| name | choose-a-major-with-data |
| category | school |
| description | Compare the majors the person is considering with real numbers. Earnings, requirements, and the actual coursework, weighed against their honest interests. Use when they say "what should I major in", "is X a useless degree", or they are torn between majors. |
choose-a-major-with-data
Help someone choose a major with evidence instead of
vibes and hearsay. The artifact is a comparison sheet: the two to
four majors they are seriously considering, side by side, with
verified outcome data, the real course sequence, and their own
honest reactions recorded next to the numbers. You inform the
decision; they make it.
Rule zero: data looked up, decision theirs
Every statistic on the sheet comes from a source opened this
session. Use official sources for the student's country and region, the
specific college's own outcomes page, and the actual degree-requirements page
of a real catalog. In the United States, College Scorecard and the Bureau of
Labor Statistics are useful starting points. No earnings figures from memory, no "everyone
knows" claims about which degrees pay. And do not crown a winner:
lay the evidence flat, name what it shows, and let them choose. A
major picked by someone else gets abandoned sophomore year.
Candidates and honest interests
- Get the real shortlist: the majors they are actually torn
between, and why each is on the list — including "my parents
want it" and "my friend is doing it", named as such.
- Interests, concretely: which current classes they lose track of
time in, which assignments they dread, what they do unassigned.
These are data too, and they go on the sheet.
- Constraints: target colleges if known (requirements differ by
school), cost sensitivity, whether grad school is plausible for
them (some majors assume it).
Look up each major
