Changing your major can be a stressful process. The typical college student will change their major at least three times throughout their college career. This is definitely true for me. I went from biology to dietetics, and now I am trying to get into the college of business. The longer you are in school, the more stressful these decisions become. Now that I have all of these science classes under my belt, I can start financial accounting? This is going to be a tough transition, but the hard part that most people struggle with is the underlying thought, “Am I doing the right thing?”
Reach out and talk to people in your future career field. This can help you to get a different perspective on what you could potentially be doing on a daily basis. Also, as you research careers you can take note of what degree people graduated with. This will give you a better idea of the direction you need to head in. As a freshman, changing your major is not a big deal because the majority of your classes are all liberal studies requirements. This transition becomes a lot harder once you have already gotten into your major requirements. FSU prides itself on all of the wonderful restrictions put on many different majors. However, this becomes an obstacle when changing your major. For example, I will have to cram all of the business school requirements into spring and summer in order to graduate on time.
These restrictions have positive and negative sides. Graduating from one of these exclusive programs gives you an advantage with employers over someone who didn’t have to meet such focused requirements. These programs are meant to help the students and the university’s reputation, but the end result is inhibiting students from possibly doing what they really want to do. Some students settle on a different pathway so they don’t have to transfer schools. I think FSU needs to reevaluate their criteria for success.
When a student has to settle on a different pathway, these transitions make it difficult to stay motivated. Less than half of the students at a university know exactly what they are going to do when they enter college and even fewer actually stick with their original goals. College is all about finding yourself and growing as an individual mentally and intellectually. You learn something every time you change your mind or veer off the straight and narrow path.
Is it scary taking risks to try and figure out what you’re going to do for the rest of your life? Yes. However, it is necessary when you are trying to discover who you are and what your life is to become.
