Worried about college

[Janeway]

My cousin's child was here the last few days. He is end of sophomore year and regrets his major. But it is too late. He wishes he had done physics so it is too late to change to physics and still graduate on time, which he needs to. Now I am worried I am not going to expose my children to enough or give them enough chances that they will know when they need to. Figuring it out when you get to college is fine when you are majoring in humanities or social sciences, but for STEM fields, you need to know right away.

 

I am getting worried....How does all this work for everyone else?

[SparklyUnicorn]

Well no BTDT to offer you, but I worry too. 

 

 

[regentrude]

My cousin's child was here the last few days. He is end of sophomore year and regrets his major. But it is too late. He wishes he had done physics so it is too late to change to physics and still graduate on time, which he needs to. Now I am worried I am not going to expose my children to enough or give them enough chances that they will know when they need to. Figuring it out when you get to college is fine when you are majoring in humanities or social sciences, but for STEM fields, you need to know right away.

 

I am getting worried....How does all this work for everyone else?

 

No, you do not need to know right away. Most STEM majors do not graduate in four years, and many students switch majors.

It is impossible to prepare children to have the sufficient insight into every degree area that they can always know beforehand what they will enjoy and be good at, because you cannot expose them to the level of work they will need to do in college. They may have great interest in a  subject, but when confronted with upper level work may realize they are lacking aptitude. Conversely, they may come across a discipline they did not even know existed, be inspired by a great professor, and switch into a field they had not dreamed of. There is nothing we can do as parents except prepare them well so that they have a realistic choice of major, in other words, not label them "STEM" or "humanities" kids, but give them a well rounded college prep education.

 

Graduating in four years is nice, but not absolutely necessary - especially not when going into a field with high job security and good salaries.

I would encourage your cousin's son to make the switch, see what credits transfer, take summer courses, get a loan - anything but being stuck in a major he feels unhappy with. Nothing is worse than the regret "if I only had...". He should go for it. Sophomore year is not too late. He needs to make an appointment with the department advisor and see what possibilities he would have doubling up on credits, take online credits over the summer, to get caught up.

 

ETA: Specifically for your cousin's son: after 3 semesters of college, i.e. halfway through sophomore year, most physics majors have taken only two courses that directly pertain to their major: Intro to mechanics, and intro to electricity and magnetism. Most students take their first physics class in spring of freshman year because they take calc 1 in the fall. He really needs to talk to the departmental advisor; this should not be too hard to catch up if it is something he really wants.

He should inquire about the possibility of self studying and credit by examination!

Edited January 7, 2016 by regentrude

[Janeway]

No, you do not need to know right away. Most STEM majors do not graduate in four years, and many students switch majors.

It is impossible to prepare children to have the sufficient insight into every degree area that they can always know beforehand what they will enjoy and be good at, because you cannot expose them to the level of work they will need to do in college. They may have great interest in a  subject, but when confronted with upper level work may realize they are lacking aptitude. Conversely, they may come across a discipline they did not even know existed, be inspired by a great professor, and switch into a field they had not dreamed of. There is nothing we can do as parents except prepare them well so that they have a realistic choice of major, in other words, not label them "STEM" or "humanities" kids, but give them a well rounded college prep education.

 

Graduating in four years is nice, but not absolutely necessary - especially not when going into a field with high job security and good salaries.

I would encourage your cousin's son to make the switch, see what credits transfer, take summer courses, get a loan - anything but being stuck in a major he feels unhappy with. Nothing is worse than the regret "if I only had...". He should go for it. Sophomore year is not too late. He needs to make an appointment with the department advisor and see what possibilities he would have doubling up on credits, take online credits over the summer, to get caught up.

 

ETA: Specifically for your cousin's son: after 3 semesters of college, i.e. halfway through sophomore year, most physics majors have taken only two courses that directly pertain to their major: Intro to mechanics, and intro to electricity and magnetism. Most students take their first physics class in spring of freshman year because they take calc 1 in the fall. He really needs to talk to the departmental advisor; this should not be too hard to catch up if it is something he really wants.

He should inquire about the possibility of self studying and credit by examination!

My understanding is that he cannot. He is at a private university on a 4 yr scholarship. Which now makes me wonder something else. When you get scholarships, are they always for four years? Can they go longer? How does that work? Do they make exceptions?

[mathmarm]

My understanding is that he cannot. He is at a private university on a 4 yr scholarship. Which now makes me wonder something else. When you get scholarships, are they always for four years? Can they go longer? How does that work? Do they make exceptions?

