# INTP 5w6 Can't Decide on a Major



## of mike and men (Apr 30, 2011)

Hello,

I am 24 years old, and have been in school for the past 3 years with no definite direction. As stated, I am an INTP with a 5w6 Enneagram Type, and I have a highly developed feeling side (which may sound contradicting to some). I've enjoyed every class that I have taken (Foreign Languages, Communications, Sciences, Media, English, Mathematics, etc.), and have narrowed down my majors to these:

Mathematics
Economics
Computer Science
Biology
Physics


I will go on and list what I want from school, followed by what flaws I find in the majors for my goals. Please, bear in mind, I will be putting a lot of thought into this decision, but I want opinions from people who aren't invested in my life, that are relatively familiar with MBTI, Cognitive Functions, and Enneagram, solely to help me narrow down my decision further. While I realize that your knowledge of me will be limited, all I am asking is for some help.

My goal from college is to gain more knowledge about the world and to achieve a comfortable lifestyle that could support a wife and kids, should that come my way, and enable me to be free from a retail environment, while enjoying what I do, hopefully making a difference in society, and allows me some freedom (i.e. not working 80 hours a week so I can spend time with family and friends, though, if I DO have to do this, I'd at least like to enjoy my job -- so it isn't out of the question).

Now for the flaws:

Mathematics:
Until college level mathematics, I was actually never very interested in math. In fact, I was rather awful at math simply because I didn't care about the topic. I had always enjoyed my English classes and wanted to be writer growing up, but as time moved on I developed a much more logical mind. However, I fear that math may be a bit of a grind before and after college, and I'm not sure I'm up to that task. There are also some Math courses I dread.

Economics:
Economics seems to be one of the emerging popular majors amongst graduates, and I'm not sure I want to be another economic major. I find that I may enjoy the schooling considering it involves a lot of math, psychology, theorizing, and philosophy (all of which are interests of mine and I read about on my own time), but after school I'm not so sure I'd enjoy the work. I may like it, but I'm afraid I'd not have the free time I'd like with my family. Not to mention, I don't want to head straight for unemployment (though I've heard employment with economics or finance looks positive).

Computer Science:
When I was younger (12 years old), I really enjoyed programming websites. I loved using PHP, HTML, etc. and seeing how my webpages turned out. However, I am VERY, VERY, VERY limited in my programming knowledge now, in fact, I would consider myself to have absolutely no knowledge of programming. However, from what I understand of computer science (my uncle works for Google), I think I would enjoy the topic, enjoy the problem solving, but I'm not so sure I would be able to pay attention to detail as much as I need to. I also don't know if I'd enjoy programming the rest of my life (or until I major in something different).

Biology:
I don't want to be stuck in the medical field.

Physics: 
The same as mathematics, and I don't want to be an engineer, unless it was aeronautic engineering, or computer engineering, but as a whole, engineering doesn't sound appealing to me. Astrophysics is what interests me, and astronomy isn't on this list because I can't get into the only school by me that offers an astronomy major (they are too selective).

As far as how much schooling I am willing to get, I plan to go to school my entire life. So if it requires a PhD, I have the motivation to get it, just not the money, yet.

Thanks for any help or advice any of you can provide.


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