<p>Many of the kids who enter college “sure” of what they want to do are not making well informed choices; often people switch, and even among those who don’t they end up regretting the career they entered. Seems like at some schools every 4th frosh is pre-med. Nationally the drop-out rate for engineering is 50-65%. I know this is a sweeping generalization and doesn’t apply to everyone, that there are clear counter-examples. Still many kids who enter college with some impressive-sounding future career (“I’m going to be a lawyer and become a partner at a big firm”, “I’m going to work on Wall Street”) are making decisions based on teenage impressions of well-paying jobs and have no real knowledge of what the working conditions are like on the job or whether they’d really like it compared to other things they could do.</p>
<p>That said, the answer is not to ignore the issue until after college. For some majors or career fields its useful to have at least a general idea when you enter college (for example, might you be interested in a career in the sciences?) so you can start early on, but the most important thing to do in college is make career exploration as much a part of each semester as your classes. You should be attending career fairs and talks, meeting with alums who have signed up to take to current students once you start to get an idea of areas you’re considering, be pursuing internships and jobs in areas you like. Over 4 years of fairly low-level effort you can still accomplish an impressive amount, and you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing you’ve explored various areas and made an informed decision.</p>