Statistics

It is said that between around 50-70% of students end up changing their majors at least once while in college according to the University of Laverne. What I am concerned with is why this many students decide to switch their majors and when this change takes place. Having asked a few students about why they have switched their majors I have come up with one main reason, they all realized their original major was not something they loved. We all know what things we love, so why is it so many students have made the wrong decision when it came to picking a major?

Rushed Into Picking a Major

Juniors Melissa Moncada and Gerado Molina are two students who have recently switched their majors. Melissa switched from Art Therapy to Psychology when she realized she did not like Art therapy anymore. She came to Concordia because she had heard about our new Art Therapy program in High School and it seemed like something she thought she would want to do. “I realized I wanted to switch my major when I was in my first Art Therapy class, and I just did not like it,” said Melissa about her major classes. Talking about college in High School seems to be a thing that rushes many seniors into choosing a major right away. Melissa wishes someone had told her to stay undecided in order to explore the other fields.

Finding What’s Right For You

Gerado Molina, also a junior at Concordia, is in a similar boat as Melissa. Coming into his freshman year of college he was unsure if he wanted to major in Accounting or English. Gerado choose to major in English because it was something he felt passionate about. I then learned that after all his debating he eventually decided to change his major to accounting as it would be more “marketable” for him. This is also something many students take into consideration while choosing majors. We must think about if it would help us find jobs, and not solely if it makes us happy.

Your Major

With the high percentage of students switching majors, I thought about what tools could be beneficial for unsure students in finding their right path, or firm students that need help in what job they could get with their current major. Here is a link to the University of Laverne’s article about students switching majors. They have provided a list of jobs in each field to help students get an idea of available occupations.

Remember, “Keep in mind that most employers just want you to have a degree in something” as the University of Laverne suggests. Good luck finding what’s right for you!