Which major did you choose and why/how?

[jipsyjips]

Ive looked through USAFA’s list on majors and researched a lot about many of them but It seems like it’s impossible for me to decide which major I want to do more. For those who have graduated, how did you find which major you were interested in if you had never majored in it?

For example, Id like to major in biology but i haven’t taken a single class on it in high school. Should I still follow my heart and go with it when I don’t really know much about it? I’d major in something I’ve had some decent exposure to in high school but the classes I chose(physics, computer science, chem)—I got the grades but I was not a fan.


What did you do? How did you choose a major and how is life after service?
Also, what major would be best for intelligence, excluding geospatial?
Thanks.

 

[raimius]

You don't have to declare until most of the way through your sophomore year. You'll have plenty of core classes to try out, an academic advisor, and a "majors night" to ask questions and look at various majors offered.

As for advice, pick a major with classes where you will enjoy the content. You'll likely do better at a major you are interested in rather than just good at. Also, keep in mind what career fields you want, as some have specific requirements.

 

[AFrpaso]

It really came down to what I enjoyed and what I wanted to do in the Air Force.

I liked space related things and I knew I was good at technical stuff, so I chose Astro Engineering. The primary reasons were that it qualified me for test pilot school down the road and also opened up an opportunity to be a developmental engineer (62E) as a primary fallback AFSC. I had a hunch that I would end up losing my pilot qualification due to a hereditary eye condition so I focused hard on pursuing the 62E career field. During spring break of my sophomore year I signed up for a trip to LA Air Force Base to work with a Federally Funded Research and Design Center on some conceptual satellite designs. It was during this trip that I discovered that many of the 62E assignments (at least in the Astro shred) were more of program managers and less of dedicated engineers. I wanted to be hands-on.

At this point I started doing research into other AFSCs like Space Operations, Cyber Warfare, etc. That was when I found out about the Operations Research (61A) career field. It was more hands on, just not necessarily in the physical sense. In order to qualify for the 61A AFSC I needed a degree in either Econ (with some extra courses), Operations Research, or Mathematics. I narrowed my choice down to the second two options and discovered that the decision was really a trade-off between taking more applied courses or more theoretical courses. Ultimately I chose Applied Mathematics with a focus in Operations Research as a compromise.

I strongly believe that math is one of the best undergrad degrees.

As for your second question, there's a fancy document out there called the Air Force Officer Classification Directory. I recommend that you google it and take a look at page 246. There you will find what is called the Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) Education Matrix for the Intelligence Officer career field (14N). This shows you the target accessions rates of various degree programs into the career field and may indicate which degrees are most desired (keep in mind that the publicly available version if from 2016). Good luck!

 

[Christcorp]

As Raimius said, you don't have to declare a major for almost 2 years. And there's a reason that there's 27 majors at the academy. (They DON'T WANT everyone to be an engineer). They understand that as individuals, each person will excel as an individual and as a leader differently. Your major is a lot more than what career/job you'll be getting when you graduate. For many air force jobs, your major is irrelevant. A college education isn't necessarily designed to train you in a skill; as much as it is in developing your analytical thinking, people skills, leadership skills, maturity, and getting you to grow as an individual.

Obviously, there are certain careers that your major is directly related; and probably required. e.g. engineers, science fields, legal fields, meteorology, etc. sort of require a specific major. But many air force jobs don't require a specific major. The hardest thing for you to decide, is what is it that you want to be doing 10, 15, 20+ years down the road? And what further education will you want. For example; if your plan down the road is to work in the business world, finances, real estate, mergers/acquisitions, etc. a major in the engineering and science fields may be a waste of time. Whereby, a degree in management, economics, behavioral science, may be more appropriate.

Also try and anticipate the type of grad school you may want to attend. My son majored in Behavioral Science at the academy, but that's really difficult to find a master's program in such a field. Usually people with degrees in the psychology, sociology, etc. type of back ground, need and go into PhD programs for their future careers. Master's programs are very few. My son got turned down by many of the grad schools that he applied to coming out of the academy. Most simply didn't have a master's program for him; even though he graduated at the top of his class. Fortunately there was a PhD program where they accepted his behavioral science undergrad degree.

But you have plenty of time. Don't stress over it or even think about for now.

 

[KTMDad]

Our 2021 DD (freshman) has gone from wanting to major in biology, to mathematics and now economics. She has even considered something in computer science. My point is that USAFA schedules a wide variety of classes that freshmen have to take so it introduces them to things they might not be aware of or subjects that they find very interesting.