I’m a first-generation college student. When it comes to the technical planning and formal organization of how college careers work, I retain little to no information because the entire playing field is new to me.
So, when I got admitted to the University of California, Riverside, I wasn’t aware of the ability to remain as an undeclared major, and chose Sociology as the major I planned on declaring in college.
However, sometime around my Fall Quarter of the following year, I came across an economics class that to me was very intriguing and made me very interested in the world of Business and Economics. A requirement that I needed, however, to enter the department of economics from Sociology was to take a particular math course I had already taken during my first year of college. Nonetheless, I was told to petition and make this entire deal with the Dean in where I could only take this university calculus course only once and if I didn’t pass I wouldn’t be getting into Economics.
Unfortunately, things came up short with that course and staying a year apart from the previous math class I took prior to University Calculus really stumped me. At the same time, other courses I needed to take weren’t going that well either.
So, once I went in to speak to the advisor of Economics, she told me I would be unable to move forward with the process of switching majors, and the only possibility left for me was to switch majors within the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences.
Now, I always see the good side of things and thought the idea of majoring in political science wouldn’t be such a bad idea. However, this creates a lot of potential delays like graduation, transcripts, etc. and I truly had a desire for the world of Business and Economics. Changing it all at once is a very difficult choice to make when a quarter and a summer session later, all your work goes to no avail.
So now I’m narrowing down my two options:
- Transfer out to a community college back home and making my shortest stay possible there in order to transfer back out to another university that will provide me with a Business and Economics-oriented major I want after more thorough research, or
- Rough it out and select Political Science as my major for my last two years and create a more detailed plan with such while I get my degree for this major.
Can everyone give me the pros and cons with both options? I’m genuinely stuck at this point. One side of me says I should leave and pursue the career I want from the ground up but the other side of me says otherwise, claiming that I’m already going to be in my third year of college and I should just make the most of it.