Assistance in Selecting a Major

ucbalumnus
Wed, 10 Jul 2013 12:33:51 +0000

For a current high school student, consideration of possible majors for college mostly comes into play when making the application list (late junior to early senior year), in order to make a list of colleges which have worthy degree programs in those majors. Of course, a student may still be very undecided, but that can actually constrain the application list more, in that the colleges need to be suitable for all of the possible majors that the undecided student may choose.

A few high school course and curriculum decisions may also be influenced by possible majors, but a student who tends to choose the most rigorous options in all subjects is not likely to have to worry about it (it is usually a concern if the student wants to stop early in math or foreign language or wants to avoid one of the sciences, or otherwise would leave a “gap” in the typical college-prep curriculum).

I.e. between sophomore and junior year is probably way too early to push the student into considering what majors she may want to do in college.