Dear High School Seniors,
I know you're starting to seriously look into colleges and where you'll end up spending the next four years of your life, and that means sort of deciding what you want to do for the rest of your life career-wise.
Choosing what you'll do for the rest of your life as a 17 or 18 year old is a daunting task, which is why I strongly encourage that you don't look at schools that excel only in one area.
Almost everyone I know who has graduated college, dropped out of college or is in college right now changed their major at least once. Plenty of people change majors multiple times.
There's nothing wrong with changing your mind after you are exposed to new things or after you a take a course or two within your major and realize that's not what you want to do at all.
You're only human, and you're allowed to change your mind.
But, because you're more than likely going to change your mind, be careful when you're in high school looking at colleges. I chose my school because I didn't really know what I wanted to do, but I liked the campus and the town, and there were plenty of major options and departments that had good programs, so I knew that I had a lot of different paths I could take at this one school.
If I had chosen to attend a specific college because they offered a particular major and had award upon award for that program, but upon starting that program realized that wasn't what I wanted to do with my life, I might have to transfer schools.
Transferring schools is expensive.
Credits don't always align how you want them to, you're thrown into an entirely new environment again, you have to try to make friends with people who've already made friends at that school or make friends with younger people.
Do yourself a favor and pick a school with more than one good program, even if you've wanted to study that major since you were five. I'm not saying no one will stick with the major they started with in college, but you'd rather be on the safe side of things than wind up at a school with one amazing department and five terrible ones.
Sincerely,
A College Senior
