<p>Did your child apply to school with a major in mind, and then when they reached their junior year switch? So much emphasis is on finding the college that is a match, or one that has the program that offers the major they seek....does that match the eventual decision or not?</p>
<p>I applied to schools with film in mind and changed to poli sci with law in mind my sophomore year. Whoops.</p>
<p>I think it’s important for students to think of a few things they could see themselves doing, and find a school that offers more than one thing that interests them so they have options should they decide their original major choice doesnt work for them.</p>
<p>Research indicates that most college students change their majors at least twice. S, a junior, chose a liberal arts college because his interests ranged from engineering to education to art to psychology and sociology. His first major was psychology. His second and current major is theater.</p>
<p>In college, I had 3 majors before finally settling on government.</p>
<p>Unless a student has a long interest in an obscure major that most colleges don’t have, I don’t think that it’s a good idea to choose colleges due to the majors they offer because more than likely what a high school senior thinks they’ll major in will change once they are in college.</p>
<p>I think that generally TwistedxKiss and Northstarmom are correct, but for the kid that seems very focused, the major may indeed be the number one priority. My daughter looked at all of her colleges with the intention of majoring in education. The college she ended up at required a second major for education students and she had to do some careful planning with her classes in order to graduate in four years. If she had not gone in as an ed major, there’s no way she could have finished in time.</p>
<p>At S1’s school, you apply based on your major. You are then accepted/denied based on the major you applied to (unless you opt to choose the First Year College program for undecided students). S1 stuck with his original major all the way through.</p>
<p>S2 is a soph. and so far is sticking with his original major.</p>
<p>My oldest has been planning on majoring in computer science since he was in second grade - he’s a junior now and his focus hasn’t changed. He’s also been consistent about minoring in physics, the science he enjoyed most in high school.</p>
<p>I went to college planning on majoring in history and literature. I had to choose a major at the end of freshman year and ended up doing visual and environmental studies instead. I ended up taking only a handful of history or literature courses.</p>
<p>When I was a toddler, my Mom would take me to the local convenience store and get me a vanilla ice cream cone. I loved it. One day she took me to the 31 flavors place and decided to get a different flavor. My sisters protested “But he loves vanilla!” They were amazed, my Mom said, to find that I liked the new flavor even more.</p>
<p>College is like the 31 flavors place. If a student goes there and finds that he or she is still only interested in what they thought moved them before they began college, then they probably need to be tasting more flavors.</p>
<p>gadad, I think the key word is only as in “only interested in what they thought moved them before college”. I certainly agree that college should be a time of exploring many options, but that doesn’t mean there’s something wrong if a student does not change his major at least once. </p>
<p>Keeping the same major does not necessarily imply that they have not tasted more flavors – just that, after sampling many flavors, they still like vanilla best! :)</p>
<p>My son specifically chose a top computer science school–he didn’t care about ANYthing else. That had been his chosen major for the last several years, he is very focused and determined, so we had absolutely no doubt.</p>
<p>Well, two months into his freshman year, he has changed his major to economics (possible minor cs). We couldn’t be more surprised (are there even any jobs in that field)? Luckily for him, this is a very strong school in economics also… But computer science was 100% of why he is chose this school, we are so confused…</p>
<p>DS is a senior. When he was applying to colleges, he was certain he wanted to major in math. He stuck with the math major for 3 years. Now that he’s just finishing up his 1st term of his senior year, he’s seriously considering dropping the math major and switching to computer science. Luckily he’s taken enough CS classes that it shouldn’t be a problem. He might be able to get a double major, but mostly just wants to finish up and be done with school (at least for a while).</p>
<p>in some schools you have different versions of some class for non-majors. Do you have to declare your major right away? Some of these classes are freshman classes such as general chemistry.</p>
<p>A neighbor’s h.s. senior D has decided to major in Art History because she got a 5 on the AP exam so thinks that is her best area. She had never even looked up the academic reqs. for an A.H. degree…didn’t even know how. I showed her how to find the req. classes on a college website. She was really surprised to learn that she will have to take four semesters of French or German for the degree, neither of which she took in h.s. </p>
<p>I think this happens to a lot of students (not CC kids who seem to research everything but kids I know IRL). They pick something they think they are good at (by h.s. standards) or something that people tell they will get them a “good job” without truly understanding what that major entails. Then when they get to college and Thermodynamics(for example) knocks them off their feet, they realize that maybe engineering (insert any major) is really not for them and change their major.</p>
<p>Back in high school I was set on majoring in math. Since I was applying mostly to small colleges, the strength of their math department was a major factor when I was choosing where to apply. As of right now I am third-year math major with intentions on getting a PhD. I like to think that I made the right call :)</p>