Help to figure out a major?

[AngieW in Texas]

My 18yo has determined a need to change majors.

 

Statistics class at the cc was a turning point. Up to that point, math was something horrible to get through. Dyslexia severely impacted math ability.

 

But statistics was amazing for my 18yo. Suddenly there was math that made complete sense and that didn't get all muddled up.

 

However, to be an actuary (the goal after completing statistics),  you have to take Calc I, II, III and several more courses after that.

 

While my 18yo can do the work with reference material available and was even working through the logarithms faster than I was (I'm a high school math and science teacher), taking a quiz or a test over the material usually means a failing grade.

 

To be an actuary, you have to take several certifying exams and I don't know if accommodations (like the extra time given at the university) would even be possible.

 

My 18yo has really enjoyed the economics and finance classes at university, but finds accounting boring.

 

What would be a good major to switch to?

 

Other considerations: my 18yo has a major chronic medical condition that imposes some restrictions. The geneticist said to plan for a career that allows working from home for days when the pain is too intense to get out of bed. There has been constant pain for 2.5 years now and the doctor said that it will only get worse. Fatigue is also a huge issue.

 

So I'm looking for major suggestions that will help towards a career where you are seated (can't be standing or walking for too long or feet swell and ability to walk is impaired) and where you have the ability to sometimes work remotely from home. It can't be a career where you work 60 hour weeks. This needs to be something where you can put in 40-45 hours and be done. 

[Frances]

Economics could be a good fit. I have a master's degree in statistics and work as an economist. There are a wide variety of jobs, both public and private, available to economics majors. I work in state government and rarely work overtime and my position allows quite a bit of flexibility on work times and location.

 

For maximum employability, I would recommend she take as much math as possible and also some programming courses and try to get some good internships.

 

I know you said she finds accounting boring, but that seems like it might have the most flexibility job-wise, especially if she ever needed to work only part-time.

 

Being an actuary never appealed to me due to the exams. It seemed like a whole lot of stress in addition to working, although I know employers often allow work time to prepare for the exams. It also seemed quite narrow in application, compared to being an economist or statistician.

Edited February 18, 2017 by Frances

[Guest]

I had a similar experience with statistics.  The rest of mathy stuff eluded me, but statistics made a lot of sense.

 

Even though it was hard.

 

Psych and counseling use stats a lot in understanding diagnosis or treatment.

So does marketing.  If your kiddo could become competent in another field, say computing or fashion or retail or or or, marketing in ANY field uses a lot of stats.

 

I'm not exhaustive on these things.  But I know both of these to be true.

 

That said, marketing or psych research / counseling can be done on an entrepreneurial basis.  To my mind, these would be worth exploring.  I see wonderful options ahead!

 

 

[Joules]

Data Science/Analytics might be a good career choice.  Some universities are starting to offer degrees in Analytics, often in the business colleges.  Part-time, consulting or WAH are definite possibilities depending on interest.  

 

It's the direction that I'm heading now that I'm retiring from homeschooling, so let me know if I can answer specific questions.  

[TammyS]

You've probably already thought of this, but on the off chance you haven't, if the testing needs are the only hang up and the major is an otherwise good fit, would it be possible to spend a semester, or a year, working on test ability?  I know delaying going forward stinks, but if it allows the student to keep to a career path that is a good fit it might be worth it.

[Frances]

I had a similar experience with statistics. The rest of mathy stuff eluded me, but statistics made a lot of sense.

 

Even though it was hard.

 

Psych and counseling use stats a lot in understanding diagnosis or treatment.

So does marketing. If your kiddo could become competent in another field, say computing or fashion or retail or or or, marketing in ANY field uses a lot of stats.

 

I'm not exhaustive on these things. But I know both of these to be true.

 

That said, marketing or psych research / counseling can be done on an entrepreneurial basis. To my mind, these would be worth exploring. I see wonderful options ahead!

My undergrad degree was actually in psychology and it was all of the stats classes that I took during my first year of psych grad school that actually convinced me to switch majors. Although I've never actually had a job using both my stats and psych knowledge. I think statistics, economics, and data science degrees can all be applied in a wide variety of fields and combined with an almost endless number of other subject matter areas. Based on interests and experience, they can all be quite flexible and versatile. Edited February 18, 2017 by Frances

[Carol in Cal.]

I'd consider majoring in statistics.

[SparklyUnicorn]

There is so much math involved with majoring in stats that you might as well major in math.  Just to give a heads up on that!

That said, I always liked stats.  It made me change my mind about math too.  He should try the calc 1 class to see what he thinks.  I was very surprised to discover it was not how I imagined.  I like it a lot more than I thought I would.

 

 

[teachermom2834]

Business analytics is a hot area right now.  My ds who is bright but never liked math but enjoyed stats is in an intro class right now and is considering it as a career.  Some schools have added it as a major (I have also seen it called things like "data based decision science"). My dh is in a related field and he gets contacted about consulting, contract work pretty regularly so perhaps that is something that can be flexible.

 

From the couple of schools I have looked at it seems like the required math is along the lines of college algebra, applied calculus, stats, business stats, and then data analysis classes.  

 

My two oldest boys are bright and competent but not interested in math until it is applicable in business, economics, etc.  Then it makes sense and is interesting.

 

 

[Liz CA]

I had a similar experience with statistics.  The rest of mathy stuff eluded me, but statistics made a lot of sense.

 

Even though it was hard.

 

Psych and counseling use stats a lot in understanding diagnosis or treatment.

So does marketing.  If your kiddo could become competent in another field, say computing or fashion or retail or or or, marketing in ANY field uses a lot of stats.

 

I'm not exhaustive on these things.  But I know both of these to be true.

 

That said, marketing or psych research / counseling can be done on an entrepreneurial basis.  To my mind, these would be worth exploring.  I see wonderful options ahead!

 

Even to the extent that a new field emerged, called Psychometrics. A psychometrician designs tests and evaluates methodology. Here is a quick overview:

http://careersinpsychology.org/become-a-psychometrician/

 

I don't know how much psych work would be required and if this is of interest, however, wouldn't just becoming a general statistician be the broadest education from which a person could choose a variety of paths?

 

[Bootsie]

What is she switching from? 

 

I would encourage her to think about why she liked economics, finance, and statistics.  What common links did she find?  Economics and finance both require the ability to come up with precise answers to some questions and the ability to handle ambiguity and multiple answers to other questions (and comfortably move back and forth between the two). 

[ErinE]

I double majored in finance and accounting, and I would not recommend finance. I enjoyed it in college, after graduation, and still do, but the hours can be brutal and there's no real way to avoid them. When a company needs to build a facility, expand a division, refinance a loan, or merge with another company, it usually needs to be done in as quick a time frame as possible. I manage to work mostly from home, because I've positioned myself in a very niche role. I still ended up working (from home) five days after giving birth. It's not unusual to get a late afternoon phone call that a client needs something done, ideally yesterday, and I work through the night to get it done.

 

Plus, if your child doesn't like accounting, I'd stay away from finance as well. Anyone going into finance should have enough hours to minor, if not major, in accounting. In finance, you spend a lot of time either looking at or building financial statements. Ive heard plenty of finance people say they wish they'd taken more accounting classes. I've never heard them say they wish they took less.

[Katy]

Also consider programming with an MIS (management information systems degree - programming has the widest ability to work from home, MIS is technically an business degree with a handful of programming classes and much lower math requirement than computer science, and in the long term tends to offer better pay because its grads are more inclined to be promoted because of business education), economics, finance, and bioinformatics.