ut to meet tons of new people and get your first taste of independence. You are finally going to live on your own ... even if that means sharing a 12' x 14' space with a roommate. And the best part is? You can stay out as late as you want to -- Even on a school night!With all these exciting things going on, it can be easy to forget other factors that will impact your college career. Like, say choosing a major. I remember going off to college and not really having a clue what I wanted to do. Who can be absolutely sure of the best use of their skill set at the tender age of 18?
I entered my freshman year with a business undecided major with the intention of choosing the details later. The more business classes I took, I realized that I would be best suited for marketing major. But this decision did not come easily. After an internal debate between marketing, communications and the other business majors at my school, I finally made my choice.
It turned out that I made the right decision, but it certainly was not an easy choice. I thought it would be interesting to see what the most searched for college majors were on AOL Search. If I had such a hard time making decisions others have to be in the same boat.
A major in government came up at the top of the list. I thought it was very interesting that people were searching for colleges with dance majors next. There are a lot of music focused programs that people are searching for from songwriting majors to jazz music and commercial music majors. I also think that a having a broadcasting major could be very fun!
Did your major make out list? Try searching for college majors on AOL Search to see what is out there.
Hot College Majors on AOL Search:
1. Major in government
2. Colleges with dance majors
3. Business forensics major
4. Songwriting major
5. Neuroscience major
6. English major
7. Broadcasting major in college
8. Biology major
9. Colleges with jazz music major
10. Colleges with commercial music major
More Sponsored Links For: college majors, accredited colleges, college degree
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 4)
41. Getting a vocational license (cosmetology, licensed vocational nurse, refrigeration, psychiatric technician etc.) will give you a skill to work part time for decent wages while in college. Also the work experience is a benefit especially going into a university internship.
Posted at 1:07PM on Dec 20th 2007 by Katie Donlin
42. Since only 25% of the population has a BA or higher, I sincerely doubt many of the people commenting have ever been to college.
Major in what you enjoy, because it honestly doesn't matter at all.
As long as you have a BA (so I guess it rules out art and music programs that give BFAs instead of BAs) it doesn't matter at all what your major was.
BAs are the new high school diplomas. Go to a good school because most of your learning will not take place in the classroom. Major in what you love, because unless you intend to go to graduate school, all anyone will care about is that you have a BA.
Posted at 1:09PM on Dec 20th 2007 by Chrysee
43. I am a Broadcasting major and don't for the life of me know why anyone would waste their college education on this major. I did radio and TV, and then got married and chose to leave my career. I should have pursued that English teaching major.... First of all, if you have "the voice" and can read without stuttering and stumbling all over yourself you can make it in the biz. But look at all of the kiddos who are on the air (TV and radio) with Mickey Mouse voices, poor English, mispronunciations, and burst out laughing when they make a mistake on air! In the average market, there is no degree required or necessary. And look at how many retired athletes become instant "broadcasting professionals" just because they have played the game! Psssh. My daughter wanted to pursue a broadcasting degree just because it sounded "glamorous." She is 16 and a 4.0 student and I told her to use her brains on something a lot more worthwhile than being on TV or radio! ....You should see the Salt Lake City TV market.... Professionals, my foot!
Posted at 1:17PM on Dec 20th 2007 by anony
44. #14, are you really a life-long English professor? You were even an English professor as a child? Impressive!! I want YOUR education!!
Interesting controversy between following a dream and finding a career that pays well. However, unless our government does something to make getting a college education less cost-prohibitive, this debate will end. And grammar, spelling and typos will cease to matter as we will become a much weaker nation where only the very top percent of wage earners can afford to send their darling children to college and the majority can be dreaming their little dreams while flipping burgers.
Posted at 1:27PM on Dec 20th 2007 by m. jackson
45. @45
I come from a very low income family and attended a high school in a district that year after year is labeled as having "academic emergency" status. I now have a Master's and am still continuing my education.
