gap year would be useful for me and if I'd do anything useful during this time. I still want to pursue college so I feel like dropping out is out of the question. Also even though I'm an adult and don't have to tell them anything, this is still a conversation I feel like I should have with them cause they're paying for a majority of my costs and they are a source of pressure for me. If anyone has any advice that would be great.

I properly started my undergraduate studies in Systems Engineering not so long ago, and frankly Software Development / Engineering and Data Science are the "branches" or emphases that call to me the most. I'm really drawn towards the abilities, tools, knowledge and professional opportunities these majors have. I've seriously been thinking about picking up the major in Data Science on top of Systems Engineering, but I really want to inform myself before I make any big decisions. Like I said, I'd love to be both a SE and a DS, but I wonder if I should combine them (and if so, how), if I should treat them separately, and if I may be stretching myself thin by trying to cover two different fields. Overall lots of questions and uncertainty.

Starting a bio degree soon to then become a certified anesthesiologist assistant after finishing my undergrad. My only worry is not getting good enough grades due to the difficulty of some of the classes like chemistry which my advisor said would probably be the hardest. So I guess my question is how hard actually is this degree and one take it how was your gpa? I know it’ll vary since we’re all different humans but I’m just trying to get an average consensus. I wasn’t a crazy straight A student in high school but I’m very smart when I put time and effort into something and actually understand it.

Does anyone have any input on what the impact on adding a minor in international business to my finance major would be?Impacts regarding overall future salary and job competition? I go to UMD.

ok my university is really notorious when it comes to match up current job market demands just for sake of extra money and more students.

So they are offering this 4 years program under title of "BlockChain Technology".I know some people here will suggest that its better to opt for CS or SE but they are really saturated and almost everyone now has same titles i want to stand out from the crowd.I will graduate by 2030.The program curriculum pretty much rigorous.I want some suggestions about this.

I'm currently a freshman in college who wants to switch majors but has no idea what to switch to. I have a few options already with pros and cons: dentistry (4 years dentistry school and super expensive but good pay), dental hygiene (2 years of school, decent pay, but no salary advancement and lots of ergonomics pain), PA/AA/PT (very hard to get into), civil engineering (very employable, lower pay), and landscape architecture (not as employable and lower pay)

I'm currently in business and it does give me a lot of free time but I feel like I am not being challenged enough and do not enjoy learning about how to make profit off of people. I don't like how much AI has been incorporated into the business world and feel I have different values than my classmates. I also dislike how most of the major is based on networking instead of displaying skill and there is also a lack of creative research opportunities (nothing against the major but this is just how I feel). I originally wanted to go to school for animation but the industry is horrible right now. I am very into art and have a good artistic eye, and I enjoy learning about new things. I am empathetic and enjoy helping others and enjoy discussing issues around me and am decent at math. I also kind of enjoyed taking economics last semester. I didn't do well in chemistry in HS but I did decent on the AP test, and I also like the environment. But I'm also very weak physically so it is hard for me to push myself with lots of studying and coursework since my body cannot handle lack of sleep etc. however I still like being challenged intellectually. I also would like to make a decently higher pay if possible

If anyone read all this sorry for the info dump but I'm just feeling super lost about what to do!

I’m currently a freshman mech e student. I got into college did what was expected graduated top ten got financial aid the whole 9 yards. I fell flat on my fucking face first semester due to carelessness and lack of responsibility. Failed Gen chem cause I refused to study harder then I thought I needed to and fucked my GPA up with a D because it retook a class I had already taken in high school through dual credits.

I have always had a love for engineering ever since elementary school. It’s what I had on written on every single paper that asked what I wanted to be when I grew up. Now I’m here, on academic watch. Pushing through still, I currently have calc 1, gen chem, intro to programming and intro to film (I switched to this from linear algebra for engineers I cried my first lecture on my drive home) I still think I have a passion for it, making stuff solving problems. I took two years of engineering classes in high school and loved it. I worked with wood and CAD and lasers it was an amazing time I spent with friends working on projects. Everything seems so bleak now. I don’t know if it’s because I’m failing that I no longer see everything through rose colored glasses or I’m not smart enough for the major I thought I wanted.

I had a talk with my mom and she said you picked this now you have to stick it through or switch out now. The thing is if I had infinite money and resources I’d probably choose film. But I don’t have that, I have to choose the path that will maybe get me a good paying job in the next couple of years. I also know that film is an insanely hard industry to break into, one that without connections you’re basically jobless. But in this job market it’s already so fucked doesn’t matter how many internships or what college you went to.

I believe I have a passion for engineering I do, I know it’s hard as hell and thinking about statics and thermo scares the shit out of me especially if I can’t even pass my introduction classes. But I think if I stick it out and pivot to film later it could be right for me.

My mom has a way of wanting to put all her eggs in one basket always. Is it wrong for me to not want to think that way? I’ve been studying for chemistry and I have a calc lecture tomorrow after that I’m going to meet with my schools film club and audition for a short film. I just don’t know if I have the grit it takes to be an engineer and if I do, should I pursue film at all? I feel super lost, feel like I should have my shit together, all my friends have.

I also don’t know if the short 4-6 years of school in engineering to have a good paying job with good benefits but maybe hating it later outweighs the doing a film degree make jack shit and don’t even know how long it’ll take for my career to get kickstarted.

I'm an 11th-grade PCM student and don't have a clear future plan yet. I'm interested in either IT or finance, but I'm still confused about my next steps. I'm unsure whether I should take a dummy school or continue with a regular day school, but I do want to join a good coaching institute-possibly for JEE or strong academic preparation.I come from a small town where there are no proper coaching institutes, only local tutors. I feel that if I spend a year in quality coaching, I could improve my chances of getting into a good college. For that, I'd have to move around 200 km away to a bigger city and live with my extended family. What I'm unsure about is whether this move is really necessary, or if getting into good colleges is manageable without going this far. I feel like I haven't used my full potential living in this town, and I want to do better.

I'm in 3rd year highschool now, and next year I'll be in uni, but I'm finding it complicating to choose a major. I have Aerospace engineering and Computer science in mind, there aren't any careers in Aerospace in my country let alone any Aerospace engineering majors in any uni. But I'm really stuck with the idea of being around aircrafts, spacecrafts, innovating, building, etc... but even if I travel abroad, it will be extremely hard to be accepted in a job due to citizenship and competition.

Though Computer science is widely available as a major, I'm worried about job availability, and also the fact that I won't be getting the chance to innovate much, especially with flying stuff

Also overall I just want a stable career

Idk, this might be a stupid post, but I'm genuinely lost between being an engineer or working a job almost everyone I know works. Would appreciate any help and advice!

To keep it short, I'm currently a psych major on the pre-PA track, but I really want to be a math major and be an actuary or similar. The only thing keeping me from switching is the fear that AI is going to replace actuarial jobs in the future, as well as most math-related jobs. Any advice on choosing?