Going into college can be a daunting experience. In high school, your big decisions include how to get out of gym and whether to take French or Spanish. Suddenly you’re looking at college, where you make a lot of decisions that will impact you for the rest of your life. You need enough certainty of your plan for the future that you’re willing to back it with a substantial amount of cash. How do you decide which path is right for you — not just for you now, but for you in 20, 30 years?

Passion

It’s the question we all get asked from the time we can talk: what do you want to be when you grow up? Passion is an important piece of the puzzle. It’s the part that pushes us to excel, that makes working weekends or late nights worthwhile. Passion is the thing that keeps us from feeling like we’re whittling away chunks of our life behind a desk. It’s easy to say I want to help people, so I want to be a doctor; but unless you have a passion for the inner workings of the human body, it’s better to be a social worker, or run a non-profit.

Skills

Now that you’ve got your passion in mind, think about your skills. You might have a passion for space flight, but being an astronaut is a little out of your range. You have good people and organizational skills, though, so you might be a great project manager. You won’t be the guy in the rocket, but you’ll be one of the people who makes getting the guy in the rocket possible.

For every astronaut, there are tons of behind the scenes people who make the big goals happen. Project managers keep the process going and at their highest efficiency. Accountants makes sure the money is there. Engineers turn science fiction into real life. Look at your skills and be critical. What can you do? What do you enjoy doing? What skill would you be okay relying on for the rest of your career? How do those skills fit into a college path? Which major will let you develop them into a viable job path?

Practicality

Think about the lifestyle you want to lead, from the kind of pay you’d like to make to the time investment you want to put into your job. If it’s important to have your evenings and weekends free, service industry jobs might not be right for you. If you want to feel free to chase your wanderlust to any beach in the world, go for a job that allows you to work remotely or benefits from travel, like photography. Social work is hard for people unable to carry a heavy emotional burden and leave them at the office.  

Also consider the amount of training, education, and certification required to excel at a job. Social work requires a lot of education and internships, which takes years and a lot of money but may not have the same financial pay-off. Accountants can work in a variety of fields, and might pursue CPA certification (which increases their pay rate). The practicality of a career can make or break that educational path.  

Changing Your Major

The good news is, nothing is set in stone. If you begin down one educational path and determine that you can’t see yourself doing this for the rest of your working life, it’s okay to change. Think about why you’d like to change, first and foremost. Are you frustrated? Is that frustration something you can work through, or is it bigger than that? Is the major turning out to be something different from what you had in mind?

Look at your motivations. Make sure they’re real, and not just a temporary wall between you and your goals. Are you certain your new major won’t have a similar wall? Have you looked into your new major enough to know that it’s a viable option for you? How much will switching your major cost you, both in time and money? Do any of your courses carry over to the new major? Are you okay with the costs of switching?

When answering the big question — what do you want to be when you grow up — these questions will help you narrow down your your dreams into a practical, pursuable major that will get you the education you need to have the life you love.