Estimating a student's likelihood of changing major and implications for college selection

Parent Cafe
12

Whether someone changes majors or not is very individual and highly dependent on whether he/she managed to find and focus on a few intellectual/pre-professional interests early on or not.

Saw both sides of this as most HS classmates I knew DIDN’T change their initial majors as they either knew strongly what they wanted in terms of academic major/career paths early on* whereas many college classmates changed majors at least once and a few did so multiple times.

I was closer to one of the former as I majored in a field I had strong intellectual interests in since I was a child. However, I also used my undergrad to explore the fields of CS, Politics, and East Asian Studies without necessarily majoring in any of them.

  • This wasn't always necessarily a good thing as some found while they enjoyed studying the academic/pre-professional major leading to career paths they thought they would like working in, they found the actual nature of the work in that career path left much to be desired**. Worse, the fact they were such strong students they excelled in their studies/career meant that realization didn't come until they've already invested several years into a career they later realized was a mistake.

** I.e.: Someone who enjoyed studying engineering, but found he/she hates the reality of working in the field of engineering after undergrad/grad school or likewise…someone who enjoyed studying law…but found he/she hates the reality of working as a practicing lawyer***.

*** One example of the former was a former supervisor at a tech startup who left the field of ChemE despite finding gainful employment and passing the first part of the 2 part Professional Engineer licensing exam in the '80s for computer programming. One example of the latter I knew ended up being a lit Prof.

@mathmom

Out of curiosity, why would history be better than IR for him?

Am asking as someone who was deciding between history and poli-sci/politics and opted for the former and because IR is a subfield of Poli-Sci/Politics. Ended up minoring in Politics…though doing so mainly from a comparative rather than an IR angle.