<p>My 2nd child is a puzzle to me. I love her, she is great. But she has no idea what she wants to major in. And the whole college search has been 100 times worse. Maybe there is just higher pressure because she is a high achiever. </p>
<p>Her teachers seem to love her and she seems to love them. She actually says she is sad this is her last year in high school. She has so many interests. Some colleges want to know intended major before the student starts. She never seems to know. </p>
<p>I guess I am asking, is this normal? Should I stop worrying? Will she likely get to college, try a few classes, and then just know what she wants to major in?</p>
<p>I think it is better to go in not knowing, so you have an open mind. Too many interests means that she will be looking for things that excite her. You might want to encourage her to check out teh career center early in her college time and start taking interest assessments and looking for things that match her skills. </p>
<p>DS was sad to see hs end as well, until he was in school. he changed majors once and plays around with minors and has changed his future plans at least once, and he is only a sophomore. Most of his friends are adjusting their dreams whether it be dropping from premed to discovering aptitude in Rhetoric or Classics. She will change a lot as a freshman and should have a plan by middle of sophomore year. Just encourage her to take a variety of her basic courses so she doesn’t fall behind and has room to take classes that interest her.</p>
<p>She must have some kind of inkling as to what she wants to study. What is she really good at? She may not know the specific major but narrowing down the possibilities will make the whole process much easier. </p>
<p>My D (also my 2nd child) was in the same boat although she knew she wanted to do something in the STEM area. She was able to concentrate on schools that offered a good selection of STEM fields. She had to decide by the start of her sophomore year. she went into mechanical engineering, where she is now a senior. ME offered her the most flexibility, so she is really delaying even more her jump into a detail area for her professional career.</p>
<p>FYI: There is a difference in declaring a major at colleges. Some schools admit you to the school in general but will still ask for your intended major. It is just for their long range planning and the student isn’t held to anything. </p>
<p>Others will make you apply to a specific major and it is the major that makes the admit decision. At a school like this, you are committed to that major and changing majors is usually difficult and sometimes darn near impossible. Your D should avoid this type of school.</p>
<p>Colleges may ask what your daughter’s intended major is, but in most cases they don’t care very much and won’t mind at all if she puts down undecided. The exceptions might be if she wants to apply to specialized programs like engineering.</p>
<p>Unless she wants a program like nursing, it really doesn’t matter that she’s undecided. Lots of kids (most kids) switch majors, so forcing her to declare now just means she joins the rest of the herd in figuring things out once she gets to college.</p>
<p>I think most students do take a couple classes and decide, and I am optimistic your D would be one of them since you said she has so many interests. That kind of uncertainty is normal. And heck, I was sure of what my major would be since I was 8 years old and I still changed it. I don’t think most people know when they are high school seniors FOR SURE what their major will be.</p>
<p>Ill describe a different situation for you. My little sister and best friend are alike. They are both sky high academic achievers who, being good at basically everything they try, feel they are not good at anything because no one big thing that they’re good at stands out. They convinced themselves they have no interests. They have extremely low self esteem. My friend graduated with an English degree and no plans because it was her favorite subject but she had no aspirations, three years post-grad and she still is unemployed. My sister is going on her fourth year taking classes at a community college and FINALLY seems like she is settling into something, after changing her mind every other day for four years with ideas that run the gamut from artist to veterinarian. I think when you have these high achieving students who think they have no skills or interests, that’s a time to worry. Or, a kid with limited skills who doesn’t know how to apply them. From what you’ve described, your D seems normal.</p>
<p>Most people go into college not knowing, but we still have to declare a major. It’s very normal, and I changed my major a couple times already (or, at least changed the idea of what I wanted to do).</p>
<p>Your child is perfectly normal. Even among students who at age 17 or 18 believe they know exactly where they are headed academically, a majority change paths in the first years of undergrad.</p>
<p>It’s perfectly normal. Most college students change their major not only once but several times. </p>
<p>Don’t worry so much. If she’s a high achiever, she’ll find her place. </p>
<p>Heck, I’m in grad school now and I’m still changing my mind every other day about what I want to do. IMO, knowing exactly what you wanted to do at 17/18 would be pretty darn boring.</p>
<p>Yes it’s normal. My advice here would be to target larger schools that are strong in several things. With my first son, he wasn’t sure of his major, but he knew it would be STEM. He is at a fairly small, strong STEM school. My younger son is planning for business, but may very well change his mind. He’s looking at large state schools with good business programs, but that also have many other options.</p>
<p>Very normal. More than a third of all students enter colleges as truly “undecided.” Usually they have so many liberal arts requirements that it’s great if they are interested and good in many subject areas: They aren’t afraid to enroll in many different types of courses. That’s the way to find that major or minor area that will really grab them, and the best professors who teach within those areas.
Don’t fret, rejoice. She’s keeping an open mind about all that awaits her!</p>
<p>So are we talking about a student who has taken AP Physics, Biology, Chemistry, Calculus BC, Computer Science, US History, Economics, Foreign Languages and English Language & Literature and done equally well in all these subjects? Is this a student who did equally well in SAT Math, CR and Writing sections?</p>
<p>I’ll agree with everyone else in saying that of course not knowing what your eventual college major will be at age 17 is normal. In fact, I think that really knowing what your major will be at that age is what’s abnormal. Most kids who claim to know what they want to do end up changing their majors at least once during their college careers.</p>
<p>Most all colleges require you to declare the second year unless you are entering a specialized or career college (school of nursing, school of education, school of engineering). Even many of those schools/colleges generally have students go through the process of formally “declaring” their intent to major the second year. I think the OPs D should simply check the undeclared box and not worry about it. The worse case scenario is that it takes her an extra semester or year if she dabbles around into late sophomore year and has trouble getting all the required classes in during the 4 years. You see this more in kids that enter undeclared and decide to major in engineering, education and other career majors.</p>
<p>“I think it is better to go in not knowing, so you have an open mind” - Yes. But it does make it hard to hone in on a school for students that prefer a small school.</p>
<p>As others have said, it’s more normal to be undecided about your major. Even those that go in thinking that they know very often change their major. This should be driving the type of schools you are looking at however. She is going to need a school that has enough depth and breadth in many areas that give her flexibility to choose a major that suits her. This doesn’t mean a large urban school with 25k students if that’s not what she likes, however a school with less then 3,000 students can run the risk of not having the choices she may want.</p>
<p>Colorado_mom - That was an issue with our D1. She knew she wanted to start out majoring in “something to do with math or science, and maybe Spanish” and wanted to go to a small school. We ended up visiting small LACs, where she looked at Chemistry, Biochemistry and Secondary Education majors, and small engineering schools.
D1 ended up feeling a better fit with the engineering schools and only applied to those. As her parents, we were quietly pleased because we figured there was a risk she would change her mind and it would be easier to transfer to a small LAC than to the engineering schools she was considering.<br>
Currently D1 is in second year studying ChE, with minors in Spanish (she snuck that in there!) and Music. On track to graduate early at this point, but we are encouraging her to leave time for fun!</p>
<p>Not only will your daughter change pretty dramatically her first 2 years in college, you may find a pretty sizable change between now and when college starts. It is pretty common to for students to major where they are comfortable with the department, so flexibility can be a good thing. For some people a gap year is good, but there is nothing wrong with starting college not knowing her major.</p>