For many students, deciding on one major can be a daunting decision, and not everyone is ready to make that choice just yet.
Madysen Wilson, a sophomore from Hudsonville, Michigan, has been unsure of her major since she began her educational career here at Dixie State University.
“I was told by my counselor yesterday that I need to declare something because now I have my associates,” Wilson said. “And in order to move on, I need to decide.”
Whether you’re unsure when you first start college, or unsure later in your college career, like Wilson, you can still experience the pressures to declare a major for the sake of furthering your education and meeting a goal.
“As an adviser…we encourage [students] to take a class or two in [their interested] areas, just to give them an idea,” Brigham Duckett, second year advisor for undeclared students said. “So in that semester hopefully they get enough information to make a clear decision for themselves.”
However, there are those cases in which students are completely clueless as to what they want to pursue.
The Career Center at DSU offers opportunities for students to discover career possibilities within their interests.
“If [students] have no idea they can talk with any of our counselors, and we can try to help them figure out which direction to start exploring,” Ali Threet, director of career services, said.
The Career Center also provides workshops, career fairs and assessments for students looking to determine their career.
There are three different assessments which students can take that are geared toward discovering one’s interests that may guide an undeclared student to a potential career.
Duckett said DSU unfortunately still has the mentality of a transfer school, thus affecting a student’s decision to declare a major here.
“When we have students declare a major, they are [reported] on DSU’s statistics for six years,” Duckett said. “If they don’t get that degree within six years, then it reflects poorly on us in terms of graduation rates.”
Although the university encourages students to select a major, Wilson argues that deciding a major based upon the pressures of school, family or friends is not necessary.
“I think that even though people frown on undecided [students], it’s not a bad thing,” Wilson said. “It’s not a bad thing to be unsure of what you want.”
