r/csun • u/Competitive-Chip-346 • 1d ago

Thinking of changing majors.

Hi all, I’m currently a freshman majoring in Kinesiology and I thought about switching my major since I find Kinesiology a bit difficult and boring. I’m thinking of switching to psychology or Anthropology. Anyone ever take these majors?

15 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

21 comments sorted by

19

u/TheBoyyAintRight 1d ago

For whatever it's worth, I worked at Starbucks and half of the people that worked there had psychology degrees. Whatever you do, I would not recommend that oversaturated industry

5

u/tacomentarian 1d ago

Agreed. At every university I've attended, psych was the most popular major, which results in a larger supply of people with psych bachelor's degrees than the much smaller demand for people with those degrees. As someone else said below, a psych undergrad degree works best for students aiming for grad school to become psychologists, therapists (or professors).

Source: have tutored hundreds of students and advised many on applying to uni.

I suggest emailing the general advisor(s) of the College of social and behavioral sciences to schedule a Zoom meeting. Tell them your situation and ask their views about the majors that interest you. Watch videos about what careers are accessible to certain majors.

Especially ask for suggested sites with tools like questionnaires to help you identify your career interests and values. Helping professions? Public service? Use the results to explore possible careers on sites like bls dot gov. There you can find job descriptions, skills required, degrees required, salaries in each state, etc.

Ultimately, a major that's a good fit should be the intersection of several factors. It should ... - Be intellectually interesting - Provide skills that are valuable in the job market - Enable you to serve others - Lead to financially rewarding careers

9

u/akytohere 1d ago

psych is very expandable, but don't do it if you're not planning for grad school.

3

u/GabagoolAndGasoline 1d ago

Yup. Realistically a psych bachelors is useless. My girlfriend is getting hers right now and she’s gonna do a masters

5

u/Prestigious-Yak-8971 1d ago

Depends on what you are planning do with your degree after. I’m in Kin, it gives you so much routes that you can choose from. It really is up to you and what your goal is.

3

u/twisted_godcomplex Anthropology Major 1d ago

Anthropology is great if it really interests you. It’s a small major so classes are difficult to keep on the schedule but it’s doable and I personally love the subject. I wouldn’t call it “easy,” but that sort of thing varies from person to person

3

u/Competitive-Chip-346 1d ago

How are the classes? What do you learn? What’s a day to day routine for anthropology at csun?

2

u/twisted_godcomplex Anthropology Major 1d ago

Anthropology is a broad subject. There is cultural, biological, archaeological, and linguistic. You’ll have to take classes for all of these (plus applied anthropology which is essentially using cultural/linguistic anthropology in other fields - this is a super lucrative career choice and I recommend it highly) and then choose between them for some of the upper division classes once you’re a senior.

The classes vary as much as they would in any other major, but for the most part all the full time professors are great. Professor Scheld (the chair) is amazing.

Some classes count for GE credits so they fill up pretty quickly and are full of people who don’t care at all about the subject, but it’s not so bad. Unfortunately sometimes the upper division classes get canceled because not enough people are taking them in a certain semester, so you have to stay on things like that, but you’ll be an expert on the system for that by the time that becomes an issue (and if you’re not, both the academic advisor and the peer advisor for anthro are extremely knowledgeable and helpful).

I’ve found it pretty easy to stack all my classes into only two days a week on campus, which is a plus. I’m a senior and next semester I’ll only be on campus Tuesday and Saturday, I have no online classes for this field.

Hope this helps, but I’ll answer more questions if you have them.

2

u/Competitive-Chip-346 6h ago

What kind of jobs await after finishing with a bachelor’s degree? Would I need to stay longer for a masters degree to at least travel around the world visiting excavations sites? Or would a bachelor’s degree be fine?

1

u/twisted_godcomplex Anthropology Major 6h ago

For something like that with archaeology you’d probably need a master’s degree, unfortunately. Maybe even a doctorate for the higher positions

3

u/sal_100 1d ago

Pick a major that will give you a comfortable life. All jobs suck. Pick one that sucks the least and that you can do.

3

u/Pie_Panadera 1d ago

If you’re unsure of your major I would take some time at community college so you could explore your interests and different classes without putting yourself into debt

2

u/ChocolateBootyhole 1d ago

What ever you do don’t pick psych, pick something like accounting or engineering so you can have an actual job when you graduate. Suffer through college but at least you will be able to make money after you graduate and your degree will mean something

2

u/dsmemsirsn 1d ago

No — find another major than psychology or worse anthropology

1

u/Competitive-Chip-346 6h ago

Like?

1

u/dsmemsirsn 4h ago

I can’t tell you; you have to figure what you like; maybe go to the student services for some career testing.

Ok, of those maybe I’ll take psychology— you could get a sub job as a teacher after graduation; or a teachers aid in elementary or preschool program.

You could also apply to work in behavioral services; or the regional center.

My daughter did psychology BS. During school; she worked in the mental health office that the departments has; she also worked for a behavioral company as an aide for a single student in Los Angeles unified school district— for 5 hours daily. Immediate after the bachelor’s, she went into the master. She wanted to do the MSW; but no space, so she did the MFT. Worked at penny lane in our city (20 miles round trip commute). After getting her MFT license, she moved to a HMO job. Right now she’s doing a doctoral in research. Paid student loans.

She graduated from Csun too. Edit

2

u/GabagoolAndGasoline 1d ago

Think about what career you would ultimately want before you pick a major

2

u/alexromo 1d ago

do you want to start working when you graduate or do you want to struggle finding a job?

1

u/nagato36 1d ago

Anthropology I hear that psychology too full

1

u/swaggyvibez 21h ago

i’m currently a psych major but if you are planning on stopping your education at a bachelors degree then i would recommend switching to Anthropology.