<p>Our son goes to an Ivy and just finished his second year. During that time he has switched "majors" from Political Science to Economics to History to Philosophy [with the hope of going to law school]. Last night he declared that he thinks that medical school is the right place for him [having taken no hard science since high school]. How do parents survive?</p>
<p>Maybe he should study whatever he is interested in, now, and worry about future careers late. </p>
<p>It really makes no difference what he majors in for law or med school, in fact, I have read that med schools may prefer those who did not major in science or “premed.” And the work world is a lot more varied and complicated than just law, medicine and business, which so many seem to be focusing on.</p>
<p>Changing majors a lot can mean a kid is exploring, which is wonderful, but I suspect that the worries about career are causing some of the switches, so reassuring him on that count might help keep his major more stable. </p>
<p>He has two more years to enjoy courses that he likes, before he has to work in earnest. Hope he finds his way to a major that truly interests him.</p>
<p>Even though he can have any major for med school he’ll need to take some core courses. Wait until he takes O-chem and then re-evaluates whether he still wants to go to med school. ;)</p>
<p>I guess your S was listening when they said college is a time to explore in order to figure out what you want to do.</p>
<p>Tell him you are only paying for 4 years of college.</p>
<p>A) Pull the grey hairs. B) Tell him to go talk to the med school advisor and start taking the required courses. C) It’s great that he is exploring intellectually. I get SO tired of all those follow-the-money drones. D) Count your blessings. My S seems to have finally found his field when it is too late to actually major in it.</p>
<p>Congratulate him on taking advantage of EVERYTHING his Ivy has to offer - if he doesn’t do it now, when is he going to?</p>
<p>This sounds like great news to me, so I congratulate you as well. (For the record, I kept getting wider, and ended up in a graduate program where I needed to attain M.A. competency in four different fields.) And then there came a point that I didn’t need universities any more (either to study or to teach), and I left.)</p>
<p>My DD changed majors numerous times, and ended up in graduating with the degree whose requirements most closely matched the coursework she had completed - in the perfect major for her. I say, GREAT that your son is exploring all those areas. Just reiterate the message to him, that undergraduate experience is a 4 year adventure, (not a 5 year one!). DD graduated in 4 years - no prob!</p>
<p>My experience with Ivys is that they are motivated to graduate kids in 4 years–not only because parents would have a fit if they had to come up with $$$$ for a 5th or 6th year, but because they have class size restrictions.</p>
<p>Parents survive by presenting and discussing career choices early on and by making sure the students know exactly what they’re getting into. My older child headed to college had a lot of indoctrination for her major of choice since Freshman HS year. I did not want to find out after a couple semesters that she was not up to it or she did not know what she was getting into. From a couple years ago that was all she could see herself do. Thankfully our HS had a ton of electives in that area and it worked out great. I was appalled by seeing how few of her friends had a concrete idea of what they want to do for college. This does not guarantee they’ll succeed, mind you - only guarantees they know broadly what major X vs Y involves and what the end looks like. </p>
<p>Once in college, offer the suggestion to STAY in the field of study chosen and do minor or double major options to widen their area. If someone, however, is going into an Ivy League school for eventual law and then with no hard science classes decides it’s a good idea to go pre-med, there may be other issues involved.</p>
<p>The main issue with changing majors is that the choice of possible majors without delaying graduation shrinks with every semester completed. With four semesters completed and only four left to go, it is likely that the student’s choice of majors is significantly smaller than the choices available as an entering freshman.</p>
<p>Pre-med is not a major, but it typically requires a set of mostly science courses. Cramming those into four semesters alongside whatever one’s major is can be tough to do. There is also the issue that the student would not have completed them before taking the MCAT, unless s/he wants to delay MCAT and medical school application by a year.</p>
<p>Pre-law can be done with any major.</p>
<p>It seems that a growing number of schools have post-bac programs that fill in the science requirements that may have been missed by someone who did a non-science undergraduate degree but who now wants to apply to med school. Columbia and Penn come to mind.</p>
<p>Bryn Mawr has an excellent post-bacc program. So does Tufts, and it’s a feeder school to their med school as is the post-bacc at JHU. A school like Stony Brook has an unofficial program with no certificate but an easy way to get the courses without sticker shock. Tere are a lot of options.</p>
<p>My S changed his major from music to Classics. He is graduating and wants to go into Art History. I’m all for it. He desperately wanted the Classics background and it will fuel him for many years, I think.</p>
<p>And he took “Mythology and Music” this last semester and made a power point display of twenty major moments from the Aeneid which he demonstrated with paintings and a quote he found from the text in Latin and in English. Then he analyzed Purcell’s treatment of the Dido and Aeneas story. He needed all his education to do this.</p>
<p>Consolation: He has only two art history courses from his four years at school, but he resisted replacing the music course with art history. Said he has the rest of his life for art history, but it’s his last hurrah for music. Luckily, most art history grad programs do not require an art history degree.</p>
<p>But I really don’t think anything was lost.</p>
<p>To the OP: He went in wanting medicine. Never took a bio course but did take 3 physics courses, a sure sign that he didn’t want to be a doctor.</p>
<p>Your S is not alone.</p>
<p>It sure is nice to know that my son is not alone. He has always been one to explore and follow his passions. He is planning on studying abroad part of this summer (to work on his German language requirement) and while waiting for that is writing some pieces for the school literary magazine for fall publication and beginning studying for the LSAT (a year early). The medical school shift is indeed surprising but in character. We just stand back and encourage his exploration and set fairly rigid guidelines as to what our financial commitment is. We are paying for four years only and what it would cost us for in state tuition to a state university. It is what we budgeted for and what we are able to do without getting ourselves in debt.</p>
<p>Mythmom, S has discovered an interest in linguistics. So far he has only taken one course, but loves it. He has time to construct a minor, or at least a modification to his other major, a language. I don’t know what the requirements for grad programs are, but I would have thought they would want to see some research…I don’t know if he will be able to squeeze any in. He has studied three foreign languages, so maybe that will help. Of course, there is also the issue that linguistics is a broad field and presumably one is supposed to have a particular area of interest…but who knows. I’m hoping that he will actually talk to his professor about this and then will actually let me know what the man says…</p>
<p>Consolation: Stony Brook has a good linguistics department. I know two of its top profs. One used to be chair; not sure if she still is.</p>
<p>Also I have met a lovely young man who is now a Starbucks buddy. He graduated UMass Amherst with a Classics degree and is in the PhD program at Stony Brook in linguistics in a fully funded program. He found his “area” only after he went.</p>
<p>He is now a world expert on some pretty obscure languages of the mountains of Eastern Europe.</p>
<p>He also has a Mohawk and is very cute. Well, I was thinking of my D, not me. Don’t faint.</p>
<p>I am so pleased for your S that he has found this focus. I think having such a rich, broad education is never wasted. I know my S wouldn’t trade what he learned for knowing sooner what he wants to do.</p>
<p>He wants to be a museum curator. I have been quite shocked because before this, his interests were in music and literature, but now he is moving into art. </p>
<p>The difference is, it’s what he wants to DO, not necessarily study, and it took this long (just 21) for him to understand that there’s a difference.</p>
<p>But as a dear friend of mine says (both seriously and ironically): nothing is wasted.</p>