Did you contemplate changing majors in undergrad, but didn't actually do it?

[Catria]

If so, would that change have affected any desires for graduate education?

 

I'll start: I almost contemplated changing majors for special education (back home, special education teachers need an undergrad in special ed to get licensed) and I wouldn't then have felt any need to go to an Ivy League school for graduate education; in fact, I wouldn't have gotten a graduate education at all.

[victorydance]

Nope. Went to college at 20 years old knowing exactly what I wanted to study. 

[Guest]

I changed mine 3 times. But this was all before I reached my upperclassmen years. I settled down with an official major by my junior year and will be graduating on time.

[shadowclaw]

I changed my major 13 times, although from my transcripts, it only looks like 5 or 6 times (some changes were to similar majors). Which is part of the reason I'm having some difficulty getting into a PhD program.

It didn't impact my desire to go to grad school. I always knew I at least wanted to get a masters so I could do some substantial research in whatever field I was in at the time. There was a time when I thought about getting a masters in education while a computer science major because I was considering becoming a high school teacher. That didn't last long, though.

[lizardclan]

I changed my major from electrical engineering to computer science at the end of my fourth year.

Amazingly, I graduated in five years. Will wonders never cease!

[maelia8]

I didn't have any clear idea of what I wanted to major in when I entered undergrad, but by the end of my freshman year, it had become clear to me what I wanted to do and I stuck with that all the way through. However, I tried an awful lot of different courses before making that choice, and my freshman year transcript looks like a perfect patchwork quilt of introductory courses in different fields. My sister, on the other hand, has changed majors about five times, most significantly from arts to sciences in her junior year, and it will take her five years to graduate. She seems really happy with all of her academic adventuring, though, and I don't think it's hurt her in any way.

[Marst]

I was studying for two degrees (we don't have the major system here), but I was one year ahead in one program compared to the other. Eventually I dropped out one of them because of conflicting attendance requirements. Had I continued both, I would have had to stay at that institution for grad school, still in undergrad for one program and in grad school for the other. In hindsight, these conflicting attendance requirements were the best thing that could possibly have happened to me!

Edited March 1, 2015 by Marst

[MathCat]

I changed my major 3 times, but all are somewhat related, and I actually think my background in the other two areas helped my application. I knew I wanted to go to grad school from the beginning. It did make it take an extra year to finish, but that doesn't seem to have hurt me.

[ilovelab]

I was originally a marine bio major. I loved my classes but I realized I had no desire to be a marine biologist. I didn't want to do anything marine biology related for a career. I just loved learning about EEB/Marine bio. Honestly I probably would have been happier in my personal life had I stayed with Marine Bio, but I wouldn't have a job. Most of my friends who were EEB/Marine Bio majors have had a hard time finding jobs/getting into grad school in this economy. Most of the jobs they have found are seasonal at best.

[CBclone]

Change majors? I almost transferred! I went in with a very specific major (athletic training) and realized about two months into freshman year that it wasn't what I actually wanted to do. Looked at transferring to study sports management and/or sports marketing at numerous schools but in the end, transferring to an OOS school was ridiculously expensive and I couldn't afford that. At semester, I switched to a business major and eventually took some Kinesiology courses on the side.

 

About 3 semesters into that plan, realized I loved my Kinesiology courses and made the switch again. Took some specialized courses in recreation management in the major and ended up doing my internship in a Therapeutic Recreation setting (adaptive sports program, non-clinical). 

 

Now hoping to start studying TR as a Masters student this fall...if accepted!

[FoggyAnhinga]

I changed my major once, and was thinking of changing it again but decided against it because by then I was approaching the end of my second year and my undergrad debt would be much higher than estimated if I decided to stay an extra semester or a year.

 

I also was contemplating on pursuing a music minor (music and orchestra were a few of the main things that kept me sane from any craziness I encountered during my science courses haha) but the additional coursework I had to enroll in addition to my science classes was overwhelming, so that didn't quite work out...

[RCtheSS]

I feel like I didn't technically change my major, but rather I switched colleges. There were two different majors in economics that you could declare: a BA in Econ through College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, and a BS in Business Administration in Economics through the College of Business. Both majors were essentially the same in terms of economic course requirements and electives, except the Business track also required about 6-8 business core classes, such as accounting and business law.

 

So yeah, in the middle of a summer semester of taking Financial Accounting and dreading it I realized, "I don't want to learn accounting, just economics!" and made the switch to the CLAS economic major a week before that final exam. It was a better fit considering I was also working towards a double major in sociology which is also housed in CLAS.

Edited March 2, 2015 by RCtheSS

[mockturtle]

I transferred schools post-freshman-year, and *added* a second major in neuroscience soon afterward... but I never changed my initial biology major.

For a while I was considering an environmental studies degree, until I realized it'd be about 50% social science and policy.

[Vene]

Started pre-pharmacy, switched to biotechnology, left early with an associates degree, worked for a little while, transferred to a different university as a biology major, worked a little while longer, now in a biomedical PhD program.

[uselesstheory]

I changed my major three times, though my core interests didn't really shift dramatically (political science, health and human sciences interdisciplinary, sociology).

 

Being able to change my major was crucial to my intellectual development. I never believed people who said I'd most likely change my major, because I felt so set on law and politics, but they were completely correct. When undergraduates ask me for advice re: college, the main thing I tell them is "change your major as many times as necessary".

[rising_star]

I went into college wanting to study marine biology. I toyed around with various humanities majors before finally settling on one. Then, I went to grad school in the social sciences, in a field related to an area I developed an interest in during my final two years of undergrad.

[TenaciousBushLeaper]

I started undergrad in psychology, and will graduate two months with a BA in psychology. I've wanted to switch over to pure math for so long, which is why I've taken / still take mathematics courses just to satisfy my math itch,  to which professors are always like "why are you in my class?" 

If I had switched to math, it probably wouldn't have changed my trajectory for(wanting to pursue) graduate studies in either quantitative psychology, or cognitive neuroscience. 

[Sarochan]

Started as an undecided/undeclared major in my first institution (thinking of majoring in creative writing), took a year off of school, transferred to a new college as a biochem major, then finally managed to get where I wanted to be: biology. Took me five years (well, four years and two quarters) to graduate, but oh well, what can you do.

 

I have no idea what would have happened to me if I had actually gone through with the creative writing! It definitely would have changed a whole lot of things.

[yellowmint]

Never. I majored in psychology because I want to be filthy rich. Now I'm just rolling in dollar bills (of debt).

[Karoku_valentine]

In my country the system requires you to state your major from day number 1, and you cannot change majors like you do i the US. If you want to change majors, you will most likely need to retake the admission exams and will be considered a brand new student with the option of waving up to X credits. I changed my university once and had doubts about my major (Poli Sci & Intl Relations) and wanted to change to Economics. I did not do it because I was stupid and had already switched schools once (my mother, the main support of the house, was not very happy about it, but since I had a scholarship she did not say much). Also, I basically had academic scholarships for my whole education, that might or might not have been possible in Economics.

[jgconforti]

I started undergrad studying English but considered switching to Economics or Political Science during my freshman year. Tried out a few classes and decided they weren't for me. Stuck with English to the end. Not sure how it might have impacted my need or decision to go to grad school.