General

@icemage11: Yo you stole my phone...hw psssssssh

well currently my major is Renewable energy engineering
and in the course according to my univ ill also have a few courses in both architect engineering and electrical engineering

@upcomingnerd: do my homework please

I'd say exercise caution with your choice of major. It's good to consider what you're passionate about, but you should also seriously think about whether or not your major will prepare you for employment in your field. It's best to take a practical approach when deciding what to pursue. I'd personally recommend that you research specific jobs that you'd like to work at after graduation and then assess whether or not your program gives you the necessary skills to obtain or perform that job. I know you listed RN and business as potential choices. I don't know where you are, but most RN programs that I know are very practical in nature. It tends to be a very good degree choice because the programs actually prepare you for a specific kind of work. I'd say be wary with Business since it is a bit more general. You could pursue Accounting, marketing, general business, economics, finance etc. I'd recommend asking yourself- what kind of work do you want to obtain with your degree? What companies are hiring for that kind of work? Does your school provide you with opportunities to network with employers? Does your degree provide you with the actual skills to do the work? Does your degree program provide RELEVANT co-ops or internships?

I asked myself these questions before majoring in accounting and it gave me a huge edge over my classmates because I geared my educational focus around learning what employers actually want and meeting the right people. As a result- I was able to land an accounting job before graduation. I've seen far too many business majors overvalue their degree and fail to land employment due to not looking at things from a practical standpoint ( e.g not focusing on networking and marketing selves to specific companies, not realizing the skills mismatch between what they learned in school and what's required for the job, not figuring out how to stand out from the plethora of other business graduates).
Of your two options, i feel that RN is a safer choice, but if you prefer business go for it! Just be prepared to put in the work.

Did power engineering, hated it. Now doing computer science and loving it.

clinical nutrition. i really wanted to work in a hospital but not as an RN or going through med school. i got a chance to my jr year of high school and requested nutrition and got it and loved it. nutrition was an interesting subject cus i'd see articles of the newest "superfoods", diets, and fads and got curious as to how they came up with that. i think it's changed since then because i'm not going to the registered dietitian route but still interested in at least being a diet technician (one level down) or something in the foodservice industry - something i didn't even know i could do.
education minor - 3rd year of uni of spring quarter, decided to fulfill a childhood dream of "what if i could become a teacher?" and yolo'd it. interesting classes and subjects but it did turn me off from that option but also nice to know that it's there if i wanted to.

I majored in Psychology for my undergrad at first, but eventually tacked on more and more minors because I kept developing new interests.

In the end, my transcript read off as follows:

Psychology, BS
Neuroscience, minor
Philosophy, minor
Mathematics, minor
Statistics, minor

Now, I'm fairly close to choosing grad advisors between cognitive science and mathematics.

As for yourself, I would recommend starting with what you're actually interested in and eventually mediating that with something practical.

Oh, and if you decide you want to go into economics, I would strongly recommend just minoring in such and majoring in Mathematics. Modern economics is far more quantitative than most people seem to think and it would prepare you for a career in that field far better than any standalone economics degree.

English with a minor in secondary education.
I'm gonna teach your future dumb kids. So get ready.

@readers: we have different opinions then. let's leave it at that.

The Marine switch me from Eletric optics to machinist. Which is just a regular engineer. I'll be certified in a buncha crap 3D printing weapons ammo typical Asian being an engineer kinda makes me feel like MIT could possible be for me. What ever though maybe I'll just LAT move to infantry.

@aerial: Since you preach the STEM bandwagon so much, I will request some evidence to back up your claims. Where are the numbers and statistics showing that African Studies majors are more unemployed than engineers?
Keep in mind two things: I'm looking for statistically significant differences, AND I'm looking for general studies, i.e. not just one study that is confined to one specific small region, a small period of time (so I'm looking for over time), or small sample size.

If you're talking about African Studies majors being more underemployed or that people are complaining about not getting the job they wanted or expected, then maybe. If you're talking about being employed in a field outside of their major, this doesn't just apply to African Studies. [url=http://spectrum.ieee.org/at-work/education/the-stem-crisis-is-a-myth]It applies to engineers all the same.[/url] Now, you could criticize the statistics (if you can even offer a constructive critique), in which case [url=http://blogs.wsj.com/cio/2016/08/12/is-there-a-stem-crisis-or-a-stem-surplus/]I could say you and I are both right and wrong at the same time.[/url] In other words: nobody has any idea. This applies to the above as well in terms of unemployment rates across majors.

I could use your logic and say that the bottom 99% of all scientists, accountants, engineers, etc. are worthless in society too. Most scientists are working as lab technicians or assistants or etc. working a mundane salary. They're not always doing something innovative. [url=http://www.nature.com/news/the-pressure-to-publish-pushes-down-quality-1.19887]There is a huge gluttony of useless scientific research and studies posted in academic journals by many researchers all the time just for the sake of staying in academia.[/url] (If you like, you can google up the quantity-over-quality problem that is a major issue in the sciences right now.) Many engineers are not working on ground-breaking projects; some of them are doing mundane projects where they have to deal with managers and others who don't necessarily have their expertise and technical skill. (In other words, they're dealing with bureaucracy. The fact that you even suggest that shows that you only have some idealized version of what engineers do without the reality as to what some of them REALLY are doing.) Now, I'm NOT the one saying that they are useless. But this is the exact same logic that you're using, except applied to artists and others.

