Every year, the United States ships roughly five million teenagers off to college dorms and basically says: “While society doesn’t yet trust you to rent cars, because maturity, you need to go ahead plot a course for the ‘rest of your life’ (for only 240 easy payments of $499/month)?”

And don’t forget, the clock is running.

If you’re 18 and have no idea what you want to do with your life, welcome to the club.

Some people happen to know exactly what they want to do, and thus which college major to pick. But for those of you who don’t know exactly what you want, choosing is major isn’t exactly straightforward.

If you’re in doubt, perhaps a better way to start thinking about college choices is by asking“What do I wish to avoid?”. Just like how ‘red flags’ in dating are easier to spot and act on than their opposite, this ‘backwards’ approach to picking majors can help you simplify decision-making.

Choosing the ‘Right’ Major

The Predicament: From hundreds of majors, picking the ‘right’ one, if such a thing exists. The ideal major would lead to a long and energizing career for you, from beginning to end. In a rapidly changing economy, you’d likely prefer a career that stayed relevant too.

What’s more, recent history shows that tomorrow’s biggest employers (and perhaps industries) might be small outfits, operating out of remote garages today. As the tech boom of the 21st century reveals (e.g. Facebook, Amazon, AirBNB, Uber, Tesla, Google, Squarespace), the future job market will be full of surprises.

To recap, you might wish for a major that leads to a long & fulfilling career, stays relevant, hopefully pays the bills and pairs well with an unknowable future…How might you find this unicorn major?

The Typical College Advice

Conventional wisdom says something like, “What is your passion? Now follow it!”

Perhaps this sounds and looks like great advice. But this an inkblot type question, so it allows you too see what you wishes. This is great thinking in some areas, but may fall short for this task. You have to be careful taking beautiful feelings for sound thinking—especially for a choice that has significant long term financial implications.

And sound thinking here can help you avoid major mistakes like Indiana Jones archaeology vs real-life archaeology.

Inverting the College Major Question

Fortunately, there are various ways to get through this problem. As the great mathematician Carl Jacobi reportedly said, “One should always invert!”

So instead of directly thinking “What’s my passion?”, which might be more difficult to answer, you can ask yourself the opposite question, “What do I wish to avoid?”, which might yield more fruit.

Its quite likely that your dislikes (or ‘red flags’) send the clearest signals. Striking obvious “No’s” first can make your subsequent analysis a bit easier.

Fictional Fiona Goes to College

Let’s imagine this problem through Ms Fictional Fiona, who is thinking through college majors. The task feels overwhelming at first. She knows the major she picks today should likely take into account many things.

With this in mind, Ms Fiona makes a quick-and-dirty list of 25 potential “careers” to help back into the best college major for her.

The options look like this:

Simplifying the Major Problem

Weighing trade-offs between 25 choices feels daunting. At this stage in life, Fictional Fiona’s “red flags” come to mind easier and thus can be quickly cross off the list.

She asks herself, “What do I wish to avoid?”

With the indirect approach, Ms Fictional Fiona comes up with a current list of “things-to-avoid”. The list best suits her unique dislikes and constraints. She wishes to:

Avoid accounting (dislike)
Avoid writing/reading intensive fields (dislike)
Avoid majors that “aren’t hiring” (constraint)
Avoid public speaking (dislike)
Avoid paying for more than four years of college (constraint)
Avoid routes requiring a rigorous knowledge of the periodic table and its elements (dislike)

Now the choices look something like this:

From Twenty-Five Majors to Eight

The remaining eight career options are easier to digest than the twenty-five.

Ms Fiona may now wish to tackle the issue directly with , “Now, which college majors seems to best best fit, for me?”

Maybe she’s strong in math and physics and one of her dreams was sending folks to Mars, so she decides on Mechanical Engineering. Or perhaps she likes the idea of coaching high school soccer and always had a knack for teaching, so she decides a teacher would be a great profession—keeping the door open for a variety of majors.

She still has plenty of direct questions: Where do my strengths lay? How would my career benefit society? Where would I live? Would starting salary be enough to pay off student loans by 35? What’s the likelihood the career holds up against a rapidly evolving future? But with fewer possibilities, it’s a cleaner analysis.

Choosing the Right College Major

Some high school students may feel like they know exactly how they wish to spend their time later in life, and thus, which college major to pick.

But you may find themselves in a different boat. Regardless of how you selects a major, it’s a real pickle. But decisions must be made (and of course you can switch majors early on relatively easily).

Since your college experience will be both expensive and likely to play a role in how you spend your time later on, this is an important decision.

So if you’re considering college majors, asking “What do I wish to avoid?” may help you de-clutter the board a bit, when choosing a college major.

As far as choosing the right rental car though, that’ll have to wait a few years (in most states).

Author’s Note

A gap year between high school and college is becoming more popular, which gives you an extra year to ponder this question.

Internships, online research, and talking to friends and family are other helpful ways to improve your odds of a favorable major/career outcome.

Selecting College Majors: What do You Wish Avoid?