HELP: Need Suggestions on Career Path/Majors

Post Reply New Topic

I am caught in a never ending loop of college purgatory. (It's been nearly 10 years at this point ).

A few years ago I finally settled on Engineering as being my ideal choice, only to struggle immensely with my physics (and somewhat with Calculus) classes. I had to accept that it just wasn't wise to continue failing at this stage of my 20s. I recently decided on a new major (Environmental Management BS degree) a few months ago and applied for it within a top near by school, but I just heard yesterday that I my application was denied due to missing per-requisites (that I wasn't aware of).

The (metaphorical) clock is ticking and I need to start taking classes this Fall (or Spring at the latest). I am looking for online bachelors degrees at accredited (& not-for-profit) schools, so that I'm not tied to my location, as it seems I may have to move in 12 months. Another Florida school would be ideal since it would be a lot more affordable, but I think I've seen everything they offer.

I'm having the greatest difficulty understanding how the various majors line up to specific careers. All of the business degrees for instance, seem so vague and I think it would be just as hard to get a job with those as I'm having now with just an Associates Degree.

I mainly just want something where I can get hired easily and my personality/interactions with the general public don't come into play. I like science but I'm not sure my memory/understanding is good enough to succeed in the rigorous courses.

could you tell us what degrees you have, so we can understand what disciplines you have a background in?

I don't have a background in any discipline. I have a general studies Associates Degree, and that's it.

Going from a general studies AA to an engineering degree would be a pretty steep climb. What I might suggest is going for a business degree, and take some electives in a second field (such as engineering). That would make you a strong candidate to work for an engineering-related business, and you'd stand out against the background of people with just business degrees.

^ I had all the required classes and was accepted into my local university's Engineering program as higher level transfer student. The issues came with my calculus and physics classes; Walking across the massive campus in the 90+ degree temperatures resulted in an increase in severe migraines, and affected my ability to think and recall information. 70% of the students in my Calculus 1 class, failed the exams, I pulled a C- in the class but only a C and above counts as passing. The physic professor wasn't a native speaker and thus he was very hard to understand (as was his TA).

Long story short, I threw in the towel on Engineering because I don't have time to continue failing based on variables out of my control.

I would agree that a business degree would be a good idea unless there's some other more technical degree you would be interested in. Business degree don't usually have you doing calculus level math though to be honest neither do many technical fields such as computer science.


It sounds like you had a similar experience to me when I did second year calculus. The professor was an idiot who show a technique working but wouldn't really explain the technique or the theorem around it. I got a different professor the next semester that actually did his job and lo and behold I went from a D to high B easily. If you can set up a similar situation Engineering might still be a possibility. If not you can still retake it as an elective and see if you do better.

^ At this point I'm leaning heavily towards the Environmental Science BS degree. It would still have the science aspect that I want and there are several good career options with it. I would need to retake calculus and physics, but since it's an online program, I wouldn't have to worry about the stuff that hindered me in the on-campus classes.