Student Switching Major, Unsure of Direction; Where to Get Best Advice?

[Sybylla]

Are you full pay, or getting FA? You are delightfully relaxed about it .

[noready]

That clarifies things, thanks!

I think she should also be asking which majors require the fewest specific curriculum hours, and hope that something on that list both speaks to her and promotes employment. At my DS’s school Econ required the fewest classes.

I hate to say it, but another thing to consider while exploring options, is which classes/major will help her raise that GPA. For engineering jobs, 3.0 seemed to be a big screening hurdle to get job interviews. Are there other hurdles for different majors? Might be good to get some input from career guidance folks too.

[ucbalumnus]

@noready

I think she should also be asking which majors require the fewest specific curriculum hours, and hope that something on that list both speaks to her and promotes employment. At my DS’s school Econ required the fewest classes.

Also, shortest remaining prerequisite sequences.

@noready

I hate to say it, but another thing to consider while exploring options, is which classes/major will help her raise that GPA. For engineering jobs, 3.0 seemed to be a big screening hurdle to get job interviews. Are there other hurdles for different majors? Might be good to get some input from career guidance folks too.

NACE surveys indicate that the most common GPA screen that employers across industries use to decide which college applicants to interview is 3.0.

[Bill_Marsh]

@LarryM

The 2.8 is her overall GPA. Yes, she’s had to re-take a couple of engineering-related classes. Also, as I mentioned she had to get help from friends in order to get through some of them. During the winter quarter she dropped her ChemE classes and has been taking non-major and elective classes for two quarters to explore other options. She originally planned to get back into the ChemE track in the fall quarter, but now she’s feeling it’s not right for her and “doesn’t know if she can do it”. She’s lost a lot of self-confidence; this whole thing is stressful for all of us. .

Sounds like a round peg in a square hole. Hers is not an uncommon experience. Where I went to college, it was common to see engineers switching to other majors. Not because of the rigor but because they went into it for the wrong reasons. One of the purposes of college is to find out who you are. Sometimes that happens by finding out who you are not. She’s there. That’s an accomplishment.

Have the courses sh’s taken to explore other options led to a discovery of new interests? Anything from her hobbies that suggests her more genuine interests? Knowing that she’s an ISFP, you can generate a whole list of typical career interests for this type. Has anyone had her look over such a list with her?

I agree with your earlier point that it’s far better to find out now. There’s no point in having her finish the engineering program because she’s not going to use it. If she can’t decide on a new major, then she should take a semester off to figure things out - perhaps with the help of a career counselor.