I’m a sophomore studying Behavioral Biology and minoring in Applied Mathematics and Statistics. This decision came about after a long and painful year deciding what to major in. I went through Cognitive Science, Public Health, Computer Science, and Neuroscience. Then late in the spring of my freshman year, I discovered Behavioral Biology, which looked really interesting to me: a chance to learn about the brain and psychology, with a lot of flexibility and room for pre-med requirements.
However, I took Discrete Math my first semester and I really loved it. So I spent all of freshman spring angst-ing over whether to be an AMS major, or double major, or minor. Looking at things practically, I wouldn’t have room for a double major and premed requirements this late, and I’d have to pack my schedule for an AMS major. So I’m minoring in it.
I thought I was really happy with that, but I’ve fallen into feeling “blah” about learning about the brain and abnormal psychology, which I’ve always been interested in, but not that interested in. So now I’m feeling “buyer’s remorse,” and I wish I had known what I wanted to do back from the very beginning, because I probably would have chosen a different path.
tl;dr Has anyone else been through regretting their major choice? Did you learn to love it, or try to make your dream work? Does this feeling pass (It’s passed for me a couple of times, but it keeps returning!)?
If you are still in your sophomore year, can’t you still change your major? A lot of schools don;t expect you to declare a major until the end of sophomore year for the reasons you state. It’s common to change your mind.
Long before you were born, I changed my major at the start of my 4th year. Best decision I ever made. I had to spend a couple extra semesters, which was time & money well spent (in my case).
You’re interested in becoming a doctor, correct? If that’s the case, then just major in what you enjoy. So long as you have space to take the necessary pre-med requirements, if you have a hankering to study Ukrainian poetry, major in it. It’s not too late. You’re only a Sophomore. It’s not like you’re graduating next month.
I don’t regret my major choice, but I do regret that I didn’t take a required lower division course for East Asian Studies earlier. I had to switch from East Asian Studies to Japanese because both that required course for EAS and a required course for Japanese were held at overlapping time slots, and I had to choose one or the other (both courses are held only once a year). It’s also my last year, and since I wanted to take the required Japanese course, I switched from an EAS major to Japanese. If I had taken the required lower division EAS course a year or two earlier, I could have done a double major in both like I had planned to, but I couldn’t because of time conflicts with other classes.
Thanks for the replies, everyone. I’ve been thinking about it a lot since I made the post. I’m really thinking about changing it, but I feel like I’m choosing between something safe and practical and something very risky (GPA-wise and stress-wise; these AMS courses are supposedly very difficult and time-consuming, and I don’t know if I can do it). I’ll semi-regret it if I don’t switch, but I’ll get over it… But if I do switch and don’t do well, then I will really regret it…
I think I’m just assuming that if I’m not falling head-over-heels for all of my classes, then it’s not the major for me. But there’s no perfect major, and my passion for psychology could be rekindled / cultivated if I just stick out the major… I’m only two classes into this major BTW, so I haven’t even been immersed in the major yet… Maybe instead of working on the major, I just need to fix my constant indecisiveness. :-<
In my experience, psychology doesn’t get all that much more interesting, at least at the undergraduate level. I majored in psych and I felt like even the “upper level” classes were extremely repetitive of lower level survey classes. I did finish it out, because I liked the flexibility that it gave me to double minor and still take a broad range of classes in a ton of other subjects. However, if I were to go back in time, I would have majored in the riskier but more interesting subject (chemistry for me) instead. Just my experience. Either way, it really won’t matter if you definitely want to go to med school