What should I major in? Quiz

How the quiz works and what it actually tells you

Six multiple-choice questions, each with 4–5 options. Your answers are weighted across 10 major clusters: Computer Science, Engineering, Business/Finance, Nursing, Psychology, English/Humanities, Biology, Economics, Education, and Art/Design. The top 5 matches are ranked and displayed with median starting and mid-career salary data, projected job growth, and a reality-check description of what the actual day-to-day work involves.

Major quizzes are not destiny. Six questions cannot capture the full complexity of what you want from a career and a life. What they do effectively: identify the 3–5 strongest candidates from a field of 10 clusters, which makes the comparison and elimination process significantly easier than starting from scratch. Most students who have not yet declared a major are not actually uncertain between computer science and basket-weaving — they are uncertain between 3–4 realistic clusters that share some characteristics. The quiz makes the shortlist visible.

Salary benchmarks by major cluster — 2025 data

Concrete numbers from Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce (CEW), and Glassdoor 2024–25 data. These are bachelor’s-degree starting medians unless otherwise noted:

• Computer Science: starting $85,000–$95,000, mid-career $146,000, +22% projected job growth through 2032. Highest starting salary of any major by a significant margin. Wide spread by employer type: FAANG starting packages exceed $150,000 total comp; government and nonprofit CS roles start at $70,000–$85,000.
• Engineering: starting $78,000–$85,000 depending on discipline (petroleum at top, civil at bottom), mid-career $125,000, +6% growth. Electrical, mechanical, and chemical engineering are the most employable. Biomedical engineering has the worst starting-to-mid-career ratio because the field is competitive and master’s degrees are becoming entry-level.
• Business/Finance: starting $62,000–$70,000, mid-career $110,000 on average — but this average conceals an enormous spread. Investment banking analysts at bulge-bracket firms earn $175,000+ total compensation from year one. Accounting at a regional firm starts at $62,000. Supply chain management, financial analysis, and marketing management cluster in the $70,000–$90,000 starting range.
• Nursing (BSN): starting $82,000–$88,000 (BSN median), near-recession-proof, and location-adjustable. Nurse Practitioner median: $128,000. CRNA (Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist): $220,000–$240,000 — one of the highest-earning non-physician healthcare roles.
• Psychology: bachelor’s-only starting salary $44,000–$50,000. Graduate school is almost required to access clinical and licensed psychology roles ($95,000–$130,000 for licensed psychologists). Psychology with a second skill (UX research, HR analytics, data analysis) earns substantially more than psychology alone.
• English/Humanities: starting $42,000–$52,000. The most underrated major for versatility — law school applicants with humanities backgrounds outperform pre-law students on LSAT on average. Paired with technical skills (coding, data, medical writing), the earnings picture improves substantially. Humanities majors who pursue law, consulting, or tech sales mid-career frequently out-earn STEM peers by year 10.
• Biology: starting $45,000–$55,000 for bachelor’s-only, which is the weakest starting salary of any major given the course rigor. Biology is the pipeline major for medicine, pharmacy, physician assistant, and dentistry — the earning upside is enormous for those who complete professional school, but the bachelor’s-only track is weak. Do not major in biology unless you have a professional school plan.
• Economics: starting $65,000–$75,000, mid-career $115,000–$125,000. The highest-earning non-STEM major. Economics with quantitative coursework (econometrics, statistics) is increasingly valued at consulting firms, banks, and policy organizations. One of the most favorable GRE and law school profiles of any undergraduate major.
• Education: starting $46,000–$52,000, mid-career $65,000–$72,000. One of the most meaningful careers with one of the most constrained salary ceilings. Education administration, curriculum design, and ed-tech roles can break the ceiling at $90,000+, but classroom teaching in most states tops out below $80,000 regardless of experience.
• Art/Design: starting $42,000–$55,000. The spread by specialization is wide: fine arts and fine-arts education cluster below $50,000. Graphic design $52,000–$62,000. UX/UI design $85,000–$105,000 at tech companies. Industrial design $68,000–$82,000. The “art major” label understates the income potential of design-as-technology-skill.

Is STEM actually worth the salary premium?

BLS 2024: STEM bachelor’s degree median salary is $97,000 vs. $65,000 for non-STEM. By age 35, the premium widens to approximately 55%. These are real numbers. But the comparison obscures important costs: STEM has higher course dropout rates (27% of engineering students switch majors within the first two years, per AAES data), significantly higher weekly study workloads (STEM students report averaging 22 hours of outside study per week vs. 14 hours for humanities), and significantly higher rates of graduate and professional school paths (which extend the time to full earning potential by 2–7 years).

