Switching Your College Major: Recognizing When It’s Time for a Change

When you apply for college, you have a certain mindset of your endgame and what you’re looking to achieve. You are also typically applying to a particular program, and that program has your major in it. It’s a big decision when selecting your college major and there are a lot of factors that go into making that decision.

At the same time, that major will help shape your future career path and what your potential earnings can be down the line. Yet, as you begin your higher education and start to dive deeper into your major, you start to notice that the one you selected may not exactly be what you’re looking for. But don’t panic and don’t worry as this is a lot more common than you think.

You start to think it’s time to change your major and take a different direction but you’re concerned about what to do and whether it’s the right decision you’re making. Maybe you tell yourself to stay strong and finish your degree and original major, even if you feel deep down inside that it’s time to change it anyway.

What causes us to want to change our major?

There are many reasons why we believe it’s time to change our major, and there are signs that appear that show we should be switching. The first can be as simple as having little interest in the subject matter of the major. Maybe you wanted to study a business-related major and found it completely boring or unappealing. Either way, if you don’t have the passion in an educational setting, then you’re definitely not going to see the passion with a career in that field.

Another reason that may cause you to switch out your major is finding out that it’s simply too difficult. You start to take some classes in your major and realize that you aren’t performing well and may not understand the subject matter as well as you thought you could.

It can also be extremely competitive for these types of degrees. This means that your classmates could become less inclined to help out as they are striving to achieve the highest possible grades on their own.

It’s also OK if you change your mind; don’t beat yourself up over it. Maybe you thought you wanted to go down one path, but you’ve changed your heart. Your original major is still quite interesting, but you found a recently discovered passion in the new major that’s making you fire your creative and intellectual juices on all pistons.

This could also mean that you weren’t quite sure what you wanted to do in your life, and you selected the original major because it felt like a safe or successful choice.

Think of it this way. It’s better to figure this out now and switch your major to something that you want to do, then build out a career into something that you may never have had the heart to do in the first place. You’ll hit a major roadblock later in life and have to make a much more costlier decision that could greatly affect either your financial well-being or your overall mental well-being.

Take these into consideration before switching to another college major

While it’s a good idea to switch your major, make sure you do a bit of research before changing. The first thing you want to check is how much switching your major is going to affect your graduation date. Are there new prerequisites to consider, or is it going to be a similar graduation date? If you’re practically done with your major and are a few credits short of graduation, you need to seriously weigh up whether it makes sense to stop before the end.

This is also related to any costs that can come from changing your major. Are you still early enough in your college education that switching won’t be a costly endeavor? Or will you need to pay for additional tuition on top of more years to graduate?

Then, you want to make sure that your strengths are aligned with this new major so there isn’t another issue where you end up switching your major again. Are you capable of completing this major on time? Then, you can look at your overall career goals and how your new major will affect or align with what you want to do with your career. If it has minimal to no impact, then you should be in the clear about changing your majors.

Tips for transferring to a new major

Always speak with your academic advisor. They will let you know what your plan will look like to transition and usually help to give you the path of least resistance and least disruption as well. Also, make sure that you’re satisfied with your new major and that you have researched it enough. Check out the courses and what the work will entail.

You also may want to seek out some guidance from professors who are going to be teaching classes for the major itself and get a better understanding of the department in general. There could also be some extracurricular activities related to your major, such as clubs that you can join and see what they’re all about and give you some experience in the subject.

In the end

Remember, you want to go to college to get yourself a better education while also getting a better understanding of something that you want to learn. College is one of the first settings that puts you in the driver’s seat of what you want to learn versus being told what to learn. You should have every right and not feel ashamed or bad if you switch majors. You’ll feel a huge weight being lifted off your chest and a huge burden being removed once you change majors. Also, the sooner you do it, the less hassle it will be down the line.