"Undecided" is not a good major

First of all, let’s watch this Tiktok video.

@user87759013

#undecided #collegemajors #college

There are many, many students like this in college. Your academic advisor might tell you that it’s okay to stay ‘undecided’ during your freshman year when it’s not okay. Here’s why:

1. Four years is short to acquire skills in your field

I spent four years rigorously studying data science in college and in the graduate school. Since it’s an interdisciplinary field, I had to take courses on statistics, mathematics, and computer science.

Every course in these fields was challenging, requiring over 40 hours each week dedicated to understanding concepts and applying them in real-world projects.

By the time I graduated from Harvard, I realized I wasn’t fully prepared to leave school. 8 semesters were just not enough for me to master the skills necessary in data science.

2. You might be late finding internships and full-time jobs

In college, there’s usually a formula to land a full-time job. You find a great internship opportunity during your junior year, get a full-time offer after your internship, leverage that offer to receive other offers, and choose the best offer.

If you choose your major early on and focus on your field, you might be able to have an internship experience during your sophomore year, and it’s a big plus. Some of my friends returned to the companies where they interned during their sophomore years for full-time positions after graduation.

On the other hand, if you stay undecided and choose your major pretty late, you might not have a chance to have an internship experience during your junior year. That was me in college. Lacking internship experience significantly complicated securing a full-time offer right out of the gate (I was very lucky to get a full-time job without an internship experience).

3. You may need to delay your graduation

Some of the majors like engineering require you to take a number of mandatory courses: linear algebra, differential equations, intro to coding, probability and statistics, etc.

Because of this, engineering students often take some of those courses during their freshman year to distribute their academic workload more evenly.

However, remaining undecided and choosing a major late can significantly increase your academic burden and potentially delay your graduation.

This is precisely what you want to avoid doing in college.

If you attend the private school with a loan, you’ll add at least $7,500 to your academic debt. More importantly, you’ll have to spend another semester or two that you could’ve spent otherwise: studying abroad, doing internships, or running a business.

You may think that the college years are long enough to warrant staying undecided for a year or two, but the butterfly effect of this decision will be substantial.

If you’re convinced that staying undecided is not a good idea, our next post will guide you on how to select your major.