Free Resource

Choosing Your Major & Career Path

Choosing your major is possibly the biggest decision you face as a high school student. It is an even bigger decision than where you go to college.

The Real Cost

What Happens When You Decide Late

Mr. Chan learned this lesson the hard way. His experience is why he pushes every student to figure this out as early as possible.

When Mr. Chan started college, his mother told him to become a pharmacist. He said, “Sure” — big money, at least back in those days. But he did not know the real aspects of what being a pharmacist was all about. He blindly pursued a career he had almost no knowledge of.

He was lucky enough to meet a friend whose sister was a pharmacist. After asking her a series of questions, he realized: “Wow. That does not fit my personality, my lifestyle.” So he continued with his chemistry major, thinking he would climb the academic ladder — get a master’s, then a PhD, become a professor. But again, he was just blindly following the steps without knowing his true motivation.

Things did not turn out well. He got C’s and D’s. He retook biochemistry four total times. He got a D in physical chemistry. It was at the end of his third year in college that he finally realized he wanted to be a teacher.

Extra Time

1 Full Year

Extra Tuition

International Rate

Lost Income

Opportunity Cost

Because of his late realization, Mr. Chan spent five total years in college — one extra year of expensive international-student tuition, one extra year of living expenses, and the opportunity cost of the salary he could have earned if he had graduated on time.

This is the real reason I keep reminding students: the earlier you can figure this out, the better it is going to be. Try your very best to find at least a tentative direction and pursue it. See if you are into it. If not, change it.

The Priority

Major First, Then College

A lot of students get the order wrong. They say, “I want to go to my dream college,” but they miss the most important thing: what do you want to pursue? What major do you want?

The reason it matters so much to figure out your major before your college is that different colleges have different specialties. Some have very strong backgrounds in one or two particular areas. For that major, even if the college’s overall ranking is not that high, you might still want to apply there.

For instance, UT Austin is known for engineering, computer science, and business. But if you want to study history or liberal arts, you might look elsewhere. If you are pursuing music, you might consider University of North Texas. For art, schools like Rhode Island School of Design or Pratt. For a teaching-focused experience, Trinity University in San Antonio — a school that does not appear in typical top-50 rankings because it does not offer research-based PhD programs, yet its graduates say nothing but good things because the professors are dedicated entirely to teaching and student learning.

Do not start with the college name. Start with what you want to study. Then find the colleges that are best for that field. The order matters.

Group 1

If You Know Your Major: Seek Confirmation

You think you know what you want to pursue. Now ask yourself the hardest question: what is the real reason?

Is it because of the money, or because of the work itself? Ask yourself what is the most intrinsic motivation pushing you toward that major or career path. If your reason is not strong enough, not genuine enough — if your reason is your parents — Mr. Chan has bad news: you might not enjoy your future, and you might realize it pretty soon.

When your aspiration does not match your actions, people can tell. Your resume will not speak truth. Your college essay will not stand out. Things happen naturally when you genuinely love something — and when they do not, the absence is obvious.

Two low-cost, high-reward actions to confirm your path:

Read the must-read books. Search Google for what books your intended major recommends. Find one or two and read them. If you genuinely want to be in that field, the reading should be enjoyable and engaging. If it is not, that is an indicator.
Browse the subreddit. Go on Reddit and find the subreddit related to your career path. Read what people say about career opportunities, daily work, and the realities of the profession. If your major is different from your parents’ profession, you probably have limited knowledge about what the work actually looks like — this is how you fix that.

If you know what you want to be, seek confirmation. You need it. The earlier, the better. ASAP.

Group 2

If You Have No Clue: Start Here

You are still seeking direction. No problem — but there are real consequences to being undecided when you apply.

Some colleges require you to declare a major when you apply. UT Austin, for example, requires it — and changing your major internally once accepted can be very challenging. You may need a minimum number of credit hours, a strong GPA, and other requirements. If you get stuck in a major you do not like, your performance drops, your GPA suffers, and transferring becomes even harder.

Other universities, like the University of Chicago, let you take general courses first and declare a major by the end of your second year. Know which type of school you are applying to, and plan accordingly.

If you truly have no direction, try the Holland Code Test.

Holland Code (RIASEC) Test

A personality-based questionnaire that helps you discover what career paths fit you best. Mr. Chan took it himself — his top results were all about teaching. “Usually I have some skepticism for these questionnaires,” he says. “But this one is so darn accurate.”

Take the Test

Also understand your personality. Are you a people-to-people person, or someone who prefers working with documents and minimal human interaction? Mr. Chan is definitively the former: “If I don’t talk, I would die. That’s the reason I’m doing these podcasts.” Knowing this about yourself narrows the field significantly.

Picking a major is ultimately a question about how well you know yourself. If you know yourself, pursue your path. If you do not, use these tools to find out — and make up your mind as early as possible.

Advanced Academics

Should You Double Major or Minor?

It is a very common question. Here is Mr. Chan’s advice for students considering this option.

Rule 1: Only if it will not delay your graduation. If a double major or minor adds an extra year, it is not worth it. You could spend that year in graduate school instead — earning a master’s degree, learning something more specialized, and producing a far better outcome on your resume than a second bachelor’s major ever would.