That is nearly impossible to say. Each and every scholarship is different and its best to go through the Scholarship office directly. (Which isn't always in the same department as Financial Aid). You can find Scholarships for nearly everything if you know where to look.

[Carol in Cal.]

Many scholarships are for only one year.  Many are for four, with renewal requirements.

But impacted classes and other issues are making more and more students stick around for more than 4 years to get their first college degree.

Some universities, under certain circumstances, have programs to provide free tuition and other financial coverage for diligent students who are unable to finish in for years.  Regis, a Jesuit university in Denver, is one of those.  But in general, after 4 years you're finished with most scholarship aid that I am aware of. 

 

Having said that, I agree with Regentrude.  He should switch now and let the chips fall where they may.  His future is quite literally at stake.  If he ends up staying in college for an extra semester or two, the loan burden from that would be far less severe than many other college students have, and there is a pretty good chance that he can get CC classes for some of his general ed and still finish on time if he makes the switch right now.

[regentrude]

My understanding is that he cannot. He is at a private university on a 4 yr scholarship. Which now makes me wonder something else. When you get scholarships, are they always for four years? Can they go longer? How does that work? Do they make exceptions?

 

I would be surprised if the scholarship were for more than four years. Usually it is year by year.

This said: he should inquire whether his college permits students to take longer than four years if they fund the extra time from other sources. It would make more sense to have a degree in a field he is passionate about plus some debt than a degree in a field he knows is not what he wants to do.

If the school does not permit any students to stay longer than four years at all (my DD's college has this rule, you must graduate in four years plus one summer), he should think very hard about changing schools and completing his desired degree elsewhere as opposed to finishing a degree he does not want at his present institution.

 

[The Girls' Mom]

I am 40 years old and I still changed my mind about my major this year after I started on a different one.  I have a nice pile of useless credits.  It happens.  I don't think there is anything you can do about it.  You don't know what you don't know.  

[Janeway]

He texted me a short bit ago, minutes ago actually, that he did change his major. He is not going all the way over to physics, but he is taking a major that will allow him enough electives to take some physics. Then he said he will consider grad school after that. So I think that went well. 

[Janeway]

About 80% of college students change their majors at least once, which is not too surprising, really. What 18yo knows exactly what they want to do for the rest of their life? I sure as heck didn't.

I still don't know! He asked me what I would major in and i had no idea. LOL

[JanetC]

My understanding is that he cannot. He is at a private university on a 4 yr scholarship. Which now makes me wonder something else. When you get scholarships, are they always for four years? Can they go longer? How does that work? Do they make exceptions?

 

Generally speaking, your eligibility for institutional financial aid and scholarships expires after four years. But, it can vary a bit by institution. Read your financial aid offer carefully when you get it.

 

Some merit awards will expire if your grades fall below a certain level, and some need based awards require you to earn a minimum number of credits per year to maintain eligibility.

[foxbridgeacademy]

I'm assuming his scholarship is based on his current major and switching to a different major will lose him the scholarship?  I may be the only one who suggests that he doesn't change his major unless he has other financial options that won't land him in a pile of debt (private colleges are expensive).  What he could possibly do is take all his elective credits in Physics and get a minor or even double major, more work and maybe an extra semester but that would be a lot less costly than switching and losing his free tuition.

[G5052]

He texted me a short bit ago, minutes ago actually, that he did change his major. He is not going all the way over to physics, but he is taking a major that will allow him enough electives to take some physics. Then he said he will consider grad school after that. So I think that went well. 

 

Yes, I knew people who did this including the daughter of a friend of mine. He just needs to make sure that he indeed has enough physics to do that. Of course this was ages ago, but my father went to a "great books" college with a major in classics and took as much physics as they offered, which wasn't a lot. He also did a physics undergraduate thesis. There was some sort of placement test he took for graduate school in physics, and he broke the record and scored the highest ever. He went on to a career in physics research.

 

Or indeed you transfer colleges and take longer. Indeed most STEM majors don't take 4 years. I was at a private liberal arts college and decided to major in computer science and math. So I transferred to a state school and took 5 years. I did scientific research and program management for 15 years before kids.

 

But what do I primarily make my living with now? Writing. Something I didn't study specifically at all in college. I also teach web design and multimedia at the college level, but that's my secondary focus.

 

DH was in the trades and now does primarily business intelligence and strategic planning.

 

I'm all for finding a major you like, but life can take you down different paths later on, and that's OK.