Is it okay if I am unsure as to what I want to study in college?

Julia,

You have gotten some good advice. To that, I would add that for many subjects, the real world is very different from school, or, there may be some aspect of the job that they don't teach you about in school. Therefore, it is extremely important to get out in the community, and/or join discussion groups on-line with professionals already in that field, so you can see what they are talking about. Some of the things they don't teach you about could cause you to decide you don't want to be in that field.

As an example: Social work sounds all compassionate, etc. yet a lot of effort goes into meeting quotas ("goals", "performance measures"). The work effort is concentrated on that, rather than on doing things that might help to meet those numbers, but, are themselves, not measurable. (In job placement, our focus is on how many job referrals we made. Helping a client to write a good resume, or develop self confidence, or deal with tough interview questions are not measurable, so they don't count; yet, without all of that, it makes no difference how many job referrals you give them, they will not get hired.)

Another example: A veterinary practice is a business. What do you do with an animal when it can be cured/healed, but the family cannot afford the treatment and want to put it down?

Do not take a bunch of courses in your major the first two years if you are not sure. Explore other subjects. But, be careful about taking classes that will not be usable for all majors, as that gets very expensive very fast.

Hope this helps! Relax, enjoy, and good luck!

Personally I see nothing wrong with taking the first few years of college to explore different topics and figure out what you like. To be honest, the majority of people I know went to college for majors that are very different than where they wound up. Try not to add stress to yourself by thinking you have to have all the answers now. The important thing is to take the time to figure out what speaks to you and follow your inner voice. Good luck!

Hi Julia ---

It is okay if you are not sure. Spend you first year or so taking the basic requirements everyone takes while you get your bearings. You can use an elective course to explore other options. You can also audit different classes to see if there are other areas you are interested in. Another idea is to do volunteer work at different organizations/businesses to get exposure to different fields. The bottom line is there are a lot of ways to narrow down your areas of interest and you do have time while starting your college career.

I wish you the best.

Karen

Hi Julia,

Yes it is! I was unsure and I know many friends who were too. You could choose a major which you are really passionate about - for e.g. some of my friends for instance did a major in History but ended up working in a marketing firm, others did Optometry and did a career change to go into data analysis. Your major does have an impact on what you can do after but those examples show that it does not completely determine what you do as the skills you learn will be transferable so you could go into any field and then work in another if you discover what you really want to do later on. I for instance, did a broad Business Management major which covered all business topics (accounting, marketing, finance, HR, Business law etc) because I was not sure of which area of business I wanted to specialise. After 1 year of covering all those topics, I finally had a preference for marketing and this is what I chose to do for the rest of my time at university and eventually for my career. My point is that very few people know exactly what major they want to do so don't worry!

Julia,

I agree with Karen. Your general core requirements are designed to expose you to different fields of study; use these classes to get a glimpse in to what a possible career path for that major would be like. It is ok to not know what you want to pursue yet. Many people even switch their major multiple times while in college or university. Take your time to figure out what you are passionate about!