Mechanics and repair technicians fix and maintain your household appliances – washers, dryers, dishwashers – as well as cars and trucks. If you enjoy working with your hands and fixing things, this can be a great career path. Much of this machinery is operated with sophisticated computers and electronics, so it involves learning not only how to fix mechanical things, but also how to use technology and understand it.
Military technologies and applied science focus on how to apply scientific advances and engineering to specifically military uses. Many of the things we now take for granted in consumer uses – like low-light photography or GPS – came from military applications. Since the military has such an appetite for technology that keeps soldiers safer, helps battlefield communications and intelligence, and delivers more lethal firepower, it can be a leading edge field that drives the development of technologies we all use.
Mathematics and statistics aren’t just about numbers, calculations, and algebra. If you study mathematics and statistics, you can focus on game theory, or the statistics of political campaigns or baseball. This is a field with many practical applications – finance, politics, and sports, for example. It is also a field where you can study theoretical mathematics: math just for the joy of it. If you like symbolic reasoning, abstract thought, and models, this could be a good fit for you.
Biology and biomedical sciences involves the study of living things, and all the techniques and technologies that are driving modern medicine, like genetic engineering and gene-splicing. If you care about curing disease, and dream about coming up with the next great innovation that transforms human health, or if you’d love to understand how bodies work and how anatomy and physiology are related, this might be a good fit.
Library Science (also called Library and Information Science) involves cataloging information and understanding how to categorize large amounts of information. In a world where there is a huge oversupply of information, understanding how to categorize and organize it is critical. This field is best if it is combined with another field of study, as librarians with subject matter expertise in another field are especially valuable. The employment prospects in this field can be limited, since it involves work in libraries, which are often underfunded and under-staffed.
The humanities teach students to reason critically and understand why people act the way we do. It explores our thinking from multiple viewpoints.
English Literature is the study of the great canon of English writing. It can involve reading the classics – like Shakespeare or Thomas Hardy – but these days is more likely to involve reading, analyzing, and understanding the writing styles of modern writers. If you love writing and reading, if you think you might want a career as a writer, journalist, or in marketing, this could be a great fit.
Legal professions seems self-explanatory, but it’s more complex than just studying law. Of course if you want to be a lawyer, this is the field to study. Being a lawyer involves going to college for pre-law, and then going to law school and passing state bar exams. But if your idea of studying law comes from watching TV shows, be aware that actual law practice can vary immensely, from corporate lawyers who spend most of their time poring over the minutae of contracts to public defenders who are underpaid, overworked and defend people who are too poor to afford legal help from criminal charges. This field could also involve being a paralegal, who does work supporting lawyers – like gathering documents and evidence and filing court papers.
Family and consumer sciences involves studying how families and consumers operate. Much of modern marketing uses carefully designed statistical models to figure out how people make buying decisions: who in the family makes these decisions, how, and when.
Engineering involves fields from electronics – about building phones, televisions, and stereo systems – to mechanical engineering – about building cars, planes and trains – to civil engineering – about building bridges, homes, and skyscrapers. If building things is something you’re passionate about, and you like the idea of learning the science behind creating things and applying that science, this could be a great fit.