Many college students, in fact, change their majors during their college years; sometimes, students have to stay in college for 5 or 6 years because of the changes. Nowadays, many college including the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University enter all of their students into a General Program during the first two years. However, some programs such as Engineering at North Carolina State University essentially force their students to start engineering when they take their first step on campus. So, it is still very important for a high school senior to evaluate his or her potential majors before applying to colleges and universities.

The most important factor in choosing a major is interest. It is a horrible idea to spend the next four years of your life studying something you despise then having to work 40 or more hours a week in a field that you find repulsive. However, most people generally do not prefer to study a field where there are extremely low salaries and high unemployment rate. Having a backup major is generally a good idea.

According to scholarships.com, the most profitable college majors are:

1. Chemical Engineering ($55,900 average starting salary)
2. Computer Engineering ($54,877 average starting salary)
3. Electrical/Electronics/Communications engineering, ($52,899 average starting salary)
4. Mechanical Engineering ($50,672 average starting salary)
5. Computer Science ($50,046 average starting salary)
6. Accounting ($45,723 average starting salary)
7. Economics/Finance/Banking ($45,191 average starting salary)
8. Civil Engineering ($44,999 average starting salary)
9. Business Administration/Management ($39,850 average starting salary)
10. Marketing/Marketing Management/Marketing Research ($36,260 average starting salary)

It appears that students that enjoy engineering have a lot of flexibility in choosing their major without much detriment. If they realize that you do not enjoy working with hardware, they can always work with software with a Computer Science major, or in analytics with a Mathematics or Statistics major. Students who enjoy working with finances also have flexibility choosing between Accounting, Economics, Finance, Banking, Business Administration, and Marketing. It may be difficult for a student to decide whether he wants to study Accounting or Economics while in high school. However, it may be a strategic decision to start leaning toward the finance field.

For most of the degrees above, a Bachelor’s degree is sufficient to get a job. A master’s degree such as the MBA is optional and can be obtained at a later stage. However, in other fields such as English, a Masters of PhD degree may be necessary to obtain the best employment opportunities. That should be taken into account. People who do not want to stay in school for a long period of time should avoid these majors and take advantage of the alternatives. Also, some colleges’ engineering programs can be essentially 5-year programs. Student shouldn’t assume that all Bachelor’s degrees can be completed in 4 years.

There is also an opportunity in many colleges to double major. It may be give the student more job flexibility. However, if the majors do not well overlap, it will also be more time consuming. Minors can also be pursued and only consist of several extra classes. In my opinion, minors should only be pursued out of pure interest since most of the time, they are not listed on a diploma and do not give the student enough expertise to be employed in a field.

One way of landing that all elusive management and mid-management job is to do internships and volunteer work that would polish and refine your management and leadership skills in an industry of your liking and preference – doing this will give you an unbeatable edge. However, not everyone would be in a financially stable enough position to do internships and volunteer work. If this is the case then consider engaging in university and college funded projects that are in alignment with your career goals. These projects have the potential to teach you important skills such as planning, budgeting, costing, forecasting and various aspects of project management.

What most parents do not understand is that while they wish their sons and daughters get into a field of work that is financially rewarding, there are usually problems with a youngster’s desirability and a conflict with his/her innate talents and skills. Research has shown that this is one of the major factors influencing low grades and high drop out rates. The chances of getting into a good organization with bad grades are as good as getting into that organization with no degree at all.

A good idea is to go through a series of cognitive tests and counseling sessions that are geared towards finding out which skills and abilities are stronger than others. These tests can also give valuable insight into what one should do in order to develop certain cognitive abilities before going for a certain type of executive program.

There is absolutely no doubt that executive education can be the perfect catalyst for both individual and organizational growth. Trend analysts seem to be saying that corporations world wide are beginning to strongly support all forms of executive education regardless of whether they are in-house company sponsored or university and college based. Nowadays, students need to look at executive education as an investment that (if made wisely) will pay back rich dividends in the form of steady and consistent organizational success.

Today’s students truly do have more options available to them than ever before if they are willing to invest the time and effort into their studies, there are few limits to the level of education you can receive, even if it has been years since you last attended a university or community college. Even those colleges and universities that do not offer full fledged degree programs exclusively through online learning mediums are beginning to offer many courses online for students with busy schedules and lifestyles. This means that you now have the opportunity to combine distance or online learning with a few night or weekend courses in order to complete your degree even if you have a full time day job and family that needs to see you at home on occasion.

Even if a degree is not something you are necessarily seeking you might be amazed at the wide array of courses that are available for those interested in increasing their depth of knowledge on different issues from the comfort of their own homes. I know that the idea of self-directed online learning opportunities appeal to me on many levels. These opportunities however, are not necessarily a good idea for everyone. We all learn in different manners and some of us learn best by actually being in the classroom and hearing what has to be said or from hands on experience. This type of learning is not necessarily possible when it comes to distance learning in an email or bulletin board type of environment, which is how many Internet classrooms operate.

Online learning is also not a good idea for those who aren’t perfectly willing, able, and capable of holding themselves responsible for their learning. Face it, for some of us it is much easier to get up and go to a classroom than it is to force ourselves to log on and pay attention at home. We all have areas in which our discipline is well in hand and others where we seem to have no discipline whatsoever. If you can’t hold yourself on task or have difficulties not being distracted by the many other novel things there are to do online you might be best served through an actual classroom experience rather than a distance learning environment like those of online classes.

This is not meant to discourage you from distance learning or online classrooms. In fact, I think these are by far the best option for many working professionals who are seeking to advance their careers, knowledge, and/or earning potential. You will not need to feel as though you are choosing between the future needs of yourself and your family and the limited time you have with your family already. You can schedule around your family time and make the sacrifice when it comes to sleep.

With online classes it doesn’t matter if you are in your pajamas or in a suit and tie you can still do the work you need to do online and no one will be the wiser. You also might find that you can squeeze your education into your lunch hour, particularly if you can type and chew at the same time. The truth is that online classes offer superior flexibility to those hoping to further their education. Whether you are hoping to earn a degree or simply wish to broaden your horizons by taking a few online classes, you just might find that the possibilities are limitless once you begin taking these courses from home.