Choosing a Major

Decisions about major and career choice can be both exciting and overwhelming. This page provides you with resources to help as you navigate this process. Self-discovery and personal reflection are a critical foundation for making these choices. You first have to understand who you are before you can make decisions about what you would like to do. Use this information about yourself to explore possible majors and careers of interest. Regardless of your major, you will develop essential skills applicable to many fields.

After this reflection and research, visit the Exploring Experiences page of our website. It provides information about engaging with opportunities and individuals to learn even more. Our Career Design team is happy to meet with you as you navigate this process.

"When students engage in [the] self-discovery process using interest assessments like Focus 2 to make a major selection, 61% of students stick with their chosen major."

-Focus 2

Attend the Career Exploration workshop, and other GOLD Workshops to provide you with guidance as you navigate the major and career exploration process.

Self-Discovery & Personal Reflection

Reflecting back on high school and college serves as the foundation for the learning of many competencies and success skills. These become critical components and factors throughout your personal and professional life. They defined personal identity, such as sense of humor, passion to learn, energy, commitment, and values. They helped enhance other individual aspects, such as creativity, imagination, and a willingness to take risks. College is a time for self-discovery, fun, and, of course, hard work. And self-discovery doesn't stop when you graduate. Life is a learning journey, and wisdom is one of the great outcomes of exceptional experiences, engaging relationships, and fantastic discoveries. *Please note: These resources are a starting point and designed to lead to additional conversation and exploration. All assessments are both valuable and limited. We encourage students to connect with our Career Design Center team to review and further discuss results.

Focus2

 guides students through a reliable, intuitive career & education decision-making model to help them choose majors offered at 麻豆传媒团队, explore occupations & make informed career decisions. To access your FREE account, click on the logo, then click the "register" button. Type in the access code "knight" and complete your registration. From there, you will be able to take different assessments and learn more about different careers and majors. 

16 Personalities

is a Personality Test and provides an accurate description of who you are and why you do things the way you do. This platform will also assist with understanding others and provide community group engagement.

Designing Your Career Process

is an interactive exploration tool created by the Yale University Office of Career Strategy. It applies design thinking principles to life and career decision-making.

Forage Career Quizzes

are an excellent wayfinding tool to use to get started with the self-discovery and personal reflection process.

VIA Character Strengths Survey

The is a free self-assessment that takes less than 15 minutes and provides a wealth of information to help you understand your best qualities. Must register to take the assessment.

 Consider how you would describe yourself:
Interests What do you enjoy?

Abilities

 What are you good at?

Experiences

 What types of activities have you engaged in?

Values

 What is important to you?

Personality

 What are your patterns of thinking, feeling, and behavior?

 

Consider Career Competency Areas

鈥淎 major does not equal a career. 鈥 Instead, a major translates into a set of skills upon which a career can be built.鈥 

~Santoro & Steward, 2015

Reflect On:

  • Which of the following career competency areas have you developed most to date?
  • Which areas do you have the greatest room for growth
  • How can you work toward developing these areas further?

NACE Career Competencies

  • Career & Self-Development
  • Communication
  • Critical Thinking
  • Equity & Inclusion
  • Leadership
  • Professionalism
  • Teamwork
  • Technology

World Economic Forum Top 10 Skills of 2023

  • Analytical Thinking
  • Creative Thinking
  • Resilience, Flexibility, and Agility
  • Motivation and Self-Awareness
  • Curiosity and Lifelong Learning
  • Technological Literacy
  • Dependability and Attention to Detail
  • Empathy and Active Listening
  • Leadership and Social Influence
  • Quality Control

From the 

To help you answer these questions and engage in a reflective exercise, check out the Career Competency Areas page of our website.

Explore Majors