It’s good to know that there are plenty of opportunities out there. But my sense is that S22 needs to know what major(s) (list and rank a few) he wants to study in college before looking for colleges that offer them. Four years of college can fly by fast (see what happened to HS:)
Not necessarily. For example, if your son is interested in environment & sustainability, he might apply to environmental science, meteorology, climate science, environmental design or a host of other related majors.
His choice of major may be different at each school depending on their focus. For example, environmental engineering often deals with waste water but UCSD changed their env eng degree to focus more on renewable energy and climate change.
Make sure he reads the description of the major at each school before applying.
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No. The vast majority of college students switch majors and many multiple times. They enroll with one idea, but then switch to another…and sometimes another. And another before they land on their degree major.
We were strong fans of schools with a core curriculum that forced our kids to explore areas outside of their preferred areas of interest. One did not switch majors and we never thought he would. But he got to see and experience areas that made him a more well rounded thinker. The second kid really wanted to be an engineer…and got an engineering degree. But this kid added a biology double major because the kid realized life sciences were way more interesting than engineering.
Kids change.
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https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2018/2018434.pdf suggests that fewer than the “vast majority” of students change major, in that only 33% of BA/BS students changed their major (24% one time, 9% more than one time). However, some caution must be used with these numbers, since some students enter undeclared and may change intended major while still being undeclared before they actually declare a major.
A student who is undecided on major should consider colleges where all of the possible majors of interest are offered with quality programs, and where it is not difficult to switch between them after enrolling (because of capacity limitations). If one such major at the college is difficult to switch into and offers direct admission, it may be a good idea to apply for direct admission to that major, since switching out after enrolling will be easier than switching in.
But note also that an undecided student needs to plan a frosh year course schedule to make progress to all possible majors of interest, in order to avoid accidentally making some of them impossible to complete in eight semesters due to prerequisite sequencing.
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I think we are dealing with semantics. A student who enters as undeclared, as many do, then chooses a major is much the same as one who switches for whatever reason.
My point is…(same as yours) many students benefit from a college choice that has many options.
Kids change!
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Have you gotten a copy of your kid’s high school transcript yet…so you can actually see the courses he took?
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D20 is at a SLAC where they do not admit by major and students declare by the end of sophomore year. She has 2 semesters under her belt and has said “I am going to major in _________” at least 5 times already. We think this time she means it but she still has a semester and a half to go. We aren’t worried…much. 
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No, I tried to login to see his courses and grades but got locked out due to too many tries with wrong passwords. It asked me to contact the school to unlock.
I know he took/will take AP courses in every common subject area such as English language and literature, research and seminar, world and US history, calculus BC and 3, etc. He doesn’t have AP foreign language though and that may/may not limit his options.
Sounds like your D20’s school is great, much like something @ucbalumnus mentioned above.
This is critically important for STEM fields. Most require a year of lower division chem, calculus, biology and physics. Also some schools recommend against using your high school AP course/exam to skip a lower div STEM course. Other schools are okay with it.
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@ozishigh your kid does not need to have AP foreign language to get accepted to college. Does he have foreign language courses?
You can request a transcript by contacting the school. Or maybe you can have your kid log onto his student portal to get this.
You need to understand what courses he took. It sounds like he has what he needs, but only his transcript will tell!
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He started taking foreign language classes since middle school. I do too think his course work should cover all necessary for college admissions. He knows exactly what courses he has as the other day he calculated out his weighted GPA for me to check our school’s Naviance. I may have to know what his courses are when potential colleges become clear.
At this point, could you forget about his GPA, and figure out what courses he has taken?
Has he taken…
4 years of English
4 years of social studies
4 years of foreign language
4 years of math
4 years of science, likely needing 3 lab sciences?
Arts?
PE?
Health?
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Asked him and he has 4 or more in each group except foreign language with one less. He’s done with Health and PE. Surprisingly he has an art class plus band.
Now I need to figure out what kind of jobs he’d like to have after college (i.e., what majors to apply to).
Did he fill out surveys on Naviance? It has some info about careers and majors, personality, also may create resume. Some high school counselors and teachers review the student resume when preparing letters of recommendation.
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No you don’t need to figure out what kind of job your kid would like to have after graduation. HE needs to figure out what his career plans are. Also keep in mind that some folks find that their major in college isn’t identical to the career path they choose. Exceptions would be things like engineering.
In other words, there can be many career options regardless of the major your son pursues.
But really…this needs to be his decision, not yours!
And the college will have a career center…something else for you to check out as you are looking at colleges.
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A survey would be interesting (a personality survey on kids?), but I don’t know as I looked at the scatterplots in Naviance once or twice. Will check more.
I was thinking about how to figure out what major(s) he will apply to.
If he wants to apply to a specific major HE needs to figure this out,not you.
Why do you think you need to figure this out? Your son is going to college, not you. Please let him be invested in making some of the decisions. Sure, you can give some limits and guidance. But he needs to own this.
Is your son as invested in finding colleges as you are?
Also, regarding majors…at some colleges, he can apply as an undeclared major. At some colleges, students don’t declare a major until sophomore year. At some colleges, students can enroll in one major and easily change to another. At other colleges, this isn’t so easy.
Sample of one. One of my kids applied undeclared but really wanted engineering. Her college allowed both direct entry and declaring this as a major later on. My kid took all of the courses for an engineering major her first year, and declared her major after that. BUT wait. She decided she really didn’t want to ever BE an engineer even though she has that degree. She is following a different career path for now.
We parents had absolutely nothing to do with choosing the majors our kids undertook in college. Nothing. The only criteria we gave was that we would pay for only the equivalent of four years of undergrad and anything after that was on them. But we did not choose majors, or career possibilities for our kids.
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I’m here to seek suggestions so I can give him some guidance. I feel I’m unable to give him any at the moment. Suggestions so far are very helpful. Many thanks to many posters.
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