Connect AP to Majors and Careers

Aerospace engineering majors learn how to use math and science to design and develop aircraft, spacecraft, and missiles. They also study such topics as aerodynamics, orbits, launch, flight controls, and engines.

For thousands of years, people enviously watched birds coast through the skies and wondered how they did it. But in the last one hundred years, flying on this earth has become as unremarkable as walking, and space travel is no longer the stuff of science fiction.

As an aerospace engineering major, you’ll learn the basics that helped the Wright brothers and others conquer the age-old problem of flight. You’ll learn how to apply these ideas to developing new types of air- and spacecraft  that are better, safer, and stronger. You’ll find out how space flight works and dream up new ways of exploring galaxies unknown.

As an agricultural engineering major, you’ll learn how to use science to improve the production, processing, storage, and distribution of food, timber, fiber, and renewable energy sources while protecting the environment.

Could the earth run out of earth? It doesn’t seem possible, but it takes thousands of years for soil to develop. This means that soil is practically a nonrenewable resource. Meanwhile, soil is being worn out by farming, polluted by chemicals, and eroded by wind and water.

If this concerns you, you’re not alone. Some agricultural engineers come up with farming practices that use soil more efficiently. Others help farmers by designing power systems, tools, and storage space. Still others look for ways to ensure food safety during processing. Thanks to agricultural engineering, farmers are getting better at producing safe food more efficiently while protecting the environment and using natural resources wisely.

Air transportation majors study aviation as well as the technical and business sides of the aviation industry.

Love to fly? Fascinated by planes? If so, consider a major in air transportation. It will give you a foundation in all aspects of aviation, from the physics of flight to the art of piloting to the science of management. Air transportation majors often go on to careers as pilots, air traffic controllers, flight instructors, airport and airline managers, and government administrators.

Students of applied math learn how to use math and statistics to solve problems in the applied sciences and engineering. Subjects of study include numerical analysis (approximation methods) and optimization theory (a decision-making technique).

Many a math student has asked the question, “Will I ever need this stuff in the real world?” Working on a complicated algebra problem or calculus equation may seem like a pointless exercise, but in fact there are a lot of careers that rely on this sort of math.

If you major in applied math, you’ll indulge your love of equations and proofs while preparing for a career in a field such as computer science, engineering, or science.

Astronomy students study space, the history and future of the universe, and the objects within, such as planets, stars, and galaxies. Subjects of study include the evolution of stars, how the stars and planets move through space, chemistry, and advanced math.

When you look up at the night sky, what do you see? There are patterns of stars, planets, the moon, and some sights that you may not be able to explain. Astronomy is the study of those objects in space — how stars, planets, and galaxies form and behave — and the universe itself.

If you want to understand the mysteries of the night sky, this could be the major for you.

Meteorology students study the atmosphere (the gases that surround the earth), focusing on the weather and how to forecast it. Areas of study include the climate, the physics of the atmosphere, and chemistry.

You’ve got your bathing suit on and your sun block packed, but by the time you get to the beach, it’s pouring rain. What happened to that sunny day you expected? Why is the weather so changeable, so uncertain?

Meteorology is the field of science that seeks to understand and predict short-term weather as well as long-term climate processes.

This program prepares students to plan, organize, direct, and control an organization's activities.

With the creation of large factories in the late 1800s came the need to manage large groups of workers. In his 1911 book The Principles of Scientific Management, Frederick Winslow Taylor addressed that need. He suggested that each worker be trained to do a single task with no wasted effort. His philosophy made such a big impact on the business world that it was nicknamed Taylorism and is still studied today.

Of course, there’s a lot of disagreement about Taylorism: some people argue that it's inhumane, while others celebrate the increased productivity it has led to. As a student in business management, you’ll add your voice to this debate and others like it.

Computer science majors learn about computer systems and the way humans and computers interact from a scientific perspective. Instruction includes programming and the theory and design of software.

In countless old Star Trek episodes, a baffled captain asked the computer for help, and the computer promptly replied with an answer. What was once science fiction is becoming reality, thanks to computer scientists working in voice recognition.

If you study computer science, you may learn how to design computer programs that allow humans and computers to speak to one another. Keep in mind, your work is more likely to help a vision-impaired person than a captain navigating the universe, but you never know.