The honest conclusion: major in STEM if the actual content genuinely interests you and you are willing to invest the higher study-hours cost. Do not major in CS or engineering because of the salary premium if you dislike the day-to-day work — the dropout rate from engineering is 27% precisely because students who chose it for the salary rather than the content encounter upper-division courses that are miserable without genuine interest. A motivated humanities major earns more at 40 than a burned-out engineer who left tech at 30.

What the quiz results mean in practice

If your top result is strongly concentrated (CS scores 8, Engineering 7, everything else below 5): you have clear direction. Take one introductory course in each of your top two results and let the coursework confirm or revise. If the intro CS course is engaging and the problem-solving makes you want to continue, you have your answer.

If your results are spread evenly across 4–5 clusters (CS 6, Economics 5, Business 5, Psychology 4): your interests are genuinely broad. This is not a problem — it is an asset for interdisciplinary majors. Options: Cognitive Science (available at UC schools, Johns Hopkins, Indiana), Data Science (emerging at most universities, combines statistics, CS, and domain knowledge), Public Policy (combines economics, government, and research methods), Information Science (combines CS, design, and communication). The “major plus minor plus certificate” stack also works — CS major plus economics minor is one of the strongest combinations at investment banks and consulting firms.

Changing majors — the timeline that matters

Approximately 30% of college students change their declared major at least once. 10% change three or more times. The window that matters: change by the end of sophomore year (end of semester 4) to stay on a 4-year graduation track at most schools. After that, you will typically need at least one summer term or a 5th year, depending on which required courses you have already completed. The penalty for changing is real but bounded — do not stay in a major you dislike because of sunk-cost reasoning. The opportunity cost of 3–4 more years in the wrong field far exceeds the cost of a 5th undergraduate semester.

Steps after the quiz: how to validate your results

1. Shadow someone working in the field for 2 hours. Two hours of observing a practicing nurse, engineer, software developer, or social worker tells you more about the actual work than 10 hours of quiz results, YouTube career videos, and major descriptions combined. Most professionals will agree to a brief informational shadow when asked politely. LinkedIn is the fastest way to find them.
2. Take one intro course in your top 2 results. Freshman year is specifically designed for this exploration. Most intro courses count toward general education requirements regardless of your major. If you hate Intro to CS but love Intro to Economics, you have useful information that no quiz can provide.
3. Read 3 actual job postings for junior-level roles in your top majors. Junior job postings (3–5 years of experience) reveal what the day-to-day work actually involves, what technical skills are valued, and what the realistic salary band looks like for someone 5 years post-graduation. The range of “psychology major jobs” runs from insurance claims adjuster at $45,000 to VA clinical psychologist at $95,000 to tech UX researcher at $115,000 — the major label does not determine the outcome; the specialization does.
4. Talk to 2 seniors in each of your top majors. Seniors know what upper-division courses are actually like, which professors are excellent and which to avoid, what internships are realistic for their major at your school, and what job hunting looks like for that field from your campus. Academic advisors give official information; seniors give real information.
5. Check which majors exist at your specific school. The quiz ranks clusters that might not align with exactly how your school labels and structures its programs. “Economics with a quantitative concentration” exists at some schools and not others. “Applied Data Science” is distinct from “Computer Science” at some schools. Know what is actually available before committing to a path that may require transferring.

FAQ: Major selection questions

Does where I go to school matter as much as what I major in?

For most careers, major matters more than school. An economics or CS degree from a state flagship is worth more in the job market than an art history degree from an Ivy League school. The major signal is what most employers screen on. Exceptions: consulting and investment banking recruiting is heavily school-brand-dependent (they recruit primarily from target schools). Law school admissions are GPA and LSAT dependent, not undergraduate institution dependent. Medicine does not care which school as long as the prerequisites and GPA are strong.

Should I double-major?

A double major is worth the extra semester of coursework only when the two majors are genuinely complementary and the combination is stronger than either alone in the job market. CS plus economics, biology plus statistics, and business plus data science are examples of combinations that open doors the individual majors do not. CS plus history or nursing plus art is a course load with no clear vocational synergy — choose a major and a minor instead.

What if I want to go to professional school after graduation?

Your undergraduate major matters less than you think for most professional schools. Law schools do not prefer pre-law majors — they accept any major, and humanities majors outperform on LSAT on average. Medical schools accept any major as long as you complete the required pre-med prerequisites (biology, chemistry, physics, math). MBA programs actively prefer diverse undergraduate majors over business-only backgrounds. Choose a major you are genuinely good at and likely to earn a strong GPA in — that GPA matters more than the major for professional school admissions.

Related tools

For income-specific salary comparison across majors, see major salary comparison. For the 10-year ROI of your entire degree investment, see college ROI calculator. For the specific salary premium of STEM over liberal arts over a career, see STEM vs liberal arts salary. For the earnings impact of graduate school in your field, see grad school ROI.