What is the major about? What classes are required for the major? How much flexibility do I have within the major and with my schedule?
Researching majors is one task that can help identify potential majors that best align with your needs and interests.
A Few Myths About Majors
Myths About Majors
Majors = Careers
The reality is you can study any major and pursue any career. It makes sense however, the more technical a field you're interested in, the more technical coursework you want to take. For example, it's hard to pursue an engineering job without an engineering degree. For most fields, you can study whatever you want and still pursue that career path. The reality is that most bachelor degrees are not teaching technical skills. You'll want to build on those through work, volunteer and internship opportunities.
I Have to Major in ... to Make Money
It may be true that computer science and engineering positions may pay more in general, but those fields only fit so many of us. Salaries for graduates within specific majors really vary greatly. It depends what you want to do for your career. If you want to make money in your field of study, you want to build skills you can market specifically for your field to be more successful.
I Can't Find a Job With This Major.
Most of the time, a major isn't the most important thing when it comes to finding a job. What's on your resume? How have you been building your skills and gaining experience towards whatever your career path is?
Given that these myths are false, we like students to go in with open minds about majors and to use these exercises to find a major that is the best fit for them.
You've already been exposed to a number of academic fields in high school and here at SF State. Complete this great gut check exercise to guide you in exploring what SF State majors might be a good fit.
At SF State, our majors are housed within 6 colleges. Identifying the college where your majors lie can assist you in narrowing your major options for additional exploration.
Click on each of the follow colleges and note the college which houses the types of majors you're most interested in.
SF State has many degree options. Hopefully the activities above helped narrow down your potential majors. These majors and what you learned or are about to learn about yourself in this first step are valuable in the decision making you'll be doing in a later step.
In some instances, students have a unique interest and/or academic goal that can't be met through one of SF State's majors or major/minor combinations, so they were able to develop a Special Major.
If you haven't completed Gathering Information - Getting To Know Yourself, select the first option below and complete that next. If you've completed that already, select Exploring - Research My Options below to continue to the next step.