Undeclared Major - Declaring Your Major as Undeclared

Starting college can be stressful. You have to think about possibly dorming or living in a college apartment and all of the things you need for that. You also have to (gulp!) think about what you want to do with your life. This is perhaps more stressful than thinking about living with a roommate! You may not want know what you want to do right out of high school. And that’s okay.

Some high school students seem to have it all figured out. They know really early what career they want, they know what they want to major in, and they have every single thing planned out. This is great, but it may make you feel a little bad because you may not have that part figured out. You just know that you want to go to college and learn so you start out as Undeclared. 

Starting out college as Undeclared isn’t a bad thing, it just means that you have a little more work ahead of you. You’ll spend this beginning time as an Undeclared Major by taking your core classes. Yes, there’s even a core group of classes in college! As you go through these classes, if you’re finding you’re really interested in one of the subjects, talk to your professors. Talk to your advisors. See what’s out there in the field that you might be interested in doing. Go on the internet and research the careers for that major. Maybe shadow someone working in a career you’re interested in. You may have more leg work as an Undeclared Major, but you get to have a sampling of different things you can do so that you know when you do make a choice it is the right one. And if you shadow someone or do research of a career and find that it is something you really don’t want to do? That’s okay, too! In fact that’s more than okay, and don’t get upset that it wasn’t what you thought. Just move onto the next thing. Don’t dwell on the fact that something didn’t work out. Know why? Because you found that out now. You found that out before you declared it as a major and got a career in it and that, college student, is extremely valuable!

Of course, you can’t stay Undeclared forever. Your college will have a time that you need to declare a major by, so you need to do your leg work pretty much right when you start college. Get involved in some groups and clubs at college, look through the college course catalog and explore your options. The most important thing you can do though is talk to your professors and advisors. However, you can’t expect them to do the leg work for you. As an Undeclared Major, you will need to take initiative and explore the options that are out there for you. Take time to settle into the college routine then start exploring. Remember – being Undeclared at first isn’t bad. Don’t let yourself get frustrated because others are at a different point than you are in planning their careers and majors. Don’t compare your beginning to someone else’s middle point and good luck!