<p>I’m starting my fourth year at a community college and I still haven’t decided on a major. The deadline for UC applications is 2 days away and lately I’ve been desperately trying to figure out what I should do. I have a 4.0 GPA, but I always feel like ‘the old guy’ and that I’m dragging and falling behind while everyone else is moving forward at a really fast pace.</p>
<p>Is 4 years in a community college without a major extremely bad?</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s bad, especially since you have kept a 4.0 that long, so you have kept yourself in position to get into a good school. We usually only get one chance to get a BA at a good school, so you might as well make sure you’re getting it in a subject you want to spend a career in. An extra two years really isn’t that much if you look at the big picture of a career path. Some people graduate college and are years into their career before they realize they want to do something else. You are just taking your time to figure it out, which I think is a good thing. So are there any majors you are deciding between? What are your interests and what type of jobs could you see yourself doing?</p>
<p>It’s bad but it depends for how bad it is. How many units do you have? 4.0 with all UC transferable classes is good. But if you have a lot of courses that fill the same IGETC requirements then it is not so good. Also major requirements usually take a while to complete. If you don’t have any right now, can you actually finish them all in the winter and spring?</p>
<p>You are not a loser, let’s make that clear. You are a college student with an excellent GPA. You are probably over analyzing your major. Choosing a major doesn’t cement you into a particular field for the rest of your life. For example, you can major in English, earn a masters in psychology and end up working in human resources. Is that what an English major at a a CC planned, probably not.
My point is, don’t let stress over the future prevent you from making a move. I mention this because I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. I talked to professors and discovered that my biology professor earned his BA in American history, but later realized he wanted to study bio. He earned a MS in Bio, did field work, then went on to earn a PhD. It made me realize that I had more freedom than I thought. </p>
<p>Best of luck to you.</p>
<p>@SoCal79 Thank you so much for that helpful comment. I always thought that choosing a major does cement one into a single position, and always wondered how much freedom one has to move around and discover new avenues–even in a single field like music. It is hard to make a decision that would irreversibly define one’s whole life-path, so it is extremely relieving to hear about the experiences that you described, which show a great deal of freedom of choice in ones future, regardless of undergraduate major choice. Let’s hope that the experience will be similar and thus interesting and non-limiting for all of us.
@CollegeLoser, you seem to be a bit of a perfectionist, like I am. In fact, I’m in a not much different state of mind today. But let me tell you: it is the quality of the final results that matters, and not so much the speed with which we reach it, so if you find a perfect career 2 years later than someone who found a failing career, then so be it. On the other hand, thanks to SoCal79’s input, we can see that experience also matters and shapes our path, and, since its not as rigid as we think, we shouldn’t be afraid to go ahead and dive into it and see where it takes us. </p>
<p>Best of luck to all of us in traversing new roads on our quest for perfection.</p>