Fall is the beginning of a grueling application season for many people.
Whether it is applying for a new job after one quits his or her summer job or students applying to new clubs at their schools, there is a large amount of work to be done.
One of the biggest workloads will undoubtedly go to the high school students applying to colleges. This application process is rough, going from college after college to make sure everything is perfect. Making sure the essay and extracurriculars and, most importantly, the major one is picking is in order.
Picking a major is especially important for colleges such as the University of Cincinnati which has students select a primary and secondary major before getting admitted into the school; however, many students struggle to pick the major they must select.
Now let’s venture into the aspects of picking a major, looking at the reasons students struggle, taking a brief look into the help high school can give to those either struggling or set on a major, and examining the experience and circumstances of those who have already decided their major.
Struggling students
Administrative Side
There can be many reasons for why a student struggles in picking his or her major for college. At Elder High School, there is counselor Mrs. Jen Graham who is a very learned woman on this topic.
As an affiliated member of the Elder High School Counseling Department, she touched on a broad reason for struggle in picking a major being that ” … some students simply have no clue about their majors… there are a few seniors that are interested in two majors nowhere near related to each other, which can cause some fear in neglecting one and not the other.” The problem in this area is so broad that some will have an interest in nothing but still want to go to college.
However, the near opposite of this can also be the case, with some students being so interested in two completely separate areas, such as Mechanical Engineering and Music Composition, that they do not know what to pick. It is a decision between two areas that the student loves and does not want to give up either.
No matter what side the student is on, there will always be the fear of making a wrong decision. Mrs. Graham stated that a “fear of commitment” is surely a large factor in the hesitation to pick a major for college, with the student being scared of making the wrong decision.
Her job is to make sure they are not fearful of the decision they make as a 17-year-old student. If the students are able to clear their minds before the stress of decision-making overwhelms them, they can make much more educated decisions in the future.
Now to look at the students’ perspective when they do not know their future in college.
Student Side
Even though this section is speaking on students, this does not simply reference the current student. In fact, one of the best examples of student struggle for funding a college major is Elder’s own Physics teacher, Mr. Tim Horton.
Throughout his childhood, the Horton family was very rough and divided. This, Mr. Horton said, gave him the want to have success in his life away from his troubled past. However, “I did not have any desire to go to [college], but I had people telling me that I would work at McDonald’s my whole life if I didn’t.”
These emotions were certainly not helped by his school counselors, who Mr. Horton said were simply going through the motions of assisting his graduating class of 690 students. This turned his want for something better into an item that was cast even lower in his mind.
All of these issues added up to Horton saying that, ” I just did not care. I know it sounds terrible, but I had so many people pressuring me to do so many things that I did not care.”
His only wishes after high school were to wrestle and not continue past this level of education in life. This would have inevitably caused chaos for him, so it is relieving to see how he eventually found his calling in Physics when finishing a Liberal Arts major.
Now to take a quick stop and look back in more detail about Mr. Tim Horton’s upbringing to be where he is now.
After analyzing the struggles of students picking their college majors from multiple perspectives, it is time to take a look at how high school can help a student in his or her college decision through classes.
High school preparation
As known by many, high school’s mission is to prepare one for the higher level of life, whether that be college or a career. Students who know this will use the advantages of both sides to prepare themselves adequately for both college and the real world.
Here is a look at three students, Austin Audette, Carlos Brogan, and Joey Matthews, and the classes these students are taking to prepare themselves for both paths in adult life.
After seeing how classes can help a student with life experience as well as college decisions, it is time to see how some of these students are succeeding.
Successful students
Administrative Side
There are multiple different ways that a student can figure out what major they are interested in, with one of the main reasons being from classes taken and enjoyed in high school.
Mrs. Graham talked about this recently, where she stated that some students might take a class that they previously did not know about and connect with it, making the ability to decide much easier due to the experiences that were liked and disliked in that class.
“Maybe they took Physiology, they took Chemistry, maybe they took a dual [enrollment] class that just feels right to them.” These statements reveal how many students can simply happen upon what they wish to take and discover what they are truly interested in.
Another aspect that may seem counterintuitive is the amount of options a student has. “It really weighs heavily on a student today; they have so many more options now on different majors.”
Even though the selection does make this difficult, it also allows a student to branch into something he or she enjoys very easily from one major into another. If one enjoys Accounting, Jen stated, then there are a multitude of pathways that one can go on to fulfill himself or herself.
Now to flip the story and talk with a current student who has decided on his major, one of two Elder Marching Band Drum Majors and the high school’s National Honors Society President, Austin Audette.
Student Side
Before this year, Austin’s senior year, he was like many of the other students discussed previously.
When considering how long he has thought about college, Austin says he has truly been thinking about his adult life since the seventh grade. This is when he first began to take inspiration from his father who runs a multimillion dollar company.
This quote led to the topic of Austin’s Common App essay, a video in Chemistry about nuclear reactors. Austin said that he loved this video and made him set on the path to become a Nuclear Engineer when he got into the workforce.
Now, Austin needed to figure out what major he would take to get onto a path to becoming a Nuclear Engineer. Since he enjoyed Chemistry, he went into AP Chemistry, which he liked even more.
Then, he started in AP Physics C: Mechanics this year, which led to him fully deciding on this job and deciding on majoring in Chemistry with a minor in Physics.
When he finally set his mind on this, “It was relieving because now I am taking all the classes for this path…sometimes the classes are awful for me, but I am still excited to take them.”
He says that this choice was a huge weight off of his shoulders, as he sees others around him struggling to pick while he has fully been into the college application process for months.
One large piece of advice that Austin put into place is to say this question: “I looked back and I said, ‘What made me really happy when I was a little kid?’… Going to college is like discovering the world all over again, so I thought about what it was like when I was discovering the world.”
With that advice, a student can look back at simpler times in order to decide on what he or she truly loves.
Conclusion
Overall, the case of students picking their college majors is a very complex one.
In the section of observing student’s factors for success, there were still many points where the students confused and did not know what to do with themselves in college. Austin, for example, did not know his major until the start of this year when he finally decided on Chemistry.
Joey Matthews is a great example as well. While he does know his path through college now, it was a path of trial and error to get there, with him having to switch classes to finally get on a successful path in his mind.
No matter what, there will be troubles when going through this process of figuring out one’s adult life. However, this does not mean that all is doomed for these students.
The biggest factor that needs to be present for any of these students is support. If support is not present, then one could end up like Mr. Horton during his youth before Physics.
In any case, the student should not stress over these college major decisions. They have their entire life ahead of them, so the best solution to get rid of this stress is to explain how much time they have left.
If this is well explained, then fall may not be a stressful season anymore.
