How to choose a degree course? A step-by-step guide

Figuring out how to choose a degree course keeps thousands of high-school graduates up at night. Time pressure, family expectations, and an overwhelming number of programmes make it easy to decide too quickly or on a whim. The good news: the decision can be broken down into a concrete, multi-step process — and that's exactly what we cover below.

Step 1: start with yourself, not with a ranking

Before you open a "best-paying degrees" ranking, pause on a simpler question: what do you actually enjoy doing? Which school subjects felt good, not just easy to score well in? When does time fly by fastest — solving logic problems, talking to people, or building something from scratch? This is the most commonly skipped, yet most important stage of the whole process. If you feel completely lost, check our article I don't know what to study for concrete exercises to map out your own preferences.

Discover your career type

Occupational psychology has used typologies of career interests for decades. The most popular one is the RIASEC model, or Holland Codes, which sorts preferences into six groups: realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, and conventional. Knowing your own RIASEC profile helps you quickly rule out degrees that clearly won't fit and focus on the ones actually worth considering.

Step 2: check hard data, not just opinions from friends

Choosing a degree isn't only about interests — it's also an economic decision for decades to come. Before deciding, it's worth checking a few sources:

• The ELA system (Economic Fate of Graduates, nauka.gov.pl) — shows roughly how much graduates of a given programme at a given university earn and how quickly they find jobs.
• Barometr zawodów (the Occupation Barometer) — an annual forecast of which occupations will be in short supply, balanced, or oversupplied in a given region.
• GUS (Statistics Poland) — data on employment structure and labour-market trends nationwide.
• wynagrodzenia.pl — indicative salary ranges across occupations and industries.

None of these sources guarantee future earnings — they're always indicative figures reflecting market conditions from a few years back. Treat them as a reference point, not an oracle.

Step 3: match your interests against labour-market realities

The best decisions sit at the intersection of what interests you and what is (and will be) in demand. The table below matches example areas of interest with related degrees and an indicative labour-market outlook.

Step 4: verify admission requirements

Before falling in love with a particular degree, check last year's admission point thresholds, required matura subjects, and any entrance exams (common for art or medical programmes, for instance). It's worth doing this early, since your choice of extended matura subjects often has to be declared back in high school.

Step 5: use tools that speed up the decision

Independently analysing your interests, market data, and admission requirements can take a long time. That's why next.movv built a free, 10-minute online test that uses the RIASEC model to match you with specific degrees and occupations — complete with indicative salaries, automation risk, and where in Poland to study a given programme. It's a solid starting point for a further conversation with a career counsellor or your family, not a substitute for one.

Step 6: don't look for the perfect decision — look for a good decision for today

Many graduates freeze up believing that choosing a degree is irreversible. In practice, Poland has supplementary admissions, you can switch programmes after year one, transfer to another university, or add a second major. Decide based on what you know today — and remember that later steps can always be adjusted.

The most common decision-making mistakes

Before you submit your application, check whether you're falling into one of the typical traps: choosing a degree purely under family pressure, following a trend without checking the job's realities, or, conversely, ignoring market data in favour of pure passion with no backup plan. Read more about these pitfalls and how to avoid them in a separate article on how to choose a degree you won't regret.

What if you get conflicting signals from yourself and the market?

Sometimes an aptitude test points to one degree while market data suggests something else entirely. In that case, it's worth looking for a compromise rather than an extreme — for example, choosing a degree aligned with your interests but in a more practical, market-oriented form (such as business psychology instead of pure clinical psychology, or applied computer science instead of a purely theoretical track). Talking to a school career counsellor or someone already working in the field helps verify whether such a compromise makes sense in your specific case.

Summary

The answer to how to choose a degree course isn't hidden in one magic test or salary ranking — it emerges at the intersection of self-knowledge, hard data, and real admission requirements. Start with yourself, check the data, verify the requirements, and leave room to change your mind.