Deciding on a major is just the first of the many difficult decisions there is to make in college.
I began my time at Auburn as a nutrition science major, hoping to go to medical school upon the completion of my undergraduate degree.
I quickly found, after taking three science classes (two of them honors) my first semester, that medical school wasn't for me.
I switched to the nutrition and dietetics major, which was similar to my initial nutrition major, just without all the medical school prerequisites built in.
Even still, I couldn't make myself enjoy all the science classes.
Since I liked to write, I switched to journalism my junior year, a discipline that couldn't have felt more opposite than what I had previously studied.
It's unfortunate many universities force freshman to immediately declare a major, because often even the most assured students don't know what they want to do.
There's a lot of pressure for freshmen to declare a major, and Auburn has more than 140 to choose from.
While it's hard to know what you want to do, there are ways to graduate on time even if you change your major to something in science to something in liberal arts.
I am able to graduate almost on time - in four years plus a summer semester.
I'll be done with classes in May and will get my diploma after I intern in the summer, which is not an uncommon thing to do if you have a full-time internship in your curriculum.
I consider myself lucky.
I know handfuls of people who have similarly changed their major and are graduating more than a summer semester late.
Here are two key ways to avoid this:
- Focus on core classes for your first year. Auburn requires courses in English, history, science, math and social science, which can easily fill hours for your first two semesters. This can also be a way to discover interests you may not have known about before.
- Take one class that pertains to your declared major to test the waters. You don't want to be a junior taking your first major-related class and then realize you don't like it.
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