Switching Majors and Finding Your Passion
The chance that you will graduate with the major you have chosen your freshman year is incredibly small. About 50-75% of college students will change their major at least once before earning their undergraduate degree. It’s normal to not know what you want to do right away —it’s also normal to change your mind a few times before settling for that degree you’ve worked so hard for. Here are a few ways to figure it all out and breathe easy as you navigate your future degree and career.
It’s better to go in your freshman year undecided. Listen, you’re going to meet a lot of people your freshman year who already have their entire major (and minor) chosen to perfection. That’s great and all; however, the pressure to know and execute a four-year plan at the age of 18 is incredibly stressful. If you enter your freshman year as undecided, you’ll be able to explore a variety of classes your first two semesters with trial and error in the process of learning what you want to do. The wider range of classes you take, the easier you’ll be able to decipher if it is something you are truly interested in studying for the next few years of your life.
Talk to your advisor and professors. Once you find a subject area you are interested in, do your research by speaking to your academic advisors and professors in that field. Ask as many questions as you can, take a look at the courses needed to complete the degree, and take time to see if it is something you want. Talk to other students who are in that program, get opinions and outlooks from all ranges of that field of study.
If you want to change it, change it. Changing your major will always be a nervous decision —whether it be a simple minor change or a complete shift to another field. However, if you want to change it, change it. It is okay to change in your freshman and sophomore years, and you'll change as a student and a person, too. The good news is, you still have time to complete the degree in your first two years of higher education. The whole point of your undergraduate degree is to educate yourself in a program you will be happy about on graduation day. Don’t sweat it if it delays your graduation progress, because your advisors and professors want to help you graduate on time and get out into the real world. Talk to them about ways you can avoid staying an additional semester and what kinds of classes will help you the most.
Explore the job industry of your education program. Whatever you decide to do, you will eventually leave your campus and enter the job market with your degree in hand. Job shadow members in your future field and investigate if you can see yourself working in that industry for the next years of your life. Above that, take your time to research jobs available to you with your degree and set up an appointment with the career office to talk about them further. You can’t have enough information when it comes to your future, so make sure you take your time and don’t forget to breathe ;).
Don’t sweat it. I changed my education program about four times before finally settling on what I wanted to be. First, I was dead set on studying secondary education and becoming an English teacher and spent a whole two years working towards that goal. As I spent time in the classroom shadowing teachers and working with students, I realized that I wanted to do something else besides teaching middle and high school. So, I entered the second semester of my sophomore year as a theatre study and performing arts student. I was super happy with this decision until I realized that maybe I wanted to do something completely different. I switched over to pre-law studies, went back to theatre, until one day I had an epiphany. I researched journalism and public relations and something inside of me clicked. The job market was everything I was interested in and more. I held onto my English major I had spent three years working on and finally switched my minor to journalism and public relations.