Rule 2: It does not automatically make you sharper on a job application. A double major may give you a slight advantage, but it is not directly proportional to the effort. Ultimately, it is about your ability to perform tasks. If you have a second major but cannot do the job, the major does not matter.

Rule 3: If your second interest is not professional, keep it as a hobby. If you love music but are pursuing a business degree, ask yourself: am I pursuing music on a professional path? If not, save the time. Focus on your primary degree and treat music as a serious hobby. Nobody cares about the title on your diploma — they care about your ability. If you are capable, they will know.

Thought Experiment

Two job applicants take the same aptitude test and score identically. One has a double major. The other has a single major. The test includes multidisciplinary content that the double major should know and the single major would not typically study.

Mr. Chan would hire the single major. Why? Because if the single-major candidate knows as much as the double-major candidate, it means they went beyond their comfort zone to pursue knowledge on their own. That signals a stronger internal motivation — and that is exactly the kind of person you want to hire.

Mr. Chan’s own experience confirms this. He has a chemistry degree and a master’s in science education with a specialty in environmental science. No one has ever questioned or asked about the details. They just want to know: can you do the job?

It does not really matter if you are doing a double major or single major. It is about you knowing your task, knowing what you are capable of in the future career market. Having a double major is slightly better, but it does not speak the volume that one would expect.

A Deeper Look

Why This Decision Feels So Hard

Mr. Chan has spent over 10 years searching for an explanation for why modern students struggle with decisions their parents and grandparents seemed to make without hesitation.

The answer, he believes, lies in something called evolutionary mismatch. When humans were hunter-gatherers, there was only one job: survive. Find food. Find shelter. Every day was a life-or-death situation, and there was no choice but to act.

Fast-forward to today. Most students Mr. Chan works with are comfortable. Their job is to go to school, study, and get good grades. They are not fighting for survival — and their genetics have not changed to match these new circumstances. The result: all that energy that used to drive survival now goes elsewhere — phones, games, distractions — and the pressure to act decisively simply is not there.

This is why older generations say young people “cannot endure.” It is not that students are less capable. It is that they do not face the same survival pressure that forced earlier generations to commit to a path and follow through. Without that pressure, we tend to be less decisive — and that is exactly why choosing a major, a college, and a career path feels so paralyzing.

For Mr. Chan, his own decision to become a teacher was close to a life-or-death situation: he needed a path to stay in the United States. When that kind of pressure exists, you make up your mind. When it does not, you drift — and drifting on someone else’s advice leads to a dead end.

You cannot simply go for a major because somebody said so. You have to choose your path from your own interest. You have to find a good fit between your path and your own personality, your values. If there is a mismatch, sooner or later you will find yourself at a very low point.

Take the Pressure Off

It Is a Five-to-Ten-Year Plan

This is not a life decision. Your choice of major and career path right now is a plan for the next five to ten years — no more. There will be changes. Mr. Chan decided to be a chemistry teacher, but he also became an environmental science teacher, a math teacher, and now gives advice on college applications. The path evolves.

When you make a decision, it should be based on the best information you have gathered. When you get more information, feel free to adjust. But try not to make drastic changes — those come with costs in time and money.

If you have no idea what job title you will have in the future, that is fine. The jobs you may hold might not even exist right now. Focus instead on the skill sets you need:

Logical thinking and critical thinking
Basic understanding of design and multiple perspectives
The ability to listen to and learn from people in different professions
Self-directed learning — the more you know, the better it is going to be

Get the big direction right. Then, as you move along the path, narrow down step by step. Focus on skills. The job title could be different, but the skills are going to be the same.

Your decision must come from you, deep down, very honestly. You cannot lie to yourself. You cannot say, “I will just keep going and see how it works.” That is usually not going to end well.

Pitfalls

What Students Get Wrong

Patterns Mr. Chan has observed over years of teaching and advising students on their college and career decisions.

Choosing a college before choosing a major.

The dream school is not the starting point. Start with what you want to study, then find which colleges are strongest in that field. A school that is not in the top 50 overall could be the best place in the country for your specific major.

Pursuing a major because your parents told you to.

Mr. Chan’s mother told him to be a pharmacist. He had no real knowledge of what the career involved. He blindly followed the advice, struggled through college, retook biochemistry four times, and did not find his true path until his third year. The decision must come from your own interest, not from someone else’s expectations.

Never researching what the profession actually looks like.

If your intended major is different from your parents’ profession, you probably have very limited knowledge of what the daily work involves. Read the recommended books. Browse the relevant subreddits. Talk to people in the field. Mr. Chan did not know what being a pharmacist or a chemist really meant until it was almost too late.

Treating the decision as permanent and freezing up.

This is a plan for the next five to ten years, not a life sentence. You will make adjustments as you learn more. The goal is to get the big direction right and narrow down from there. Focus on building skill sets rather than fixating on a specific job title that may not even exist yet.

Assuming a double major will make you more competitive.

A double major offers a slight advantage at best. Employers care about your ability to perform tasks, not the number of majors on your diploma. If a double major delays your graduation by a year, that year would be better spent earning a master’s degree.

Ignoring how difficult it can be to change majors after enrollment.

At some universities, internal transfers between colleges require minimum credit hours, a strong GPA, and additional requirements. If you get stuck in a major you do not enjoy, your performance drops, making the transfer even harder. Research the policies of any school you are considering before you commit.