<p>I'm graduating high school this spring and I don't know if I should go straight into my intended major or not. I am fairly certain I want to major in psychology, and then get a master's degree and become a counselor of some sort. However, I'd still like to keep my mind open towards other things because people always talk about how ungrads change their minds/majors all the time. I know I can change my major if I really want to, but I've also heard of the drawbacks of doing that, such as it can delay your graduation. Would it be better for me to go into college with a major in psychology, the one that I think I'll stick with but still might change my mind, or would it be better for me to go in undecided, then maybe go into psychology? Oh, and I also want to double-minor in Creative Writing and Art, so even if I went in undeclared, I'd still be able to take some classes that wouldn't feel pointless and would help me towards the degree I want anyways.</p>
<p>Whether you go in undeclared or declared is not important unless you are applying to a specific program. Admissions officers understand that college students will change their majors, so they will not accept/reject you based on the major you put down, or not put down on your application. They want to see that you are interested in learning and have an intellectual curiosity. If you want to learn psychology, great! It doesn’t hurt you if you put down psychology as a potential major! Your school will only use that information to help you pick out classes for your first semester and help guide you though college.</p>
<p>Your first few semesters will be knocking out basic courses and liberal arts requirements that will apply to many majors. There won’t be all that much of a difference between undecided and psych.</p>
<p>So, if you’re thinking about psych, may as well go in as a psych major. Design your courseload to knock out all the general requirements first so that they’ll count towards a degree even if you change majors. </p>
<p>Even if you end up taking some psych classes and then changing majors, you’ll have taken classes that interested you, and they may count towards some sort of requirement in your new major.</p>
<p>I’d recommend going in undeclared. On your app there’s nothing wrong with putting down an intended major, but you don’t have to confirm it yet. </p>
<p>When you get to college next fall you can take a look at the requirements for a psychology major at that particular institution and model your course-load with that in mind. </p>
<p>Then after freshman year you will have some perspective on what that major feels like and decide then if that’s something you really want to do. And because you took into account for your first year what you would need to graduate as a psych major you won’t have lost any time. </p>
<p>As someone else said, a lot of the first two years go into fulfilling general requirements so no matter what major you choose, the first few years will be very similar. So if you change your mind, you’ll have less paper work to deal with, and unless the change is radical, like if you decide to go into biomedical-engineering or astrophysics or something very specific like that, you probably won’t even be behind.</p>
<p>Most colleges (besides the scenario in post #2) don’t require you to declare until t he end of soph year. If you’re undecided, write that. Nothing wrong with that</p>
<p>Depends on when you get a academic advisor in your major. If they assign them freshman year to kids who have stated an intended major, then you would miss out getting course selection and career advice from a psychology professor.
I don’t see a downside to declaring an intended major now.</p>