<p>So, this is not a total surprise. S really liked Chemistry in hs. One of his chem teachers thought he'd be a good research chemist, but the second one talked him into Chem E.</p>
<p>S is doing ok in his classes, but he is finding that chemical engineering isn't really much about the chemistry. I suggested he switch to just chemistry, but now he's talking about environmental engineering. He's going to go talk to his advisor.</p>
<p>I'm happy he is realizing he wants to make a change early rather than having a bunch of courses done that wouldn't apply to a new major; I want him to have a good understanding of why he wants to make the change and why he thinks the new major is better for him. So he doesn't change six times.</p>
<p>Anyone else going through this, and any advice?</p>
<p>It’s good he’s thinking. Many science classes suit multiple sub-majors- he won’t really declare until late in 2nd year, so many kids experiment now. Especially in the sciences, there are always refinements to their goals. Environmental Engg is very in-demand- and interesting.
My dau is already thinking of moving from pre-med to psych (and hasn’t taken the latter yet.)</p>
<p>Your son did the right thing – he started with the most structured major (chemical engineering rather than chemistry). Switching to another type of engineering or to chemistry from here should be easier than switching into engineering from something else.</p>
<p>Looking Forward: There’s no reason why a psych major can’t also complete the pre-med requirements. It doesn’t have to be a choice between one or the other – unless she is struggling in the pre-med courses and is looking for an alternative that better suits her talents.</p>
<p>My S, a freshman, has also changed his mind about majors (as did his older sister when she was a freshman). For my S, it means a change of schools, as he chose the current school for a particular program.</p>
<p>He is also interested in environmental sciences - he considered environmental engineering, but it appears that environmental engineering is a branch of civil engineering & is not what he thought it would be. He is more interested in the biology aspect, although obviously chem is involved, as well.</p>
<p>Good that they are thinking about these things early & exploring their options before precious money is spent on classes that won’t count toward the degree!</p>
<p>Funny you mentioned chem. D entered as a chem major wanting to do forensic work. She had done well in HS in both her math and sciences. But college level was a horse of a different color. She worked her tail off, got herself a tutor for the calc. class and still did not achieve what she wanted to. She felt if it was this hard for her now, it wasn’t going to get any easier as she moved along. So she decided to change to criminal justice at the end of that first semester. Her dean tried very hard to keep her as a chem. major, but D knew what she wanted to do. It worked out very well for her.</p>
<p>kelsmom,S1 began with Environmental Engineering but changed (like your S, he was more interested in the environmental part than the engineering part) to Natural Resources which is what he got his degree in. His concentration was Policy and Administration.</p>
<p>His roommate’s degree is in Natural Resources with a Marine and Coastal concentration. </p>
<p>For some info. on a myriad of different degrees offered in the environmental realm,
Google…NC State University Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources</p>
<p>No surprise - many, if not most, kids change majors. I started as a math major, become civil eng, then management/business (after Physics 2), then accounting (new school in Jr yr). It’s not like he’s going from chem e to art history - he’s just refining his interests around the same core.</p>
<p>All the pre-med-related classes are notorious for starting out tough. Marian, my dau talks about continuing with the pre-med and math classes, because they fascinate her. But, she’s thinking of a different future route than medicine- either bio research or psych, to be a counselor. Bottom line, it’s great when kids think about their future directions. Honestly, we wish our 2D would look into something with the environment!</p>
<p>my D started out as an anthropology major - quickly concluded she liked the ‘ology’ and not the ‘anthro’ - switched to psychology which she ditched too (“it’s too much about FEELINGS”, lol) and happily settled into behavioral neuroscience. </p>
<p>It’s great that students have these kinds of opportunites. We should applaud their willingness to change horses before it’s too late</p>
<p>It is crazy to me that incoming freshmen have to declare a major. They have no idea what some of these fields are about. High school is just basic subjects; chemistry, physics, math, English, etc and not these very specific fields such as Civil engineering, Ancient whatever, etc. Glad your son is thinking about what he really likes and has the presence of mind to change his mind. </p>
<p>I would not be worried about changing majors at this time. In fact, he is probably still concentrating on the general ed requirements. Get concerned if he continued in a major he didn’t like.</p>
<p>After his freshman year, it gets a little stickier changing majors. Minor tweaks ok, but wholesale changes are much more difficult.</p>
