Undecided major?

[Barbara]

My senior son is still undecided on his major. His problem seems to be that he is interested in too many things, and they are all very different. For example, I was reading one of his applications, and he had listed everything from law enforcement, military, to engineering and a few things in between! He's not sending this in, of course, but what do you do with a student like this? His way of thinking is he really wants to learn about all these things, so he can't pick any one thing...

 

His ACT scores are midrange 28 composite. He's planning to take again in December, hoping to raise it a point at least. His math score was low...he didn't finish. He is stronger in English/Reading than math. He reads all the time. He's always been fairly weak at computation type tests in math, but does well at problem solving.

 

He seems to want a small liberal arts school with lots to do outdoors. But on the other hand, he likes the Coast Guard...don't know if he could get in there though. He and a buddy canoe/kayak, mountain bike and hike. He's also been on a competitive rifle team for 6 yrs.

 

Idea? Suggestions? I think it's fine to go in undecided, but it seems like you could get lost by the advisor or take classes that are a waste of time. Is it better to declare some type of major, then change?

 

Thanks!

[FaithManor]

In this case, I would be a huge fan of the gap year if possible and going into college at 19. My reason for this is that colleges and uni's are no longer so friendly to the undeclared major as they used to be. The best spots and scholarship monies are given to those with a declared major and many times, in specific majors. Colleges look at how many are incoming into each major, what majors are they promoting etc. Also, a lot of programs now require you to begin taking classes in your major right from the start. Gone are the years when a student could spend a year or even three semesters taking gen-ed classes because the gen-ed requirements were the same for everyone on campus. Now gen-ed is a little more personally tied to the intended major. So, if you major in x....then your gen-ed must come from this particular composite of classes...medical students including nurses now take a different college writing course, at least on many campuses, than say history majors. In my college days, everyone chose from the same pile of gen-ed classes. Therefore, there can be a lot of precious dollars wasted in classes that may not count towards graduation later.

 

The gap year could then focus on job shadowing in areas he has shown interest. Hook him up with an engineer and do some interviews, spend a couple of days on the job, spend a lot of time at the recruiter, take to several branches of the military - there are many mentoring programs through the military, tour a base of the branch he is interested in, get your local sheriff to give an interview, ask the desk sergeant at the state police post if he could get a tour and talk to some of the troopers, sit in on some cases at the courthouse, talk to a local judge, and maybe have a little travel in there if possible in order to help him expand his horizons a little. He's far more likely at the end of the gap year to have a good idea what he would like to major in.

 

If math computation is a problem, he will either need to seriously bring that up or consider not majoring in engineering.

 

SWB is a huge fan of the gap year. I am too. I think that it helps kids mature and focus before college. However, one thing I am against is a job just for the sake of earning money. If it is full time, then it takes the place of doing the job shadowing which means that the student doesn't get the exposure they need. Many parents are a huge fan of their 18 year olds working full time before college but I've seen a huge number of these kids that liked the money and since they were living at home, didn't have any expenses so it suddenly looked good to not go on for more training because minimum wage feels pretty good when you don't have to put a roof over your head or buy your food or pay utilities. Maybe if the child had to pay reasonable rent that would help. But, I think the focus of the gap year should not be making money but figuring out what the student really wants to do with their life and how to make that happen.

 

Faith

[ereks mom]

Majors declared when a student enters college are usually not considered "official" anyway. Majors are generally officially declared sometime during the sophomore year of college. In other words, LOTS (most?) kids go to college with no idea of what they want to do in life, and they begin to formulate a plan sometime after they get to college. Many, many students change their majors at least once (I did), before settling on one (or, in my case, two).

 

Core classes (basic English, math, science, history, etc.) are usually taken over the first two years of college, and then a student gets into his major. Of course, this is not the case with every major (my music major son started right off in music classes his first semester of college), but it is generally true of most "academic" (not arts) majors. Your ds should concentrate on his core classes, and one of those classes, or maybe even some of his extracurricular activities, will likely open a door to a career choice that he might not have ever noticed before.

Edited November 23, 2010 by ereks mom

[Miss Marple]

From what I'm seeing, it has been advantageous (financially) for my boys to declare a major. But keep in mind that one does not have to finish in that major. Many, many students change majors after they have been in school for about a year, especially those who have a large variety of interests.

