How often did you change your major in college?

[Float On]

I never changed my major - Recreation.
I did change my minor from Vocal Music to Psychology (only because my degree required so much psych anyway that only 1 extra class and I had my minor requirements).

I've got one son who is changing his mind almost weekly.
Phys Therapy, Nutrition/Kinesiology, Youth Ministry, Biology/Education, Math/Education, I can't remember what else and now Biology/Wildlife Management.
It's driving me nuts (only because I always knew what I wanted to do).
I know it's ok and it's what is typical of most college Freshmen.

He'll need to change colleges if he sticks with the Wildlife Management.
I know his passion and real interest is ornithology and I kind of wish he'd gone ahead and applied to Cornell in the first place.
I may encourage him to go ahead and apply. If that isn't an option then maybe something closer to St Louis so he can volunteer at World Bird Sanctuary and do an internship there.

[rodeosweetheart]

I never did change my major. Maybe I should have.
I think there are so many more interesting majors available than when I went to college.

If I were your son, I'd be so excited about Biology/Wildlife Management. Later in life, I came to realize that I enjoyed studying biology immensely in high school and wished I had stuck with it. His new major prospect sounds like a dream job to me (park ranger by the ocean in SC).

[catherine]

I transferred colleges to do what I wanted to do. I originally wanted to be a costume designer and was accepted at Emerson College in Boston, one of the only places I know where you can actually get a degree in costume design. But the college itself is almost 100% focused on performing arts/stagecraft, and I was afraid I might have broader interests, so I wound up at a very small private woman's Catholic college that my mother emotionally blackmailed me into going to (my choice after Emerson was Boston College, where I had also been accepted, but that was during the Vietnam era and anti-war activists were occupying administration buildings which freaked my mother out so I wound up at a virtual convent).

At St. Joseph's I realized I still loved theatre, so I transferred out in order to get my degree in that. I almost switched gears a couple of time while I was there, because I also fell in love with Linguistics, but the lure of Junior Year Abroad at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art was too strong, so I did wind up a degree in Drama Criticism with a strong minor in English (almost all linguistics/Old, Middle English, and Shakespeare classes).

I think your son will figure it out! He's just like a kid in a candy store--exciting that he has such curiosity about so many things.

[CathyA]

I think it's fairly common.........although it can be quite expensive....since many times the student has to go another year or 2. DD stayed in music the whole time. DS stayed in the same thing, but transferred schools, which didn't accept all the basics he'd had. :(
I first studied music, then psychology. I had a B.S. in psyche, which didn't mean anything since I lived in a college town with lots of people with M.S.s and PhD.s in psyche.
Then....years later I became an R.N.
I think it's sort of crazy to expect 18-19 year olds to know what they want to do for the rest of their lives.......but that's the way it's set up.

Maybe your son can get most of the required basic courses out of the way (to fulfill most of the basics for the area he may end up choosing). That way, he won't lose too much time/money/energy.

[rodeosweetheart]

My oldest went to Emerson, Catherine! He loved it.

[catherine]

My oldest went to Emerson, Catherine! He loved it.

Really!!?? It's a great school. Do you mind telling me what his major was--and is he still in the field?

[rodeosweetheart]

His major was filmic writing. He still works in film but he's a freelancer and a stay at home dad.

[Tammy]

I stayed the course with my bachelors degree in nursing. I was in my early 30s with 3 small kids so I stayed focused on what would make money and was still within my area of interest.

But I was really tempted by genetics. I took a genetics class for a science requirement. It was a blend of bachelors and masters level students. The masters had to write an extra paper for their level of credit. I ended up tutoring my study group by default. I thought it was easy and intuitive and I got an A without trying. The masters people in my group were relieved to have me there to help and they struggled to pass.

I always have wondered what would have happened if I had changed majors.

[Ultralight]

A bazillion times!

[SteveinMN]

Three times. Started out planning to go to veterinary school, but didn't like the idea that my nose was going to be stuck in textbooks all through college and that my future was imperiled by a B on an exam. I thought there was far more to college than that. Switched to engineering, but ran into a whipsaw of professors who did enough emotional damage for very little payback that I abandoned that for technical journalism. I love tech, I love to write. It was perfect -- for about four years after graduation when I started working in IT and that was the end of writing very much. I managed to do all of this in five years, so I didn't fare very badly for all the changes...

[kib]

I switched majors once, from pre-med psychology to a general business degree, oddly never choosing the area in which I might actually have had some talent - English or perhaps journalism. I then went on to have jobs in science, banking and law. >8)I think I absorbed the idea that you don't want to be constrained (by a boss) in an area you wish to pursue with passion and abandon - like perhaps an artist wouldn't want to pursue a degree in fine arts, fearing being constrained by a career in marketing. Later in life I found this attitude depressing, I came to see it as betting against myself - maybe I could have had a career as a writer that wasn't based on someone else's demands, and in any event I think it would have been easy to feel competent and possibly more assertive if I picked something I actually had confidence about. If ornithology is the passion, I'd say pursue it!