As a software engineering major, you’ll study the scientific and mathematical basis of computer software. You’ll learn a variety of programming languages and how to design, analyze and maintain software.

If you’re considering a major as a computer software engineer, be prepared for a cutting edge and continuously evolving career. Jobs will advance rapidly and new jobs will be created often to meet ever-changing technological needs. Just think about how much computers and the software they use have evolved over the past four years.

The scientific and mathematical foundation you build in this major will always be fundamental to your work. But like other computer majors, you’ll face a lifetime of learning as you strive to stay on the forefront of innovation.

Students in criminal justice explore every aspect of crime, the law, and the justice system.

How is the threat of terrorism affecting city life? Should drug abusers be rehabilitated in prison or drug treatment programs? What punishments are “cruel and unusual”? These are just a few of the questions you’ll confront as a student in criminal justice. You’ll also study the law backward and forward, learn how the judicial system works, and learn the ins and outs of police departments and other law enforcement agencies.

Criminal justice is an interdisciplinary major, so get ready to study everything: law, psychology, sociology, public administration, and more.

Students of criminology study the nature and causes of crime, the behavior of criminals, and the criminal-justice system.

Our obsession with crime and punishment is reflected in fact and fiction television programs about on-the-lam killers, petty criminals, and white-collar crime. Today, as much as ever, we are fascinated by questions about crime: Why do people commit crimes? Is there such a thing as a born killer? Is a completely crime-free society possible? 

Criminology is the search for answers to questions like these. Our understanding of who commits crimes and why has a direct influence on the criminal-justice system. As a criminology student, you may come up with new theories that lead to better responses to crime and its causes.

Economics majors learn about economic theory, economic systems such as capitalism, and mathematical methods. They use their knowledge to analyze how limited resources are made, traded, and used.

As the old song says, money makes the world go 'round. However, without the proper knowledge, it’s difficult to figure out exactly how.

Economics majors learn to decode the systems behind what can often appear impossible to understand. They study economic models and theories to analyze how the seemingly simple acts of buying and selling can be complicated by factors such as taxes, interest rates, inflation, labor disagreements, and even the weather.

Education majors study how people learn and how to best teach them. Classes cover such topics as educational psychology, school health and safety issues, and the planning of classroom activities.

Do you find yourself reading stories to younger kids or organizing games for your cousins at the family picnic? Do you feel proud when you've explained a difficult math problem to a friend and his face lights up with understanding?

If you major in education, you’ll develop your talents into the skills every teacher needs. You’ll find out how to set up and manage a classroom, design and teach inspiring lessons, and help students succeed no matter what their age, background, or learning style.

Students of environmental studies use what they learn in the sciences, social sciences, and humanities to understand environmental problems. They look at how we interact with the natural world and come up with ideas for how we can prevent its destruction.

We use cars to get to work, run errands, and visit friends. Most of these cars run on gas, but the oil we use to make gas is running out. What’s more, drilling for oil destroys natural areas, and burning gas creates pollution. Other ways to power cars, such as electricity, ethanol, and biodiesel, already exist. So why isn't everyone using these energy sources?

To answer this and other important environmental questions, you’ll need to draw on the ideas of many fields, such as science, economics, and politics. If you major in environmental studies, you’ll learn how.

Ethnic studies majors examine race and ethnicity, focusing on a comparative and interdisciplinary study of the history and culture of minorities in the United States.

What do we mean when we say race? What about ethnicity? How has the immigrant experience changed in the last hundred years? How does a history that includes the enslavement, displacement, and exclusion of people of color shape the United States today? And how can we begin to overcome this legacy? These are some of the many questions you'll explore as an ethnic studies major.

You'll study ethnic groups from every angle to arrive at a greater understanding of our diverse world. To do so, you'll take classes in disciplines that range from history, political science, economics, and sociology to literature, music, and art history.

Exercise science majors study the science of the human movement. They also learn how to help people live healthier lives through exercise, rehabilitation, and nutrition.

Do you get a rush from organized sports? Do you feel proud when you work out with teammates and help one another succeed? Is eating well and maintaining a healthy lifestyle a priority to you?

If so, maybe you should go for gold and study the field of exercise science. You’ll learn the science behind everything from jogging to low-carb diets.

