%age of students who can't decide on a major entering college

2,926 Views | 6 Replies | Last: 4 yr ago by CrottyKid
saw em off
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My daughter (no rule 1) will be a senior this year and she's starting to stress a little because she doesn't know what she wants to do yet. She's not a STEM person. Her strengths are English, Reading, Arts, that side of things. She's pretty sure she doesn't want to teach. Is it common that students begin to figure it out once they start their basics? Do those personality/career surveys help?
redd38
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AG
Maybe have her take a gap year to work a crappy job. Nothing focuses someone's career ambitions like minimum wage.
OldArmy71
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AG
As a retired professor/teacher who has monitored the academic board for many years, I can tell you this: Texas A&M and Texas do not consider themselves to be institutions in which an undecided student can explore career options. Both universities are geared to meet the needs of intensely focused people who know what they want to major in. They do not want to deal with people who change directions midstream and thus take longer to graduate, if they ever graduate.

(When I started A&M 50 years ago, I arrived with no real idea of what I wanted to do and wound up changing my major twice, to no ill effect. In those days, it all worked out for the best.)

I disagree with this current approach, but it is what it is.

I would encourage your student to take comparatively inexpensive classes at a local community college until she decides what she wants to do in life. Working for a while, as suggested above, is also a good idea.

Best of luck to her!
Duncan Idaho
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redd38 said:

Maybe have her take a gap year to work a crappy job. Nothing focuses someone's career ambitions like minimum wage.

This only works if you make them survive on what they are making.

Making a few grand and living st home is a pretty sweet life for an 18 yr old chick
mccjames
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AG
As an entering freshman, my daughter has gone through 4 degree plans before setting foot on campus, varying wildly, architecture, biology, veterinary, English and to final choice of agriculture communications and journalism. Which is stem based.

It is very tough for many kids to figure what they want to do and the college choice/acceptance is so difficult they do not even think much about careers, just trying to get in.

In hindsight we should have tried to expose her more to potential career choices, not sure what we would have done but it was very stressful trying to get into a college with a career you think you want.

I agree with the teacher above, they have made it WAY to complicated to move around, good luck transferring to business or engineering they have so many restrictions the worst is the hour restrictions, if you do not transfer by sophomore year they won't let you, moronic since most of my friends were just figuring out what they liked at that point and all most have taken is the same core curriculum.
isitjustme
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AG
My advice is that she should pick a major that she might like. It's better than entering as undecided/university studies. Nothing says she has to stay in that major. She might want to take a couple of electives (101s, 201s) in other majors she is interested in and that might help her to decide to switch majors or not.

Two important things - some departments at TAMU won't let you transfer into them if you already have too many college credits, and more importantly, just b/c you get a degree in "x" doesn't mean you have to ever work in "x" or that you have to work in "x" the rest of your life. The degree will show that she can learn and finish something, and that's important to many employers.

One last item - if she's borrowing a lot of money for her education, it is to her great advantage that whatever she studies will be in a field that will allow her a job that helps her pay off her loans without moving back in with you.
The Dog Lord
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AG
agrab86 said:

My advice is that she should pick a major that she might like. It's better than entering as undecided/university studies. Nothing says she has to stay in that major. She might want to take a couple of electives (101s, 201s) in other majors she is interested in and that might help her to decide to switch majors or not.

Two important things - some departments at TAMU won't let you transfer into them if you already have too many college credits, and more importantly, just b/c you get a degree in "x" doesn't mean you have to ever work in "x" or that you have to work in "x" the rest of your life. The degree will show that she can learn and finish something, and that's important to many employers.

One last item - if she's borrowing a lot of money for her education, it is to her great advantage that whatever she studies will be in a field that will allow her a job that helps her pay off her loans without moving back in with you.

Apologies for the novella...

Some great advice has been given by everyone already, but some points in this post are exceptional. Being undecided might create some anxiety and reluctance to move forward out of fear that she will make the wrong decision. Many students think they need to find the perfect fit before declaring a major. It's much easier to change majors after you realize "I don't want to do this anymore" than to feel 100% confident that you're making the right decision when the time comes to finally declare a major.

She can still be strategic when choosing core and elective classes though by taking courses that will likely apply to her eventual major. Thinking of Psychology? Take intro psych for her core Social & Behavioral Science requirement. Considering several majors that all have a decent number of free electives? Feel free to explore a bit without the fear of taking classes that won't apply to her degree. Also, look for courses that will be useful regardless of profession (such as Rhetoric in Western Thought or a foreign language for her core Language, Philosophy, & Culture course).

One of the biggest things is to learn more about any careers she is even remotely interested in. She needs to talk to people no matter how awkward she might feel doing it. I knew jack **** about most careers going into college so how could I have known which one I wanted to pursue? A career counselor might be able to provide a set of questions for her to ask each person. She needs to understand what the day-to-day is like. Are they in the same room/building all day? Is the job stable but also repetitive? She needs to ask more than one person for each position too since one person may work for a great supervisor/organization that affects their opinion of their position. Crossing things off the list can be just as important as finding an area of interest. She may also find that one area interests her more than she thought. Even those that have a specific focus (such as law) might discover that they prefer corporate law when they had always imagined themselves going into criminal law.

Have her think more about her interests and values. Take several different personality, strengths, and interests assessments (Keirsey temperament sorter, Meyers-Briggs, StrengthsQuest, etc.). She needs to answer each question honestly based on what it's trying to measure. For instance, I value people more than systems, but I'm often more interested in working with systems and processes. I therefore need to answer questions on an interests assessment with that in mind or else I'll get results that I know don't fit me. Do her strengths (English, Language Arts, etc.) also align with her interests? Within that area, does she prefer literature? Creative writing? Technical writing? Would a librarian, fiction author, journalist, or PR coordinator more closely align with her interests?

She also might want to reflect on her past activities and tendencies to see if that gives her a hint at what she likes. For instance, I always loved taking things apart and putting them back together as a kid. I wanted to know how things worked, and I realized much later that this applied to more abstract concepts (such as systems or organizations) too. I tend to critically examine and question most things, even something trivial like why my high school allowed mustaches but not beards/goatees (apparently hair below the line of your lip limits learning). I was the kid that constantly asked why something was the way that it was until my frustrated mom just said "because that's the way it is!" as if that was an answer to my question.

None of those things necessarily point to a specific career, but they do tell me that I like to break things down and imagine ways to make them better (whether it's by creating something new or simply addressing flaws/inefficiencies). Questioning everything means I don't usually support the status quo if there are obvious areas for improvement. I therefore thrive in positions where I have at least some freedom to explore new ways of doing things. I don't believe that all things need to change, but I'm usually interested in the next problem or idea once we get one area running smoothly.

I also came to realize that I need to care about what I do, even if it doesn't have the best earnings potential (within reason as I like security, some nice things, and want to have a comfortable retirement). Even though I excelled in math and science subjects, I found most of my STEM classes uninteresting. I use analytical and quantitative skills to help me accomplish a goal or complete a task. I don't necessarily enjoy them for their own sake. For instance, I use various programs to automate tasks, analyze data, etc. I could apply those skills to a number of different topics based on a given company's focus, but I wouldn't last long doing data analysis for a retail store if I'm not actually interested in the research questions. I work in education because I care about education. I'm not an educator in the traditional sense, but I use my skills to help educators and educational systems operate more efficiently and effectively (which ultimately benefits students). This all helps fulfill my desire to help others even if it sometimes happens in indirect ways.
CrottyKid
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AG
As said earlier, work part time and go to the closest community college. After a year or two, she'll know what she wants to do.
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