I entered Florida State University the fall semester of 2020, and one of the first notes I made about college before even stepping onto campus was how intimidating selecting a major was.
I felt like everyone around me had known what they wanted to major in since middle school and was already on these paths to speed towards what they wanted.
I knew I enjoyed writing, but I also did not know if I should go for more of a ‘traditional’ major like business (and no offense to any business majors out there! You guys are the future stable career people we all want to be.). The problem that kept looming over my head was, what if I make the wrong choice?
College is an environment where you have the control to choose the classes you take and work towards your desired career path. While this freedom can be so inspiring, it also means so much is up in the air for you to decide on.
Everyone tells you that you will figure it out, but I feel like we do not go about how exactly to figure this all out. So, how do you choose the right major for you?
My number one advice to anyone going into college is to come in as an exploratory or undecided major.
Most college freshmen are not technically in their majors until around their sophomore year unless they took a crazy number of advanced courses in high school. So even if you choose a major, it is just ‘pre’-major. The main instance where a selected major plays a pivotal role in your freshman year is when your adviser is helping you choose classes; they use this selection to plan your courses.
To me, the main idea of having a specific major your freshman year is so you can have an understanding of what classes you will be taking if you continue down this path, and how you can further get involved in things regarding your major (like if you are an English major, you may want to apply to write for Her Campus…yes, that was a self-plug).
Starting college within an exploratory program gives you the freedom to look into a variety of different academic aspects you are interested in.
Entering college already having chosen a major does not dimmish your ability to look into other fields, but it does make it harder to do so as you are on a set path for a specific major already.
When choosing classes for my fall semester, my adviser scheduled me in classes that pertained to my top three desired majors: business, English and film (let me dream, okay). Due to these selections, I took Business Calc, Introduction to English Studies and Media Techniques. This allowed me a sneak peek into what these classes are like without having to fully commit to a certain field yet.
So, for example, I learned that I could not do math and I don’t like math. Luckily, I could do that simple enough addition and understand I should therefore not be a business major.
Taking these varying courses was a great way to start my college experience, having an open mind and getting to take classes I enjoyed while excitedly thinking about what I wanted to narrow my major down to.
And because I was going through the exploratory process, FSU offers a class called: Introduction to Exploration for Academic Majors (SLS 1203, for those of you taking notes at home). This class is for exploratory students to come together and have designated time to think through what majors they are considering going into.
Being completely transparent, at the beginning of the semester, this course felt like busywork that I was just rushing through. Although, after the second class, it hit me that the work we were completing was all for our own sake. For example, we would be assigned to fill out a chart with our top three majors and what goals we had for ourselves within these majors. Naturally, my ‘English major’ column was the easiest one to fill out as the thought of publishing a book and working up to being an Editor-in-Chief of an online publication made me feel exhilarated.
This class gave me designated time to truly flesh out not just what I wanted to select for my major, but what I wanted from a future career. It helped me realize I wanted to major in something pertaining to English, and once I had that figured out, my professor helped me further my search by breaking down the variety of English programs at FSU.
You can, of course, research different majors and look into what the job fields pertain to on your own. Although taking a class that is designed to do this exact thing, with a professor to help guide you, is for sure a helpful advantage.
There is so much pressure to have this rigid and structured plan the minute you enter college. While you should have goals for yourself as you go through life and should certainly be thinking about your career when in college, you cannot expect yourself at 18 years old to have everything figured out.
As I approach the beginning of my sophomore year as a ‘pre-editing, writing and media’ student, I highly suggest to everyone who is about to enter their college years to start fresh by taking advantage of your university’s undecided and/or exploratory program. It is such a great way to give yourself some time and leeway to make an in-depth decision on what you want to work towards and choose as your ultimate path in college.
Entering college as an exploratory major was the best decision I could have made for myself because it allowed me to better explore the options I had when it came to the majors my university offered and truly decide on a major that I knew I’d enjoy.
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