Cost of college alone is not a barrier as almost every college offers financial aid, and there are always grants and outside scholarships available. I attended a private liberal arts college that cost well over $40k a year and graduated with relatively little as far as student loans go.
If you can get in to college, there is always a way to found to pay for it. I wish people would stop using cost as an excuse for not furthering themselves.
Posted at 1:34PM on Dec 20th 2007 by Chrysee
46. Glad to see some music majors are being searched for. Yes it is hard to make money in some professions, but if that is what you love and are dedicated to your craft then how much $ you make doesn't matter. Yes the more money you make the better it makes you feel but it's not all about the money.
Posted at 1:46PM on Dec 20th 2007 by sspaz1000
47. It seems to me that with the oil crisis looming that chemists and engineers would be the first order of business! Chemists to develop alternate fuels that would not disrupt the food industry, and engineers to develop truly new ways of getting around.
...and congrats to the monitors of this board who seem to be successful in screening out the kooks!
Posted at 1:49PM on Dec 20th 2007 by Bat
48. without reading any further comments:
"Wow, is this list representative of the priorities in our culture? Where are the medical and legal professions? How about teachers, architects, and engineers? Granted these professions do not pay as well as the entertainment industry does, but I worry that our society will not have quallfied professionals in traditional areas--but, boy, we should all have a good time!!"
Both the medical and legal industry are represented on this list at number 8 and number 1 respectively. You don't become a doctor or a lawyer with a bachelor's degree. As a law student with a Pre-Law degree, my major was in political science/government, while a med student would have been a biology major.
Posted at 1:58PM on Dec 20th 2007 by Amanda
49. i wish i had the lenient English professor who decreed that mixing up 'there' and 'their' was no big gaff....my teacher treats it as akin to taking a shit on the carpet
Posted at 2:05PM on Dec 20th 2007 by hunter
50. Why go to college to get a job? Just go down to Mcpukes and start to flip burgers.
Posted at 2:08PM on Dec 20th 2007 by R Colling
51. With all the wailing and gnashing of teeth that the US is falling behind other countries in science, I find it unusual to see only two scientific areas in the list. And none in engineering of any type.
Posted at 2:09PM on Dec 20th 2007 by rshive
52. And, not to mention, a Bachelor degree is- as mentioned above- the new High School Diploma. It doesn't matter what your major is. A Bachelor's in general is becoming close to a requirement for any entry-level job and major doesn't matter.
My degree gained me entrance into a MPA program, which in turn gained me entrance into a JD program. If the pattern remains, the JD will not actually get me a job, but rather push me into a PhD. At this point I suppose I will be too old to employ by the time I'm finished.
My best friend went the "right" route. Her degree is in Business Management and she went back to get a second major in Spanish. She is certified fluent in Spanish and a Business major. We are from a town of 200,000+ not a big city, but we can't all live in the city... She comes highly recommended considering she did all the right things, participated in all the right programs, rubbed noses with the right people and spent the right amount of time volunteering. The only jobs she's been able to get since we graduated 4 years ago have been in childcare. I did no better. My highest pay came as a courier.
Do what you love. You'll get better grades, you'll be happier, it may or may not open further opportunities, but you aren't guaranteed that paycheck either way.
Posted at 2:14PM on Dec 20th 2007 by Amanda
53.
To #46 who wrote: "Glad to see some music majors are being searched for. Yes it is hard to make money in some professions, but if that is what you love and are dedicated to your craft then how much $ you make doesn't matter. Yes the more money you make the better it makes you feel but it's not all about the money."
My guess is that you are either young, naive, work in a different field or are one of the rare few who has figured out how to find happiness in face of the near poverty wages that some jobs in music pay. I know any number of people who are performers and teachers of music and they all either count on spouses with better paying jobs or eek out a meager living. Teaching music, at least at the college level is one the lowest paying academic jobs in education. People who in many cases are pretty accomplished musicians and holders of advanced degrees in their field often make the kind of money as seasoned professionals that others make in entry level positions in other fields.
