D19 is going to apply to Clemson and she has started filling out the application. She noticed there is an optional essay/personal statement - did most of you fill this part out or is it truly optional?
She is undecided about her major but she has an idea (2-3 choices) of what she will choose. I have heard it is better to pick two than to list undecided, did you find that to be true as well?
Thank you!
My Daughter applied as undecided. However once she was admitted and decided to attend she was advised that for the purposes of the registering for classes and advising it was advisable to pick a major. So she did.
Another caveat is that if she is undecided between lets say English and Nursing she needs to apply for nursing as that major has very limited spots and will be unavailable if not originally applied/accepted into.
Thanks @burghdad. She wouldn’t be applying to any limited spot majors - her most likely top two are psychology and english.
Do you know if your D did the personal statement? Sounds like it is more of a personal statement is you have anything you wanted to explain more than an essay. I though Clemson was all stats on the application so that surprised us.
My son who will be starting at Clemson as a freshman in the honors college this fall also applied undecided . He was given multiple opportunities to change his major up to and including his time at orientation. He has several interests and is having trouble narrowing things down so at orientation he met with advisors from the academic success center ( with several other undecided students ). They were very helpful in helping him come up with a schedule that would fulfill first semester requirements for several of the majors he has interest in .He fortunately came in with a ton of dual enrollment credits and AP credit so his biggest problem is having many of his prerequisites already done . He is also interested in majors that are not limited enrollment at this time so that’s not an issue . The advisors recommended that he try to choose a major by first semester of soph year ( which he definitely will if not beforehand) . The honors college was not at all concerned with him being undecided and told him to take his time and not to limit himself ( since he does have many credits coming in I’m not worried about him not graduating on time ). It’s definitely helpful to choose a major if you can but out of all my kids , he is truly , truly undecided because he really does like a lot of different subjects so I m glad he isn’t rushing .If she has her majors narrowed down to 2 , she can list one as first choice and one second…seems like it can be easily changed at orientation if not before . My son did do the personal statement as did my daughter who also attends Clemson. I always told my kids to do the optional essays/ statements . It normally can only help.
Thank you @NJMOM3! I figured she should do the personal statement but was hoping everyone would say we could skip it because she does not have her essay even started and I didn’t want to load her up with another thing to write. :))