She’s been studying chemical engineering. In high school she took an advanced chemistry class and had an excellent teacher who really inspired her, but so far her college career (which of course has included a lot of theoretical math and physics, in addition to chemistry) has not been what she expected, and anything BUT inspiring. She’s much more of a practical, “hands-on” person and hates getting bogged down in theory. We’ve had long discussions about this; explaining that you often have to “jump through the hoops” of taking some classes that can be sheer drudgery, but she’s quite adamant that she feels she’s headed in the wrong direction.
I suppose it’s better to face that now, rather than many people who, after 20 or 30 years into a career, realize that they hate what they’re doing and have been living lives of “quiet desperation”. It’s really tough being a 20 year old and having to make such an important decision without knowing yourself very well.