I'm not going to argue the rest; especially since you're just throwing percentages out of thin air without any justification for them. In fact your points clearly illustrate why it is important to still have some education in the fields like humanities and the social sciences, even if you are not pursuing those degrees in college. (In fact; my major focus isn't even in the humanities and the social sciences, although I have taken many courses in those fields out of interest.) But if you want to continue to toot the STEM train without regard as to why these other subjects are important, I can't help you on that one.

@aerial: Family..what. Single for life.

@upcomingnerd: Oh, I am definitely not saying just do a major that will most likely get you the highest paying job or anything like that. Find a list of career-oriented major, THEN go for the one that interests you the most. I am sure there will be at least one that you will like. That way, your passion and love for the subject won't become wasted.

If you don't have passion and love for anything but things like Asian/African culture or gender studies, then it's time to realize that you will still need food on your family's table later on and choose one that you can tolerate the most. Study that in your free time. You have the entire internet to yourself.

@readers: "It is up to the individual to figure out how to make a career out of "reading about the accomplishments of really cool people". New careers pop up for every niche thing you wouldn't even expect."

yea I agree. But let's be realistic here. An average dude will have a MUCH harder time finding a job with a degree in African studies than mechanical engineering. If you want to rely on the slim chance that a new career will pop up for your niche field of study, then yea go for it.

"A society that only comprises of computer programmers, those working in finance, accountants and engineers (a.k.a. all the safe occupations) without the artists, those in the social sciences and other fields would be a horrible society to live in."

No, it's more like "A society that only comprises of computer programmers, those working in finance, accountants and engineers (a.k.a. all the safe occupations) without the TOP artists, those GENIUSES in the social sciences and other fields would be a horrible society to live in."

why? because an average joe who majored in gender studies or history will not positively impact the society through their specialized knowledge. Maybe tumblr, but not society. It's the only the top 1% who does that. That's why I said "if you want to become a professor, go for it". If you are that dedicated to the field of study that you would be willing to spend your life researching and publishing knoweldge in the world of academia, then you will be useful no matter what field of study you are in. But I gurantee you, most people who are studying Egyptology or something like that will not pursue those stuff. They will just try to find a job relevant to their undergrad arts degree, fail 95% of the time, and work in some non-major related job and wish they studied something else.

However,an engineer is very likely to find a job relevant to their degree. They will actually use what they learned in school to benefit the society by creating stuff. Without accountants, the modern world wouldn't be able to operate. Without scientists, we won't have people making vaccines. You don't need to be the top 1% to benefit the society through a career-oriented degree.

Get rid of the bottom 80% of the people with useless arts degrees and the world wouldn't be any different. We would still have modern advances in human rights, amazing novels, breath-taking discoveries of human past, amazing museums, etc.

But get rid of the bottom 80% of the engineers, accountants, lawyers, or scientists and I am pretty sure we would feel the effects immediately.

I graduated with my Bachelor's in computer science and now I'm getting my Master's in the same field, specifically data mining & machine learning because I like numbers.

I think both a business or nursing degree is good, with good career prospects, but business is harder to break through. You really need to be special to make yourself stand out from the thousands of other business majors. With a nursing degree you can use your knowledge and experience from the army and get a decent job.

@aerial: While it is up to the individual to decide if the degree they're paying for is ultimately worth the value, this is an absolutely terrible way of thinking (and an even sh!ttier way to approach life in general).

It is up to the individual to figure out how to make a career out of "reading about the accomplishments of really cool people". New careers pop up for every niche thing you wouldn't even expect.

Also, sure you can learn about these subjects on your own time. But how will you get started? What sources/books should you pay attention to? How should you interpret said books/sources? Where else but the classroom, surrounded by others taking the same course, will you be able to have a proper space to discuss these things (and don't tell me the freaking Internet, with all its trolling, is a good place to discuss said things). All you're doing is showing your ignorance of the subject matter without an understanding of the value of pursuing such disciplines.

A society that only comprises of computer programmers, those working in finance, accountants and engineers (a.k.a. all the safe occupations) without the artists, those in the social sciences and other fields would be a horrible society to live in.

@aerial: Working a job you don't like becomes frustrating. Keep that in mind.

@ecarina: I don't understand people whose only criteria for choosing a major is their "love and passion". Your love for a certain subject will hardly matter after your 4 years at university if you are doing some useless arts degree. You will not make a career out of "reading about the accomplishments of really cool people." You do not need to spend thousands of dollars and waste 4 years of life to do that.

Of course, if you are planning to go into law school or become a professor or have some specific plan on how to spin your degree into getting a stable and fulfilling career, you are fine. But if you are just choosing a useless major because "omg i love studying it", sorry but you need to learn how to prioritize.

To OP: It's super hard to find econ jobs with just an econ undergrad degree unless you are in the top 10% of your class at a tier one university. You will probably need to go to grad school if you want to make a career out of it. If you are confident that you will do well and are passionate about it, then it's not a bad major. Be aware though, econ major is a math major in disguise.

I'm a marine engineer. It was different from the rest of the majors my friend chose and there's ships!

If you're interested in business you should try it and see how it goes.

I'm a History major because I just generally like history. I think reading about the accomplishments of really cool people is fun.

As for you, I suggest going with what you enjoy. If you have an interest in economics then go for economics. You don't want to be stuck in a major you don't like.