[Chicken lady]

I wanted to be a kindergarten teacher, so i got a bs in early childhood education, with honors. Minor in psych, concetrated in learning and child development. Then I didn't get a public school job, and the state I graduated in required two years in a supervised program in a public school to get an actual license. Then i moved to another state where I was considered completely unqualified having never held a license. so I spent four years in training for a job I didn't ever have.

I now teach pottery. I should have majored in art. Or math. Or Plants. I don't even know what "plants" is called. Or marine biology. I took a marine biology course once and it was fascinating. I mean, basically it wouldn't have mattered. I did learn what the "bs" was for in education though! Homeschooled my kids.

Oldest double majored in architecture and art Ed. Dropped the teaching program two weeks into her first public school student teaching.

Second one double majored in some kind of math I don't understand and math Ed. Dropped the teacher certification after his first classroom placement (still has the math Ed degree - he's qualified to write textbooks) got a job in IT starting in june, and is picking up a computer science minor in his next (final) semester as a side effect of learning how to do his future job.

Both graduated in 4 years.

Baby is majoring in graphic design and minoring in business. She actually wants to go into marketing. She wanted to double major, but there isn't enough overlap and she'd have to do a 5th year.

[Williamsmith]

Started in engineering......decision was driven by predictions of high wages and peer pressure. Found out I wasn't technically minded enough, committed enough or interested enough. Floundered around on academic probation and changed majors to a general agriculture degree........farmer. I wanted to homestead. Got a serious case of mononucleosis (probably due to my wild activities ) and quit college. Returned to a different college one year later. Transferred about half my credits and finished with a degree in Resource Management. Park Ranger. Wage expectation.......low. Personal interest....high.
Finished on the five year plan and I am sure like you, my mother was thinking........what is going on.

Then to cap it all off......I spent a 25 year career in a field that I had no interest in and didn't even need a college degree for but I was in need of a paying job that would support a family. Now that I am retired......I am looking back to my roots.

My advice......he will figure it out, it is really normal, and let the slack out on the line. I know it is hard to do. My daughter changed majors three times before settling in accounting where we thought she belonged in the first place.

[Gardenarian]

Once; I switched from Physics to English when I was a junior. Too many uppity men in the physics dept. I wish I had known the term 'mansplaining' then - I was mansplained right out of there :/

[cdttmm]

Started out as an international relations major, changed to biology, then German, then music. Graduated in 4 years with a double major: music and linguistics. Never worked in either field. Went on to get a graduate degree in business and then later a graduate degree in positive psychology. One of my students asked me yesterday what my next graduate degree is going to be in -- I haven't even decided yet, but clearly my love of learning is showing. :~)

[goldensmom]

I never changed majors but added classes and ended up with 4 undergrad majors. Only one graduate major, however, as it was too hard while working full time and I was just tired of going to school.

[bae]

Once. I switched from majoring in physics to a custom major of statistics, electrical engineering, computer science, and physics. With a minor in classics.

[Williamsmith]

I think those who change majors often in college make for better more committed spouses or partners......hey I'm sick of change.

[JaneV2.0]

I never switched majors, but kept adding them: English writing, Spanish, Romance Languages, sociology...If I had stayed for another term or two I would have graduated with all kinds of degrees. Looking back, I just chose to study what came naturally to me--mostly useless stuff. There are so many more interesting courses of study today--and I did go back and get certificates in Technical Writing and Editing--that I would undoubtedly do things very differently. My career, such as it was, didn't require a degree. I'm not sure any job I've done did--maybe my technical editing internship. But I managed to support myself pretty well, and I can't discount that.

[Chicken lady]

Hey williamsmith, some of us just know what we want up front! - 25 years and ticking....

[Williamsmith]

Hey williamsmith, some of us just know what we want up front! - 25 years and ticking....

I didn't know what I wanted but I lucked out and literally stumbled into a gem who I have been with officially for 32 years. She must have liked my long hair, mismatched clothes, hippie politics and lack of direction. Kinda like brInging a straggly starving filthy dog home. A fixer upper project. I'm almost completely rehabilitated now, a few fough edges but loyal.

[Bronxboy]

Picked a major my senior year of high school and stuck with it.

Daughter has switched majors once (as a freshman), then added a minor, then made the minor a second major.

[LDAHL]

I never changed my major (Biology) during my undergrad years. I started college with the plan of a career in entomology, and got the chance to work in a couple of labs. But the more I saw of academic life, the less I thought it was for me. The petty politics, the constant scramble for funding, the conformity to a sort of social/political orthodoxy didn't seem like the stuff of a well-lived life. I finished school and got an Air Force commission through ROTC, so I decided to get an MBA and a Masters in Accounting while I served in the military so I'd have some earning power in civilian life. It worked out pretty well for me, in terms both of money and personal satisfaction.

[Gardnr]

Once. STarted Nursing school....hated it. Switched to Surgical Technologist. 3Y later? Back to Nursing school.!thumbsup!