<p>My first Kid is senior and going through college admission nightmare/excitement. However, she is just not able to make any decisions on her own. She has applied to UCs &CSUs. She has reasonably good academic record. Just doesn't know what she wants to do.
How did you deal with your indecisive kids?</p>
<p>Does she have any general areas of interest?</p>
<p>If undecided, she may want to favor schools where there are fewer or no administrative barriers to declare or change majors that she may be interested in (at some schools, some majors are impacted, so a high GPA or competitive admission process may be needed to declare or change to such majors). She should also be aware that some majors have long prerequisite sequences that need to be started early, so if such majors are of interest, she needs to plan her first semester schedule to include the courses needed for those majors.</p>
<p>It is not unusual, and is perfectly fine, to enter college with an “undecided” major. Many students who go in with a major change it, sometimes even more than once. I would not worry about it.</p>
<p>Remember, though, that deciding on a major late may result in delayed graduation, if the decided-on major has a long prerequisite sequence that the student has not started in time.</p>
<p>Ucbalumnus : I think her areas of interest are all over the place. She is IB student by choice. However, during our conversation, she is ready to do Pharmacy, Engineering, Business and I think, that’s quite open. She needs to narrow down her choices.
She is aware of the costs of changing the major and want us to make decision for her. Unfortunately, we (Parents) are worried that - we making decision is not a good idea.</p>
<p>Do you think, going to private school is a better option for undecided kids? I am assuming - private schools it may be easier to change majors, costs in private school would be comparable to UC costs.</p>
<p>There is no general answer – you have to check each school (public or private) for each major of interest to see if there are any administrative barriers to declaring or changing to the major.</p>
<p>Private school costs, financial aid, and scholarships vary all over the place, so there is no assurance that any given private school’s net price will be similar to UC net price. You can use each school’s net price calculator to get a financial aid estimate specific to the school and your financial situation.</p>
<p>Step one is to figure out what you can afford. For an undecided kid you pick a school that is strong in multiple areas and figure that they’ll take a wide variety of courses freshman year and something will click. Most kids would be fine in multiple majors, and many different majors could lead to exactly the same jobs. </p>
<p>I had one kid whose known since he was seven that he wanted to be a computer programmer. (And that’s what he does at 25.) The other didn’t have a clue in high school - he liked history, but didn’t think he wanted to teach history or be an academic. In the process of looking at colleges he discovered international relations was a major and thought it sounded interesting, so he picked schools that had good IR departments, but also were strong in other fields in case he changed his mind. When asked on applications, he said he was undecided about his major. He majored in IR and he’s doing an internship at a non-profit in his field now, his girlfriend with a history major had the same internship last summer. She’s now working for another non-profit that has no obvious relationship to her major.</p>
<p>I think the biggest problem I know of with the UC’s is that some majors are impacted and hard to transfer into later, but most aren’t. Do your homework. As an out of state student we decided the California schools weren’t that good a deal for our kid, but if we were in state I am sure we would have applied to some.</p>
<p>Pharmacy, Engineering and Business are all career-related majors. You are expecting her to decide on a career while still in high school: I know many in their late 20’s who are still not sure (but doing fine). It would be different if she herself had a strong drive to be a pharmacist or engineer, but she sounds very uncertain- and that is okay. Undergrad business used to be looked down upon but is now very popular, but I think it is honestly more limiting than, say, a humanities major, in the long run.</p>
<p>I think this expectation that she decide between these three fields is a lot of pressure for a 17-18 year-old. Again, why not let her apply to a college that she likes (location, size and vibe) and explore a few courses before deciding on a major. To hedge her bets, she could include foundational courses in one of the above areas but honestly, there are many students who later thrive in the work world in a job that has nothing to do with major at all.</p>
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<p>parentnil95: I know it predates when I was in college in 70s, but 18 year olds considering an area of interest (ie major) that may impact them for decades is crazy. Good luck to you and your D in upcoming madness. But considering your D applied to UC/CSUs, above quote is not to be glossed over. At time S was at a UC, his bio major required completion of 26 reqs AND 15 GEs whereas two friends had two separate majors that only required completion of 12 reqs AND 15 GEs. So depending on D’s IB credit and her interest, waiting too long to decide could very well result in delayed graduation especially at large UC/CSUs where demand in some areas will be high and classes will fill up quickly. In interest of full disclosure S’s AP credit satisfied both GE and some major reqs which allowed him to graduate in timely manner.</p>
<p>Starting off in engineering will have some overlap with pre-pharm (math, physics, chemistry), and breath courses taken in frosh year (English composition, economics) can be used to prepare for business. Engineering and business will diverge by soph year, though.</p>
<p>Note that pre-pharm does not require a specific major, though some pre-med-like course work is needed.</p>
<p>Ucbalum: Thank you for sharing your insight into freshman year courses. So, do you think in UC, you can change a major at the end of 1st year without making it 5 year program? Again, i am looking for switch from Engineering to Business or vice versa.</p>
<p>Engineering is the path that must be started from the beginning to avoid delaying graduation due to switching into it later. But note that engineering is an impacted major at some UCs and some other selective schools, so switching into engineering may be administratively difficult if one is not admitted as a frosh. Check each school separately.</p>
<p>Business and related majors like economics may also be impacted at some campuses (UC or otherwise), but the prerequisite sequences are not as long as with engineering.</p>
<p>Pre-pharm can be done with any major, but may be difficult if there are lots of non-overlapping requirements. Engineering has some overlap with math, physics, and chemistry, but fitting in other pre-pharm requirements may be more difficult. Fitting in the pre-pharm requirements with a liberal arts (including science) major may be easier.</p>
<p>The short answer is, she can attend where she can start off in engineering, taking the math, physics, and chemistry courses needed. These will overlap with some pre-pharm requirements, and math will overlap for business. Breath elective space in frosh year can be used for English composition, economics, and/or other pre-business courses. Then she can decide later in the year. However, beware of which majors may be difficult to change to administratively at each campus.</p>
<p>If your kid truly thinks they might be interested in engineering they should probably start off there, because engineering programs are notorious for having the most rigid sequence of courses and you lose time if you don’t start right away. In addition, engineering isn’t easy to switch into for space reasons at many schools. I personally wouldn’t push someone into engineering if they didn’t seem already inclined in that direction. Does she like to make things? Is she interested in how things work? Were physics and math favorite classes? Did she do the engineering events in Science Olympiad? Did she participate in a Robotics club? Or does engineering just seem like a safe way to be employed? I know at least a few engineers who realized that they would be much happier being accountants.</p>
<p>I was struck by the original post, which said the daughter “can’t make decisions on her own” and is “indecisive” and seemed to express aggravation that the daughter doesn’t know what she wants to do. Who is deciding between these three areas? Are they her ideas? is this a case of parents coming up with majors they think are financiaily safe? </p>
<p>We really are not hearing about the daughter’s own interests (and talents), what her extracurriculars are and so on. Mathmom’s questions are great. I would also add, does she love to read or paint or volunteer with people?</p>
<p>With STEM related majors she would likely take the same courses as a freshman- calculus, chemistry, perhaps physics and breadth/general education electives and such. Once she is at her college she will refine her path based on her experiences with the subjects, her interests and abilities. At UW-Madison, for example, students are preengineering as freshmen and may take a single engineering survey course but the rest in Letters and Sciences. If her school requires her to be in Engineering she would likely be taking the same courses and could transfer out for other majors with the same needed STEM courses.</p>
<p>Do not worry too much about this. She needs to apply to schools with her likely majors to give her options once there.</p>