Students of foods, nutrition, and wellness learn about food and its effect on our health. Their studies include food preparation and safety, nutritional education, and more.

Is a low-carb diet really the healthiest way to eat? Why do we get cranky when we don’t get enough B vitamins? How can vegetarians pump up the protein in their diet?

If these questions intrigue you, you may want to major in foods, nutrition, and wellness studies. Whether you see yourself developing recipes in a test kitchen, counseling clients on nutrition, or inspecting foods for a government agency, a smorgasbord of options awaits you in this diverse and growing field.

Geography majors study how space on the earth’s surface is placed and used. Students who concentrate on physical geography focus on the land itself, studying such topics as climate, soil, and water. Cultural, or human, geography explores the relationship between people and the land.

If you think geography is all about staring at maps and memorizing state capitols, you couldn’t be more wrong. As a geography major, you’ll study a wide variety of subjects: deserts in the making, the causes of racially segregated housing, the paths of tornados, and the way international trade agreements affect business in a small town. 

As one senior geography major put it, “What we study is how the world works. Is there anything more important or more engaging than that?”

Industrial engineering majors learn how to improve the way factories, hospitals, and other organizations run. They learn to take all factors into account -- from equipment and materials to people.

How many copies of the first Harry Potter book should the corner bookstore keep on its shelf? How many people need to work the night shift at a cupcake factory in order to supply the local chain of grocery stores? Will technology stocks rise or fall over the next three months?

As an industrial engineering major, you’ll draw on math, science, business, and psychology to answer questions like these. You’ll learn how to create factory schedules, determine delivery routes, set up customer service systems, and much more.

Information science majors learn how to create systems for finding and storing data. Students look at the big picture of information exchange and learn how people interact with, use, and sell information.

Students of information science learn about computers, but they also study people. Most importantly, they explore the way people and computers come together.

If you major in information science, you’ll examine the many challenges we face when it comes to technology: How can we build websites that are easy to use? How can we use computers to open new worlds to children without endangering them? How can we bridge the “digital divide” between the haves and the have-nots?

This program prepares students to provide insurance and risk management services to people, businesses, and other organizations.

Let's say a car company employee hurts her hand on the assembly line. Insurance helps pay for the costs of her lost wages, hospital bills, and so forth. But insurance companies and other businesses want to keep costs down by preventing such accidents in the first place.

This prevention is called risk management -- it’s another way that insurance companies protect against loss and harm. If you major in insurance, you'll learn about helping companies create safe working conditions as well as other aspects of risk management. Classes cover everything from health insurance to pension planning.

Students of library and information science learn the skills they need to work as librarians or information consultants. Classes cover developing, storing, finding, organizing, and using information -- whether it's written in a book, posted on a website, recorded on a video or CD, or captured on a slide.

Many of us picture librarians as old-fashioned bookworms. Yet here's how one student describes today's librarians: “[They] help people find jobs [and] search the Internet. They help kids and parents find homework resources. They introduce people to the joys of reading … and they protect our rights to freedom of speech."

Most librarians study library science at the graduate level only. If becoming a professional librarian is your goal, you may want to major in another area of interest as an undergraduate. For example, a bachelor’s degree in science will come in handy if you hope to work as a science librarian someday.

Students of management science learn how to use math and science to design systems, make decisions, and solve problems for businesses. They take courses in high-level math, statistics, computer science, and business.

When most of us go to the airport, we're busy -- saying goodbye to mom and dad, or buying a last-minute box of candy to take to the aunt in Arizona. Most of us don't pause to think about who planned all the systems we're passing through. Who decided when our flight would leave, from which gate, and what route it would travel? Who figured out which pilot and flight crew would be assigned to our airplane? Who set up the security checkpoints?

Management science majors learn the skills and techniques they’ll need to help businesses such as airlines solve complex problems.

Math majors study quantities, forms, and symbolic logic in such subjects as algebra, geometry, calculus, logic, topology, and number theory.

Most of us are comfortable using everyday math -- when we go shopping, for example. But higher level math, such as calculus, may seem mysterious, a completely unfamiliar language. As a math major, you’ll study this language and learn how to use it to describe the world. You’ll explore calculus, modern algebra, and other high-level math in the purest light.

If you love to solve math problems just to know the answer and enjoy using abstract concepts to discover whether something is true or false, this could be the major for you.

