Choosing academic field of interest to pursue a higher degree can be quite challenging when you don’t know what field you are interested in. For undergrads, it can be time-consuming when you’re in the middle of second year of university or college and you found that you’re not interested in this field of study anymore. Master’s degree students find it difficult to choosing a specific field of study related with a bachelor’s degree. Not knowing your passion or what field you’re interested in can be the main problem. Thus, from this article, I’d like to share ways to help you find your study of interests for both undergrads and master’s degree students.
For undergraduates:
After finishing high schools, it is common that some or half of the students don’t have any idea of what they want to study when they go to universities. So, choosing a subject you think you might be interested can be risky. When years go by, you might find yourself that you’re interested in another subject that is a completely different field of what you’re studying. Thus, before jumping to choose a subject by a guess, firstly make yourself know what your passion is.
There are 5 questions to ask yourself to help you find what your passion is.
- What field are you interested in? Is it politics? Is it engineering or business? Or others?
- What are the career opportunities of the field? You can find out the related information in university websites or on Google. When you know the career path of the related field, you might have a general idea of whether you are interested in studying that subject or not. Think of what career will fit you and how.
- What sector would you want to work for? Generally, you can join different sectors with your field of study whether it’s a government or a private sector or INGOs. For example, Civil Engineers can work not only in a company but also in a humanitarian organization as long as it is related with constructing infrastructures. Likewise, a medical doctor can work not only in hospitals but also in emergency missions of intergovernmental organizations like UN as long as the work includes curing the patients or sharing medical knowledge etc.
- What do you want to be in the future? Do you want to be a diplomat? A CEO of a company? A businessman? A lawyer? A musician? This question is important because it helps you imagine your future self. In the future, how do you see yourself as a diplomat? Or as a musician? It can be a professional job that you might be doing long time. There is a chance that you might be interested in two or three unrelated field like you want to be a physician at the same time you want to be a fashion designer. At the time, think of yourself whether you’ll be happy being a physician or being a fashion designer.
- Then find out the reasons: Ask questions to yourself why to each of the four questions above. Why are you interested in this field? Why do you want to work in this sector? Why will that career fit you? Why do you want to be a ….? Ask a number of reasons why, why, why.
For graduates:
After getting a bachelor’s degree, you might want to pursue an advanced degree which is a master’s degree. There are specific fields of studies related to your bachelor’s degree. One example is that you’re a graduate with Economy, so you might want to pursue a master’s degree in Business Administration, Finance, or Policy Science, etc. But you don’t know what to choose because you’re all interested in these specific fields. Another example is that you got a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations, but you don’t know whether you should choose Development Studies, Migration, or Foreign Policy. It is the time when you are having dilemmas of choosing this specific field over that specific field. Like undergraduates, there are 8 questions to ask yourself to find out what your specific interest will be.
- What are the top specific fields of study you want to focus on? For example: if it’s political graduate student, you might want to focus on Human Security, Peace and Conflict Resolution, Public Administration, etc.
- Why do you choose this specific field/s?
- What are the career opportunities?
- What is the main issue related with the field you want to study? And why? – Maybe you want to study Peace and Conflict Resolution because of prolonged civil wars in your country.
- What is the issue related with the field you want to address in your community or in your country? – The issue maybe armed conflicts across your country that is consequently causing poverty and starvation in the country.
- What is your solution to the issue you described? Or how would you like to solve the issue? – Describe specific plans or actions to solve the problem.
- How do you like to implement your solution?
- What would be the prospective impacts from this solution that you’ll contribute to your community or your country?