“Does Choosing a Major Determine Your Life?”

This research was conducted to understand students’ reasoning behind their choice of college major. It will explain students’ perceptions on how majors and jobs correlate with each other. I handed out 491 surveys at a central Virginia Liberal Arts College. The survey consisted of nine 5-point Likert-scale questions that range from “1” meaning “strongly disagree” to “5” meaning “strongly agree.” A sample question from this portion of the survey was, “I chose/will choose my major because I am passionate about the subject.” The survey also included one open-ended question asking students to speculate on the connection between their major and the job they will hold in the future. Through my research I discovered eighteen different conclusions for why students chose their college majors. I was surprised that I did not find any significance with ethnicity and first generation versus non-first generation students