How to choose a major / minor / master

The deadlines for (early) admissions to college programmes are drawing nearer each day now, so this is the time to tell you how to decide on a major, minor or master's programme. It usually is a difficult choice, because it may have major consequences for where you will work later and in which function. Another reason that makes the choice difficult is that your choice will influence how you are going to spend your time the next few years or months. It is therefore wise to spend some time considering the following issues: 

1. Are there special entry requirements?
   Some programmes only want to the most talented and most motivated students to enroll; others require you to have followed and successfully finished some courses. If you, for example, aim to enter a programme for which a minimum grade point average of 7.5 is required and your average grade is 6.0, it is a waste of time trying to get in. Also, if the requirements state 'a basic background of Statistics in which following topics were covered: z-scores, t-tests, ANOVA, and multiple and logistic regression', and you have no clue what they are talking about, you might investigate other interesting programmes. You can check this in the course guide of the programme.
2. To what degree does this programme deal with topics I am interested in?
   I started as a law student, because I thought that was the way to become a lawyer who is specialized in online copyright laws, feared by all online pirates, such as The Pirate Bay. Unfortunately, I soon found out that I would first have to go through 3 years of criminal law, constitutional law, international law, tax law, civil law, and all other types of law that failed to catch my interest, before there was a chance that I would learn some basics about the online copyright law. So, I figured that a broader legal interest than I had would be handy if I wanted to become a lawyer in a very small specialized area. Since I had a far broader interest in educational issues, I switched to educational sciences. This is also something you can check the programme's course guide. 
3. What are my future prospects with this programme? 
   As much as you may like your studies, you might as well consider the type of jobs you can get with your degree. An office job as a safety policy maker while you are more the kind of person to work as a bodyguard or security staff member will probably not make you happy. If you become a mathematician to become a researcher of mathematics, a job as a teacher in high school may not satisfy you. Nevertheless, it is possible that you get a job you have never considered, but that you actually like that job! You can answer this question in various ways: talk with the academic advisor of the programme, talk with people who already work in the field, talk with teachers who may have stayed in touch with alumni, thoroughly read the website of the programme and that of similar programmes in other universities, and ask at employment agencies which jobs they offer to people with a certain degree.
4. Do I think I can handle it? 
   This is partly a combination of question 1 and 2, partly a combination of other factors. Of course, studying a topic that catches your interest facilitates learning, so does meeting the special entry requirements, as these are mostly a foundation from which you build more knowledge about a topic. The other factors coming with being able to handle it are very much factors that are part of your personality. If you are good with numbers, a study in mathematics will be easy for you. If you are interested in medical issues and you do not faint at the sight of blood, medicine is perfectly doable. If you are a linguist ... okay, you get it. Discover your talents and in which areas your talents lie. During this step it is also crucial to find out whether you agree with the way they work in your programme (mainly small groups, individual studying, or mass lectures; assignments, projects or exams), how much presence is demanded (if you have a big job beside your studies, a course with little demanded presence is more ideal for you), and your own unique talents (you must not want to go into sales when you are a very shy person who always diminishes the self). 

I hope these questions make you (re)consider you choice, or that they help you make the decision. For a minor, which in The Netherlands is one semester, these questions obviously do not have to be answered as thoroughly as for a major or master's programme, because a minor will pass sooner, although you might take  into consideration your future prospects. A minor in which you learnt how to start your own business is more useful when you actually intend to start your own business and a minor with a focus on research courses is very useful when you aim for a career in research and statistics. 

What do you think? Have you given much thought to your study choices or have you always known what to study since you were a little kid? Do you think this article is useful? How did you choose your studies?