Am I pretty much done for?

mikemac
Thu, 13 Jul 2017 14:54:50 +0000

I know that if I do apply to those colleges it will be a waste of money on the application because I will probably be going in as undeclared. I don’t want to waste money on changing a major either but honestly I’m going to end up doing that since I am very indecisive.

Many kids are unsure of what they want to do in their future. The smart ones start exploring it as soon as possible, when they start college or even before. So at college make the Career Center a regular stop. There is a book that would be great for you to read, “Major in Success” by Combs. It is filled with stories of people that discovered what they enjoyed doing and turned it into careers. The way college is laid out for many majors you take mostly breadth classes your 1st 2 years along with a few intro ones in your major, so even if you switch majors several times (and many students change once or twice!) as long as you do it your 1st 2 years you generally don’t lose any time. Even those intro major classes turn into breadth classes for another major.

My point here is there is nothing wrong with starting at a 4-year even if you don’t have your major decided. Lots of kids do just that, and even of those that are “sure” what they want a number of them are going to change their minds along the way.

There is nothing wrong with a CC but I think it might not be a good fit for you. Without strong direction is easy to end up spending years at a CC, taking classes in one area until you decide another area may be better so you switch to that, rinse and repeat. Plus there are lots of interesting (but not-transferable) classes, again just time passing without progress towards a 4-year degree. The environment at a CC may also not be best for a vacillating student. One report found 81.4 percent of students who enter community colleges for the first time planned to obtain a bachelor’s degree in the future, but just 11.6 percent achieved that goal.

Keep in mind, too, that CC students tend to come from the local area and live at home. So social opportunities are going to be different. It can be harder to make friends at a new school after you xfer from a CC. One of the easiest time to make new acquaintances (some of which will turn into friends) is the early period of frosh year. By junior year the continuing students have had a lot of their friends 2 years. ime is also compressed for CC xfer students. It might take a semester to really feel at home at a college – learning about the clubs, what free-time activities there are, finding good hangouts, getting to know the rep of different classes and profs so you can make better choices when signing up for classes, just generally finding your way around. As a frosh you have 7 semesters after that to go; as a junior xfer you have 3.