Picking the Right College Major

I remember being on the fence in deciding my college major up until the summer leading into my senior year of high school. My choices were between Business Administration and Computer Science. In high school I was heavily involved in all things business with the classes I took and the clubs I participated in. My primary goal was to become an entrepreneur; however, the industry I wanted to start a business in was the tech industry. So, the question was, “Do I major in Business to learn how to start one a business, or do I major in Computer Science to learn how to create the product?”

The number one piece of advice that I give to every high school student, whether freshman or senior, is to discover what they want to do in life after college ASAP, or at least start thinking about it. Don’t just think about what to major in while in college, what do you want to get paid for post-college? What is it that you enjoy the most that will make you happy for the rest of your life that could be a possible career. The sooner you figure that out, the easier it will be to pick a major.

Every student has been asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I took that question seriously in the 8th grade. I loved my Geography class, so I wanted to be a weather man. I also loved traveling, watching sports, commenting on sports, and wanted to do something that allowed my to use my creativity. When I got to high school, I took a t.v. media class, but soon realized that I didn’t like the world of television broadcasting. Next, I knew I loved playing video games, and decided starting a video game company would be cool. I started researching how to start a video game company, and I started to discover terms like software engineer, computer science, CEO, and entrepreneur. We didn’t have a computer science class in high school, but we did have business classes and clubs, so I took and joined those.

Once I knew I wanted to be a tech entrepreneur, Business Administration and Computer Science became my remaining two options. In high school, I was inspired by teen aged entrepreneurs and the one thing they all had in common were that they knew how to code. Also, since I did not have a lot of money, I figure that learning how to code would free me from depending on someone else to build a product. I started learning how to build websites, and soon after, I realized I had discovered something new that I enjoyed. Computer Science became the obvious choice as my college major.