Top 5 Majors of Incoming Freshmen

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When you’re in high school and filling out college admission applications, you’re expected to know what you want to do for a career right then and there. At 17, this can be a tough decision, especially since you’re still concentrating on things like the homecoming dance. The Princeton Review and Georgetown University found that incoming freshmen across the U.S. tend to choose majors that aren’t always the most glamorous, highest-paying or in the most demand.

5 Biology

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If you want to study plants, animals or humans, a biology major is a good place to start. Biology is a vast field that ranges from the study of organisms on the cellular level to conducting research to working with a specific type of ecosystem. People with careers as a physician, ecologist, genetic researcher or veterinarian often start out as a biology major in college.

4 Education

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Like nurses, good teachers are in high demand. When you major in education, you choose your classes based on the grade levels that you want to teach, like elementary education. In some instances, you can even focus on a specialty. For example, a music department may offer a major for those who want to teach music. Most college students who are education majors complete student teaching requirements at a local school.

3 Nursing

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A health care facility can never have too many good nurses, and graduates with this major are in high demand. As a freshman, you’ll take biology, physiology and anatomy classes before you start clinical rotations in a hospital or clinic. As a nursing major, you can specialize in a specific field of medicine, like oncology, and your classes will help you prepare for the licensing test.

2 Psychology

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Incoming freshman who have a passion for helping others and figuring out how people think tend to start a college career as a psychology major. In addition to working with patients in a counseling setting or clients in a social work setting, some psychology majors go on to work with police departments as criminal profilers or advertising agencies to determine what target consumers want.

1 Business Administration

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When a student doesn’t know what to major in, it’s common to start out as a business major. This educational path is diverse because you can specialize in economics, accounting, finance, leadership, consulting or management. Some who graduate with a degree in business administration even go on to start a business of their own.

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