College Magazine: Major Changes

via weheartit

Choosing a major at the age of 18 or 19 can seem like an impossible decision to make, which is why many college students go in undeclared. But even those of us who decide from the outset that we're going to major in biology or English or something else tend to change our minds.

Fifty percent of college students who declare a major change that major, and many do so two or three times, MyMajors.com Founder Dr. Fritz Grupe told Gayle B. Ronan of MSNBC. While your happiness is most important, it can be costly changing your major once or twice. It can also mean spending more time on your college campus.

In the interest of saving you money and time, here are some steps to take so you can settle on the perfect major as quickly as possible.

1. Test the Waters

If you're undeclared, go to step two. If you've declared a major, take courses in your subject area or prerequisite courses in your first semester or two. Julia Held, a first-semester sophomore at Temple University, declared biology as her major when she enrolled. She signed up for a chemistry prerequisite, “realized how much I disliked chemistry, which is a HUGE prerequisite to biology, pretty much when I stopped going to class, and had no desire to take any further classes in that field,” she said. If you like these classes, you've probably locked in the right major for you.

 

To read the rest of this post I wrote for College Magazine about changing your major, click here.