Music is wonderful, life would be dreadfully dull without it, but it is far from necessary and the mediocre to downright awful pay, not to mention the competition for those positions clearly acknowledges that. Do what you love, but according to what it is, be prepared to be happy with very very little, and be prepared to accept the pressure of barely making ends meet and in some cases becoming a slave to your chosen love, as the lack of pay will dictate everything else in your life including where you live, what you can afford, how little you have to even attend concerts and how much you have to work just to get by...by all means, you better love what you do...you're going to have to do a lot of it.
Posted at 2:29PM on Dec 20th 2007 by Sammy C
54. I understand why kids are looking to go into broadcasting because it's what i went for but really they need to stay away from it and look into something more practical it's a very hard field to keep a steady job and tv/entertainment contrary to what someone posted does NOT pay well unless you are in the top of the field. Everyone in the beginning of that field starts of interning for free and they can do that after college as well. I did for 2 projects I was paying them to work with the cost of commuting and lunch (when i got the chance to eat).
So yes it is great to follow something you love and enjoy but you also have to be practical so if you are going into broadcasting such as tv/film I would consider a minor such as business/PR/Advertising/Graphic Design something along those lines that is maybe still creative but is more of a steady kind of job, because now at 29 I am thinking about going back to school even though I have worked on some pretty well known shows.
Posted at 2:32PM on Dec 20th 2007 by jackie
55. "Why are we paying so much to teachers who turn out kids handicapped in their own language?"
Obviously, you are a little delusional about how much a teacher makes especially since you also commented that people should put 1/2 of the income away and need $100,000 to survive and be happy. As a teacher, I will NEVER make a salary even close to that. Heck, I'd be happy to make 1/2 of that! (I’ve been teaching 14 years.) Regardless and as far as students’ language is concerned, it is a continuous battle in the classroom which is plagued by students whose parents don't speak properly or even speak English at home. Furthermore in today’s society of political correctness and giving every student an equal opportunity for social growth, classrooms have such a mixture of students with special needs, behavioral problems, gifted and talented, as well as your average student - that it’s a miracle that teachers get students prepared for the abundant number of state mandated and benchmark tests that are forced upon us. In addition most teachers have extracurricular activates that are “built into their contacts under additional duties” to attend (virtually with little or no pay) during the evenings and after school.
Finally, (back to the language problem) students are bombarded with music, television, and friends where slang language
“rules.”
Posted at 2:42PM on Dec 20th 2007 by tctfwt
56. Looks like they want to be on tv or in entertainment in one way or another
Posted at 3:33PM on Dec 20th 2007 by luz
57. Just because these majors were "most searched" doesn't mean that traditional majors are being less sought after. Typically, almost every college offers degrees in medicine, law, and education related fields, so it would not be necessary to search for them...
Posted at 4:18PM on Dec 20th 2007 by Kristen
58. Except these are AOL searches, and the majority of intelligent college bound folks I know don't use AOL search.
Posted at 9:41PM on Dec 20th 2007 by sn71875
59. I was one of those kids who followed her heart and got the dream degree, in music, only to find out there is a low ceiling on what my profession will pay, and the only way to get benefits is to go into public education, which pays poorly also. I love what I do with a passion, and as a divorced woman, if I could get benefits and insurance, it would be perfect, and worth the pay ceiling. Unfortunately, at the age of 47, the prospect of going back to school to get a degree in something I can support myself on and retire while still working full-time is daunting. My advice to my own 4 kids, and those "dreaming," is to get that business degree, or "fallback" degree, and pursue your dream as a hobby which may or may not contribute to your living.
Posted at 12:18PM on Dec 21st 2007 by Karen
60. If the goal from going to college is to learn a skill and to get a job, then one needs to look at advertised jobs to see what kind of skills are in demand. It is not fair to give advice to young people by showing them one or two success stories.
Posted at 12:02PM on Dec 22nd 2007 by beatignorance