Junior and senior year of high school are extremely stressful for primarily one reason, the constant asking, “where are you going to college?” and “what are you studying?” is enough to cause a student to go crazy. Let me give you three pieces of wisdom that should put your mind at ease and that I wish someone would have told me.
- It is okay to change your major.
Please, hear me when I say this, it is okay if you choose a major and then change when you actually have some classes under your belt. That is part of the beauty of college, you can choose one area of study, but then change it if after some classes you realize it is not what you want anymore, or it is not what you thought it would be.
- Being an undeclared major is nothing to be ashamed of.
When you are 17 or 18 years old, how are you truly supposed to know what field you want to pursue for the rest of your life? Personally, I think that is really rare. Nonetheless, I think it is more admirable to enter college undeclared than choose a major just for the sake of it and pay money for classes you are not even sure if you will like. If you are unsure of what you want to study, take your first semester freshman year to take a wide variety of classes and see what you are most interested in. Do not be ashamed of being undeclared. In the long run, this could save you time and money.
- Even when you choose your major, you may graduate and do something completely different.
You cannot begin to understand how many people I know that receive their degree in one area of expertise and get a job in another and do just fine. I have family members and close friends that have studied very specific fields and are now doing well in a completely different one. Clearly you want to make use of your four-year degree and most college students do just that. But I want to assure you that if for some reason after your four years at Grove City College, if you want to pursue a different career than the one you got a degree in, you will also be just fine.
The last two years of high school can be really stressful when you think about not only what college you want to attend but also what you want to major in. Please do not let the stress of your last few years in high school make you nervous for college. You have the power to change your major, be undeclared and figure out what you want to study, and choose whatever career path you want to pursue.
