Starting your first year of college is a stressful time in your life. Applying to college was just the beginning of this new journey you are about to take. Many people enter their first year of college with big plans and high expectations. But that does not mean you have to do the same. Beginning college with a plan does not mean that you will follow it perfectly and you should not feel you need to have a plan in order to succeed in college.
The most common question asked during your final years of high school is, “Where are you applying to college?” quickly followed by, “What’s your major?”. For some people, this is a conversation starter if they do in fact have a plan on what they want to do for the rest of their lives. However, it can easily be a nightmare when you get asked these questions during every conversation and you have no idea what you want to do, giving the awkward reply of “I don’t know yet”.
My senior year of high school I remember everyone asking me where I wanted to go to college and what I wanted to study and all the things that I felt I had the perfect answer to. At that time, I had a plan to major in elementary education and minor in psychology and eventually go to graduate school to get my Masters and become an elementary teacher. News flash, nothing goes as planned when it is your first year in college.
Within my first semester here at HPU I knew I was not on the path that I wanted to take for the rest of my life. I changed my major to psychology and my minor to educational studies and hoped for the best. And here I am, three years later, happy as ever with a new life plan as I near graduation. My point here is that you do not need to stress about declaring your major before you even enter college. You may change your major or minor, or maybe not, but that is perfectly okay. In my opinion it means that you are growing up and making decisions that you know will benefit your future and what you want to do.
Choosing a major can be intimidating. High Point University offers 48 majors along with 51 minors, meaning you have a variety of options to choose from. This can be stressful, however, HPU does not require our students to declare a major until second semester sophomore year. You have almost two years to take a variety of courses and figure out what you are interested in and want to pursue. And if by chance you figure out early on what you want to do then you can start taking courses and really dive into your major. If you take two years to decide, you can explore your options and even get some of the general requirements out of the way.
Entering college undeclared provides you with the opportunity to take a variety of courses and explore your options. You are able to ask yourself what you are interested in and take a class in that field, as well as look into a field of study that you have never heard before or one that is new to you and you always wanted to take. You will be surprised what may interest you when you are given the opportunity to choose courses.