 

My oldest received a large amount of scholarship money through the department in which he declared his major. We anticipate the same happening for ds#2. Both boys attend/will attend the state school based on their desired majors. DS#2 does not have as much confidence that he will stay in the major he has selected, but it is what, right now, interests him the most.

 

I was a young high school graduate (16 years old) and found it very difficult to decide exactly what my major should be. I knew I wanted to be something 'medical', but so many aspects of that interested me. Fortunately the costs were so much less back then that I could afford to spend more time in school deciding what I wanted to do.

 

Some schools may not provide a financial incentive to declaring a major. I'd check on the schools he's interested in.

[TravelingChris]

My dd has four acceptances with undecided major so far and all have offered her scholarships. I do think the difference may be that she is pre-law where the undergraduate major is rather unimportant.

 

I also would not encourage him to go towards engineering. It is one major that has a lot od students who are interested in it starting out and quickly flunking out of those classes because math is essential in engineering. It also is not one of those majors that you can sort of decide after a few years of basic classes since you need specific classes in those first few years.

[creekland]

If he's interested in law enforcement or the military, would he consider a school with ROTC? Many officers don't need a specialized degree - just "a" degree, so he could start undecided and then figure out what appealed to him the most with the military in mind to start a career.

 

I agree with those who suggest not really considering engineering if he's not super at math. The two go together and you tend to need to start both math and engineering freshman year without much wiggle room for many other classes (a few, but not many compared to other majors).

[Barbara]

Thanks so much for your responses; it has given us much to think about.

 

I think my ds got to this point by talking with admissions people at the booths at the college fair in the fall and talking with a school admissions counselor on one of our college visits. They both seemed "okay" about the undecided major and didn't feel that would be a disadvantage, but I understand what you are saying about the scholarship potential and the coursework. That does make sense.

 

We are familiar with the gap year and have thought about it. Ds has read several articles and thinks it's a great idea. I just don't know if HE can make it happen. We have had a fairly stressful high school homeschooling experience with family deaths, sickness, financial, etc. so our school has been very unstructured. I think this has produced in him an unscheduled lifestyle (unfortunately). Going to college and having the coursework set by someone else would be a benefit right now. I know I don't have the energy to invest in much more guidance (at least career related). Also, he is already 18 so he's not a young graduate. In addition, he has had some great experiences that should have helped him decide by now. He's an eagle scout and has taken many merit badge classes (a lot taught by people who work in their chosen field). He's taken a drafting/surveying class taught by the engineering students at the university, a forestry class taught by a working forester, etc. His rifle coach is an engineer. Two of the men involved in scouts are employed in the emergency medical field: one in a trauma nurse; the other, a firefighter. Ds plays the guitar on Weds. at church with the band so he's familiar with music/ministry type careers. My goodness...just typing this out makes me realize maybe that's what's wrong with him....he's been around too many careers…ha! He admires these people and what they have done in their lives! No wonder he can’t decide! Maybe he needs to take a class in decision-making skills…sigh.

 

As far as majoring in engineering, he agrees it would be a stretch due to the math requirements. Ds did take the ACT again and got a 25 in math, but that’s probably still low compared to the engineering students. He does have excellent visual/spatial skills and good problem solving so he thought that might be a help…maybe not? He can work on his car, etc. I think his main weakness in math has been having me to teach…really. He’s primarily interested in environmental engineering and the outdoors. My husband works as an environmental scientist with a state agency and does a lot of the same duties as an environmental engineer but without the same pay. One thing that might work is maybe ds could go through a trade program first, then think about moving on to engineering. Would that work? Ds has taken a career assessment test before, and he ranks high in architecture. Guess we could check out the math requirements for that.

 

Maybe I’ll just have ds type all the pros/cons out….the writing does help sort your thoughts! Thanks again everyone!

 

Barbara

[TravelingChris]

There are other careers that are technical that don't require so much math. I personally don't think that a 25 ACT score is a good score for an engineering student. It is the score my totally non-engineering child who likes math but is not the best at it gets.

 

Many of the technical jobs that don't require that much math still make very good salaries.