It’s finally happening; you are selecting your Major or Program! But a lot of students have trouble with choosing what they would like to pursue. It can be an overwhelming task. Here, we’ve put together a list of the best advice we’ve received (and some we wish we’d received) when we were selecting our programs of study.
First, think about what broad topics interest you and whether those can be matched to a program or a Major. Chances are that you have selected courses in high school that you are more interested in (or maybe you thought you were interested in, but it turned out that were not). Start with the interesting ones and think about whether you would like to go more in-depth with them or not. For example, if you took a senior course in Accounting because you thought it would be interesting, but then realized that it was not or that it was too hard, you might want to consider not pursuing a degree in Accounting. On the other hand, if you took a World History course that you thought was fascinating, this might be something to consider when choosing your Major/Program.
Something else to think about is “Do you have any plans about what job you would like to have?”. If you do, you can try to find a major/program that is suited to this career. For example, if you would like to become a veterinarian, a Major in the Life Sciences is probably a good place to start. If you do not have a career in mind, do not worry. There are a lot of paths you can take.
Schedule some time to have a chat with your Guidance team or your Registrar’s office. Often, they are a great resource to help guide you. They can give you some good tips on what to look out for or what you should be aware of when selecting your Major/Program.
If you think back a few years, you might remember doing a personal assessment or career aptitude test in your sophomore year in High School. It can be interesting to look back on these tools and see what they suggest you should do. This does not mean that the career that you received is the one you should pursue but can give you a place to start.
If you cannot narrow it down between two choices, you can always select a Double Major. If you have three choices, consider the one that you like the most, choose that one as your Major and take the other two as your minors. If there is one Major that you are very interested in, some Post-Secondary Institutions have Specialist programs (where you do not have minors).
It can be daunting thinking that you need to plan out your whole life in a couple of months while selecting your Major/Program. You should remember that you can always change majors/programs if you are not happy with the one you have chosen. If you cannot decide on just one, you can always do a double major. There are a lot of options out there and it can be hard to decide on just one of them. By going through the list we have given and talking to others, you can give yourself a lot of potentially new information before deciding which Major/Program is the right one for you. If along the way, you decide that you do not want to pursue that program anymore, you can always switch.