Physician assistance majors train to practice medicine as part of a team supervised by doctors.

Are you interested in health and medicine? Do biology, chemistry, and psychology rank among your favorite courses? Can you imagine working with physicians and patients in a busy city hospital? Or what about working with a physician in a small rural community? If you answered yes to these questions, a major in physician assistance may be the right choice for you.

Since physician assistants are often the first person to assess a patient’s health, you’ll learn how to recognize and treat everything from the common cold to life-threatening diseases. Your studies will range from basic medical and clinical sciences to specialized fields such as pediatrics, surgery, or psychiatry.

Physics is the scientific study of matter and energy. Topics covered include classical and modern theories, electricity and magnetism, and relativity.

How does the universe work? What are atoms made of? While the first question is about the biggest of things, the second asks about the unimaginably small. Yet both questions fall under the scope of physics. 

Physics majors seek to understand the laws that govern the universe. From gigantic stars trillions of miles away to the subatomic particles within our own bodies, physics takes on matter and energy in all its forms.

Psychology majors study the way humans and animals act, feel, think, and learn.

If psychology interests you, you have something in common with the ancient Greek philosophers. They asked questions about the life of the mind: What is the relationship between mind and body? How can we tell if the world is really the way we think it is?

Today's psychologists study all sorts of fascinating questions, such as the following: Why is learning a language as an infant easier than as a teenager? What are the roots of violence? What is the best way to help someone with an eating disorder like anorexia?

Majors in public administration study how administrators enact policy at the local, state, and federal levels.

Whether developing education programs for inner-city youth or working with residents to create a crime-fighting neighborhood watch, public administrators breathe life into public policies.

If you major in public administration, you’ll learn how they do it. You’ll build the skills it takes to bring together diverse groups -- from neighborhood associations to private businesses -- and change communities for the better.

Students of public policy analysis learn various methods for studying proposed solutions to public problems.

Should people be allowed to smoke in bars? This is just one public policy debate taking place across the globe. Legislators and other public officials must decide whether the health benefits of a smoking ban outweigh the money that bars -- and even whole cities -- could lose if smokers take their business elsewhere.

Public policy refers to all of the laws, regulations, and other programs developed by governments to solve problems. And if you major in public policy analysis, you’ll make problem solving your specialty. Along the way, you’ll grapple with some of society’s most urgent issues, such as crime, health care, and the quality of the air we breathe. 

Social work majors learn to practice social work in various settings such as hospitals, child welfare agencies, and the criminal justice system.

Social worker Whitney M. Young, Jr. was a key civil rights activist of the 1960s. Yet most people have never heard of him. That's because while others were protesting in the streets, Young spent much of his time meeting with top businesspeople. Young was skilled at encouraging wealthy white Americans to give money to the movement.

As a social work major, you’ll learn that there are many ways to go about making the world a better place. Some social workers counsel people and help them get services such as subsidized housing and food stamps. Others, like Young, guide social movements, research social issues, or design and set up policy programs such as Social Security.

Statistics students study probability theory and sampling theory. They also learn to use techniques based on these theories to study the relationships between groups of measurements.

Who will win the next presidential election? To find out, you might ask each and every registered voter how they plan to vote. But a more practical way to get your answer is to conduct an opinion poll, questioning only a small sample of registered voters. But how can you use the answers of a small group of people to make a prediction that involves many millions of people nationwide?

That’s where statistics comes into play. Statistics is a field of applied mathematics that relies heavily on computers. Using statistics, pollsters can decide who to interview and how to weigh the information they collect to make accurate predictions.

Urban studies majors use the tools of sociology, economics, and other social sciences to study city life, government, and services. If you choose this major you’ll learn how city dwellers live and behave. You’ll also study the problems they face.

Cities are loud, crowded, concrete jungles, right? But they’re also places full of energy, where great thinkers, artists, and leaders come together and give birth to new and exciting creative movements and ideas.

Urban studies majors learn what makes city culture unique and how urban areas respond to problems and events. You’ll ask yourself many questions as an urban studies major. For example: How do different neighborhoods develop their own identities? How do the buildings and the layout of a city affect its people? What happens when the need for growth clashes with the need to preserve history? How does living close together affect the way city dwellers interact?