Choosing what to major in is one of the biggest decisions for high school students preparing for college.
Not only does a college major impact your future career path, but it can even influence what university you want to attend — certain schools have better programs for specific degrees than others. But how do you make such a monumental decision?
Most students consider their personal strengths and interests, as well as future job prospects, like stability and salary potential. It also helps to identify degrees in quickly-growing fields to set yourself up for success. And, to help you narrow down your choices, consider getting hands-on experience like volunteering, interning or taking a pre-college program. Read on to gain inspiration and explore whether one of these top college majors in 2025 is right for you.
Nursing
Health is important to everybody and nursing has been an in-demand field for quite some time. Nursing remains a solid career choice in 2025 — in fact, it’s predicted to grow from 2021 to 2031, due to “increasing demand for health care services for older populations,” according to Indeed.
Working in medicine can be incredibly rewarding, but it’s not for everyone. If you’d like to explore whether a nursing major is up your alley, consider a pre-college program like Health and Healing: Explorations in the History of Medicine or Global Health: Investigating Outbreaks, Preventing Disease. These college-level courses taught by USC faculty provide a taste of what it would be like to major in a health-related field once you get to college.
Public Relations
Do you have an eye for storytelling? You may find the best use of your skills to be a public relations role. Public relations, or PR, professionals are in charge of crafting and maintaining a person or company’s public image through brand deals, press releases, events, articles and more. It’s a great role for someone who is media savvy, thinks strategically and can keep cool in a crisis. Job opportunities for PR professionals are projected to grow through 2031, according to Research.com.
If you’re interested in pursuing a public relations major in college, you can flex your communications and storytelling muscles in a USC pre-college program like Storytelling in the Digital Age or Media Literacy in the Age of Disinformation. Both of these programs can help you better understand the media tools needed to work in PR today — and to see if the major is the right one for you.
Biomedical Engineering
People will always fall ill or get injured — and luckily, technology continues to be developed to help them. Many of the workers behind such technological innovations have degrees in biomedical engineering. Those who study biomedical engineering apply engineering principles to the medical field, designing and building prosthetics, implants and wearable devices, as well as creating systems to help patients get quicker diagnoses or better treatments. Thanks to a strong salary and projected growth rate, biomedical engineering is one of the top college majors for 2025, according to Research.com.
If you have a knack for science and math but aren’t sure what field you’d like to pursue, consider a pre-college program focused on health or one like Discover Engineering, which provides a broad overview and hands-on experience with many different engineering paths.
Business Administration
Maybe you dream of running a company one day or launching your own startup. Or maybe you see yourself working somewhere else in the corporate business world. Either way, a business administration major can set you up for success, equipping you with a wide variety of skills for jobs including finance, management, marketing, business law, accounting and more. Understandably, that kind of flexibility makes it one of the top majors for students in 2025, according to Indeed.
If you aren’t sure what aspect of business administration interests you, get a broad overview with USC’s Introduction to Business pre-college program. Or dive deeper into your interests with Building Sustainable Businesses or Exploring Entrepreneurship.
Computer Graphics Game Design
It’s entirely possible to devote your time in college to video games! If you’re an avid gamer, enjoy coding or have a passion for storytelling, a computer graphics game design major might check all your boxes. Students who choose this major learn all about coding and computer science, as well as graphic design. With these combined skills, they’re able to craft digital visuals, which can be used for video games, computer programs, websites and more. Plus, the background in computer science makes their skills transferable to other tech roles, too.
USC’s Video Game Development pre-college program is a great way to dip your toe in the water of game design and prototyping, to explore whether a major in computer graphics game design or a related field is right for you.
Communications
A major in communications covers a wide array of skills. Students who pursue this degree learn about media theory, writing, public speaking, communication ethics, research, marketing and more. It’s one of the top majors, thanks to the array of possible job titles it can lead to. Armed with this knowledge, graduates go on to take roles in public relations, journalism, social media, business communications, content creation and marketing, among other things.
USC offers a wide variety of pre-college programs equipping students for majors in communication, including Sports Journalism: Multi-Platform Storytelling, Storytelling in the Digital Age and Media Literacy in the Age of Disinformation.
Learn more about USC Pre-College Programs today.