When college students first attend college do they ever regret the career path they chose?

I think it depends on the individual. I always wanted to pursue a career in the creative industry at a very young age. I loved art and anything creative. When I went to college I knew it was the right career path for me. On the other hand, my wife went to college for art but didn’t know what kind of work she would be able to get with an art degree. She also studying to be a nurse which she she ended up not enjoying. I encouraged her to become a graphic designer using her creative talents. 

My advice would be to do what you enjoy and in the end you will have no regrets. The path to true success is not easy but worth the journey. 

Research the school and research the potential career paths you will be able to take.

Hello Tori: Short answer, yes quite a bit. In my experience working directly with first-year student, there were several reasons for this. One reason was that some students try to study what their parents want them to and later discover it's not of real interest to them. Some try to choose based on money and high earnings and then discover either the interest OR ability is not there meaning they can't make the the G.P.A to qualify to enter the major courses ( some majors like nursing and pre-medical studies) require a certain G.P.A. in the sciences and math and overall as well as an entrance exam into higher level classes. I've met with a lot who struggled a took classes repeatedly to try to increase their G.p.a. due to not having a backup plan. Another reason for changing is not knowing all of the options and once a new one is discovered, that they feel they might like more, they change. Hope this helps and good luck choosing!

Part of going to university is to develop your skills for that career path, but also to make sure you actually want to pursue a career in this field. Personally I went into university as a biology major, but by going through the core curiculum I found I had interests in the more technical fields and thus changed major to biotechnology that enabled be to dive deeper into the areas I enjoyed. Small difference you might say, but some of my classmates made longer jumps from chemistry/physics/medical sciences based on their interests as they proceeded in their studies.

One other thing I will mention, at least from a scientific research standpoint, your ability to experiment will define your career path much more than your degree. For instance, I obtained my PhD in neuroengineering, but now carry out research in biochemistry and DNA sequencing and despite the change in rhematic, the way to carry out research remains universal.