Declaring a major can be very difficult, especially when you’re just finishing high school or beginning your freshman year of college. There may be a lot of courses that you enjoy, and if you earn impressive grades in all of them, it can be hard to decide what you will be best at or what you are most passionate about.
In any case, you shouldn’t feel pressured into declaring your major before you’re ready, but you also shouldn’t let the question escape your mind for too long. Here’s some questions you should ask yourself so that you know whether or not it’s better to declare a major in college.
Do You Know What School You Want to Attend?
If you know exactly which school you want to attend, but don’t know what you want to major in yet, then sometimes it’s better to apply undeclared. Even if you do know what you want to study, and if the particular program you are trying to get into is especially competitive, then it may be easier to get into the school as an undeclared major.
Once you get accepted to the school, and if you have a high GPA after your first few semesters, it will be much easier to transfer into the program of your choice than it would be if you applied to the program as a freshman.
However, if you are applying to a school that is very hard to get into in general, but you choose a major that has easier criteria to meet than most of the other majors, then it will definitely be easier to get in if you declare your major from the very beginning.
Do You Have Any Clue What You Want to Major in?
If you don’t have the slightest clue what you want to major in, then the last thing you want to do is lock yourself into something before you really know what it’s about. Even if you think you have a pretty good idea of what you want to study, you may start taking your general education courses and find out that you really enjoy something else.
That’s why it’s usually best to wait at least until the end of your freshman year to declare your major. By then you will have taken several courses and met several people who can attest to the merit of each program within the college.
How Long Do You Want to Spend in School?
For most people, spending any more than 4 years in undergraduate school sounds like a nightmare. Even if you’re going to some of the best schools, like UCLA or NSU, after a while you start itching to be done with it all. However, there are a lot of people who really enjoy going to college, and they don’t want to earn their degree, or degrees, until they absolutely know what they plan to do with their education.
Speaking of multiple degrees, you don’t have to major in just one subject. If you find that you are passionate about more than one subject, then you always have the option of choosing multiple majors, it just might take you longer to graduate.
