Choosing a major before school started was hard enough, but now that I’m already halfway through the year, I feel like the major that I was so completely sure with before is no longer the dream I was once had, and I just don’t understand what exactly happened.
The single most asked question I get is what my major is - the one that now scares me whenever I meet somebody new. I don’t know exactly at what point I started having doubts about what I wanted to be when I "grew up."
In high school, I bragged about my major. Whenever my friends asked me what I was going to study, I would always give them the same cocky attitude: I want to be a journalist, I want to work for Rolling Stone, and I want to move to New York. Now that I’m in college, I no longer have the same dream. In fact, I think I have actually become the dreaded "U" word: undecided.
I had always heard of my older college friends say that they switched majors a few times before they finally stuck to only one. But, I actually never believed them. I thought they were all exaggerating and that I would surely prove them all wrong by sticking to one major. But now, I’m actually dabbling between three other things that I want to be and they’re very different from each other.
Why is that, though? Why is it that so many freshmen like me are struggling to find their dream career in college when there are so many options? Maybe that’s the problem: we don’t exactly know how many options we have.
I remember that even at orientation, the leaders separated us according to majors and colleges. But what about the "undecided" majors? Were they separated with a bunch of "undecided" people and just got a simple tour of campus? What does the school really do when it comes to guiding us freshman who are completely lost into what we really want to be?
The Career Development Center helps students with their career paths and choices for those that haven't found "the right track." They do so by giving out self-assessment tests and information about different kind of careers and majors that help students decide what they really want to study.
But I guess now that I’m in college, I understand what my friends meant when they said that I was probably going to change my major about a couple of times before making up my mind. I guess it’s because as a freshman, we’re all trying to find what we’re really good at, and sometimes the major that we may have chosen may not have been the best one for us. This would probably explain the indecisiveness and the changing around of majors the first couple of years in college.
I still think that the promoting of other majors and careers should still be more advertised around campus. How about having a table on the Breezeway dedicated to a certain major on different days of the week with a person to talk more about it? Or how about workshops for freshman to help us decide what major is best for us and which ones we could actually succeed in, because I definitely need some guidance in this whole deal.
I just wish the process of choosing a major would be a lot easier. For some reason, it is more difficult than I thought. I am still a communications major, but there are just so many other things that I want to explore and study that I feel like I’m caught up in the middle of my own decisions.
I like music, psychology and writing — but that doesn’t mean I’m going to major in each of those.
For now, I will be switching my major to Psychology just because I think it’s the only other thing I like the most — I just hope I’m making the right decision for my future. But hey, it sounds good for the time being.
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5 comments:
I changed my major about 8 times between my freshmen year and junior year and I'm a senior now still able to graduate on schedule. Changing your major isn't too big of a deal especially not in your first two years, use that time to figure it out and get your prereqs done and explore your options.
You'll find that choosing a major is just as much about finding something you're interested in as it is being around people you can tolerate. I left computer science because all of those people used Axe instead of showering and installed drivers for fun on the weekend instead of hanging out with, you know, people.
The college "Myth" is that you have to choose a major which you intend to pursue a career in. This is not true. For example lets say you get a degree in psychology, you can still get hired by a newspaper even though your major is not writing or journalism. A degree only really "matters" when you intend to specialize in something. Something like Graduate school would be an example of this. Just remember, any well paying job will hire you regardless of major, all they look for is a four year degree.
Don't do that you are the best at what you are doing!!!!!!
I think that everyone in college has changed its major at least once.
The positive side is that thinking about what major choose gives the opportunity to realize what exactly we want to be althogh I think you are doing just great writing in this blog. By the way Have you ever thought about writing a book ?
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