<p>That is why I would never send a kid super far away or to an ultra expensive school just for one particular major. I was 100% certain that my son wouldn’t change his major…lasted until March of freshman year.</p>
<p>I agree that starting with the harder/more structured major is good, and the sooner one figures out at least what one doesn’t want to do the better.</p>
<p>So far my son still likes International Relations, though as expected the language requirements is killing him. (He’s taking Arabic and he is not a natural linguist.) He plans to spend next summer doing an immersion program in the Middle East which hopefully will take care of the issue. It did with me - though I had a whole school year not just a summer program.</p>
<p>Glad I’m not the only one hearing this so early. At least S isn’t looking at changing schools. Like Kelsmom’s and Packmom’s S’s I can see him maybe not ending up in the engineering part of environmental studies. He seems to gravitate toward the science aspects rather than engineering. So I plan on talking to him about what he thinks Environmental Engineering is and why he would like it.</p>
<p>I’ll mention the natural resource and environmental science degrees. He is definitely science minded, so it’s just a matter of finding his niche.</p>
<p>My son changed majors even before his first classes. He thought he wanted chemistry and economics. Did great on the APs in all the sciences, but decided that he did not love being in the lab. So he switched to economics and political science. Then, halfway through his first semester, he called and said that with all the math he must take for his economics degree, he would be just 19 credits short of a major in that subject. So he went and chatted with two deans and got permission to add math to his list of majors. At least he loves all three subjects.</p>
<p>Why does this matter? Many students switch their intended majors MULTIPLE times before they actually declare a major. At many schools, students don’t even declare a major until the end of the sophomore year.</p>
<p>I switched majors SEVEN times during my freshman year…but it didn’t really matter because those “switches” were really in my intended major. Oh…by the way…after my freshman year, I transferred to a different school and majored in something totally different. Didn’t matter at all.</p>
<p>There are lots of schools out there with core requirements so that college students will have the opportunity to explore different fields of study…and many kids switch major ideas over and over.</p>
<p>I’d let your son pick whatever major he wants at this point. He can switch again and again. The only time this matters is in fields like engineering where you really will be out of sequence if you don’t follow the course of study from your freshman year.</p>
<p>Most students change their majors three times. There is a whole world out there that they are just discovering, with a lot more different options and majors in subjects they never even heard of. I went from American Studies to Asian Studies, with majors in Indonesian and Linguistics. Long story, but I had never heard of either major in high school!</p>
<p>This changing of the major, like changing of the guard, might be fine for some majors - especially perhaps in the Humanities (I was an Education major and then a communications major and then finally finished with a degree in English), but for others the requirements are such that you really have to start knocking them out starting freshman year. Do I think you need to have a set major going into college? Absolutely not. But at the same time you cannot manufacture time and if you do want to major in the sciences, you can only fit so many labs in one student’s schedule and many/most of the classes have corresponding labs. It’s one thing to take classes that will have you reading all night (humanities) and quite another when time spent in the lab is limited to when the lab is held. And you can say … “sure, change your major” all you want… but I don’t really want to be paying extra years in tuition and if the kid is on financial aid, I am not sure whether or not they can continue to be financed by loans and grants past those four years.</p>
<p>Because we are full pay & I can’t afford to pay for a 5 or more year undergraduate degree.</p>
<p>I am not worried at this point; like I said initially, I didn’t think this major was really ‘him’. But really, he is going to go with something science related, so I don’t think he’ll be switching all over the place. </p>
<p>And having him talk it through will help him get a better idea of what he wants; he didn’t put a great deal of thought into picking this major except he likes chemistry and his hs mentor told him it was a good idea.</p>
<p>Martina: My son in similar situation. I feel for you. Discussing this topic on the phone is not working well, so I have decided to just let him sign up for classes for next semester and talk over it at Thanksgiving. He has signed up for 5 classes which work for most of the engineering majors, but not all. </p>
<p>At son’s school, it seems to me that he really needs to be in SOME major, so I am telling him not to jump off the boat (the current major) before he finds an island to stand on (the new, not-yet-known major). I have no idea if this is good advice.</p>
<p>Like you, I am not worried, just concerned that our communication on the phone is not clear.</p>