What should I major in if I don't know yet?

In short: you don't need a life plan at 17. You need a choice that keeps doors open. This guide gives you five questions that narrow it down, and one degree in Switzerland that's built for students who'd rather decide later, with a year of real work behind them.

Is it normal not to know what to study?

Completely. The US Department of Education followed students who started college in 2011–12. Within three years, about 33 percent of those in bachelor's programmes had changed their major at least once, and roughly one in ten had changed more than once. Those are students who thought they'd decided.

So the pressure to "know" at the end of high school is mostly pressure, not reality. The useful question isn't "what will I do for the next forty years?" It's "which next step teaches me the most, and costs me the least if I change my mind?"

How to choose a major: five questions

Work through these on paper. One evening is enough.

1. What do you enjoy doing, not just studying? Organising people, solving problems, talking to strangers, making things? A school subject you're good at isn't always work you'd enjoy.
2. How do you learn best? If exams drain you but projects and presentations bring out your best, look for programmes assessed through coursework and practice.
3. What does the job look like on a Tuesday? Look past the title. Find someone in the field and ask what they actually did last week.
4. How many doors does it keep open? Broad fields such as business let you specialise later. Narrow ones commit you early.
5. Can you try it before you commit? Internships and work placements are the cheapest way to find out what you like, and what you don't.

What about an undecided major?

Many US colleges let you start "undeclared" and choose later. That helps, but it often means a year or two of general classes without much contact with real work. If you want the decision to come from experience rather than from a course catalogue, look at programmes that put you inside companies early.

Studying in Switzerland after high school, without a fixed plan

This is where the BHMS bachelor pathway in Lucerne is unusually good for undecided students. Here's how it works, in plain terms:

• Every year you learn business and hospitality. Management, marketing, finance and service, side by side.
• Every year is six months of study and six months of paid internship in a Swiss company, and every year ends with a qualification.
• You choose your degree only in the final year: the BA in Hotel and Hospitality Management or the BA in Global Business Management.
• By then you've worked for two different Swiss companies, a full year of experience, so you choose from what you've lived, not from guesswork.
• The people skills of hospitality make strong business leaders, even if you never plan to work in a hotel.

The internships are paid: the gross trainee salary is CHF 2'404 a month (about US$2,900 at the October 2026 rate). Year 1 costs CHF 39'700 all-inclusive with shared accommodation. So you finish well prepared for working life, and you know much better what you want from it. The degree years are explained in full on Bachelors in Switzerland, and BHMS describes its business and hospitality degrees on its programme overview.

If cooking is the one thing you're sure about, Culinary Arts is its own track from Year 1, with the same six-and-six rhythm.

Didn't finish school, or not sure your grades are enough?

Then there's a bridge. The 6-month Certificate in Hospitality and Business Operations leads into Year 1 of the BHMS bachelor degrees. It asks for a real minimum: age 17, 5 iGCSEs including Maths and English, or equivalent, and English 5.0 / B2 or equivalent. It costs CHF 26'525 all-inclusive and starts four times a year. Our guide to how university pathway programs work explains when a bridge makes sense and when it doesn't.

What to do this week

1. Answer the five questions above, honestly, on one page.
2. Write down two or three fields that survived. Broad beats narrow.
3. For each, find one person who works in it and ask about their week.
4. Check which programmes let you work inside companies while you study.
5. Take the two-minute Fit Check to see where you'd start in Lucerne.

Sources: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, "Beginning College Students Who Change Their Majors Within 3 Years of Enrollment" (NCES 2018-434, December 2017); BHMS fee table 2027 (main flyer 08/2026); exchange rate open.er-api.com, 19 October 2026. ¿Prefieres leerlo en español? ¿No sabes qué estudiar?