<p>Even though my child changed her major, she can still graduate in 3 1/2 years. </p>
<p>Thanks to the AP credits and good course planning on her part.</p>
<p>I think every parent should save those early papers on “what I want to be when I grow up”. They so often seem to be prophetic.</p>
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<p>I wonder what the statistic on that would be, if the data could be collected at all - students who declare a major, vacillate many times but never actually switch majors, and then decide in the end to stick with their original major. <em>raises hand</em></p>
<p>D started school thinking she would major in the sciences but decided she didn’t like them well enough to want a career in them. She got a degree in Medicine, Health, and Society. She was certain she wanted to work in the business side of the music industry & did A LOT (internships, radio show, etc) to make that happen. Then she graduated, thought a lot about her future … and eventually got a job related to her major (health care consulting).</p>
<p>S started school in a 6 year pharmD program. He had gone to pharm camp & job shadowed. However, he decided mid-freshman year that he doesn’t want to be a pharmacist, after all. He is majoring in bio now.</p>
<p>D graduated on time, and S will, as well.</p>
<p>I started out as a theoretical physics major, and ended up switching to joint mathematics and physics; it was mostly a technical change to facilitate taking certain classes. I’ve known since I was 12 I would be a theoretical physicist, though, and I’m about to start a PhD in that field!</p>
<p>Technically no since he finally declared his major when he wanted to graduate. In theory I think he needed to be in the major to take some courses but that never mattered (public flagship). He also took some courses out of sequence, ie taking the prerequisites after taking a course (due to scheduling needs). I have been told most students enter college either without a declared major or will change it- one reason students get admitted to the university as a whole at UW instead of to an individual school/college. Son took both math and physics Honors sequences plus other courses in those and computer science- ended up with math and added comp sci for its practicality. He is globally gifted so choosing a major involved what he liked and was willing to put effort into.</p>
<p>Thank goodness students are not committed to a major forever when they finish HS and start college!</p>
<p>Going off the top…</p>
<p>As I mentioned I have a younger child, do you recommend applying as undeclared? Does this usually help or hurt the application?</p>
<p>Going off the topic…</p>
<p>As I mentioned I have a younger child, do you recommend applying as undeclared? Does this usually help or hurt the application?</p>
<p>I can’t believe it’s unusual to not have a clue when you are in high school … and even if you think you do, as we can see above, you very well may not. So, I doubt it hurts an application (unless it’s to a place like CalTech!).</p>
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<p>Might depend on which college. In California, the majority of four year state universities (the California State Universities, not the Universities of California) admit student into majors; where the majors are at full capacity, students have to apply to change major. However, the majority of college students in California are at community colleges, where they don’t really have a major (although they may be granted an associates degree in some subject after completing the requirements for that associates degree).</p>
<p>D1 started out as a math major, before she got to orientation she changed to undeclared and then to buisness/accounting, then to math finance and finally to math with the intention of becoming a math teacher. She also considered computer science. She went to a California State school and came in with very minimal AP credits, but easily graduated in 4 years without any summers. She did plan very well and would look at all requirements for all of the majors she was interested in and saw where there was common ground, etc… </p>
<p>S2 changed from Applied Math to History. He decided, after 2 quarters, that he HATED math and chemistry.</p>
<p>I have told this story several times on CC, but here goes: DD started college with an undeclared business major - she wasn’t exactly sure what she wanted, she just knew it wasn’t going to be accounting. Why? Accounting is too dull and accountants are dweebs.</p>
<p>You guessed it: she graduates this June with her degree in accountancy. Apparently there’s plenty of room in accounting for kids who also love alternative music and bad sci fi movies…</p>
<p>In high school I wanted to be a biology major and go to medical school; in the summer between high school and college, I changed to political science and law school. Then I reviewed my school’s catalog and all the political science classes looked boring, so I decided on sociology. I took a sociology class and I liked it, but didn’t love it; then I took a psychology class and I loved it, so I majored in that. But this all happened over the course of about 9 months - I declared my psychology major in the second semester of my freshman year, and never changed it again. This surprised everyone, including me, because I have a reputation for being indecisive.</p>
<p>My daughter started with one “definite” major that I could not shake her from. She changed her major midway through the first semester after speaking to one of her sorority sisters because she could still enter the same field but with fewer writing and more math courses (she’s stronger in math). At Christmas she came home and had a long conversation wtih a family friend that she has always looked up to. Not surprisingly, she changed her major the day she got back to college to one I originally thought she would be perfect for before she ever entered college. She is now happily finishing her last semester before entering her major college in August. So in one calendar year (she went from freshman to junior in one year) she changed her major three times. LOL</p>