Deciding your major: When is the ‘right time?’

At age 14, Kirthana Ramesh was asked what she wants to do for a career. The senior remembers responding along the lines of shrugging her shoulders.

Other students, like class of 2016 alumnus Andrew Weng and senior Kanika Seth, knew exactly what they wanted to do at age 14, thus raising the question: How early do students truly need to decide on their majors?

Currently on the pre-medicine track at Washington University in St. Louis, Weng feels that in order to maximize one’s chances of being a competitive applicant in the medical field for college admissions, it is helpful for students to be, for the most part, set on a career in medicine from their underclassman high school years on.

Weng became confident that he wanted to pursue medicine during his late freshman year after finding a keen interest in biology-related articles, speaking with friends who were studying medicine and applying to several biology internships. As a result, he began gearing his extracurricular activities toward biology and medicine.

“It’s never too late to decide that you want to be a pre-med college student, but knowing what you want to do early in high school gives you a leg up because you’re in tune with all the activities that most ‘pre-med’ universities are looking for,” Weng said.

While choosing a competitive career path early in high school may give students a “leg up,” it can also be harmful or wasteful in some cases if students are not truly interested in the path that they are pursuing.

“If a student knows for sure that he is interested in a specific program, he should take classes for that program,” assistant principal Brian Safine said. “In general, students here might be more worried about [deciding a major early] than other places, but it is wise that they learn as much as they can if they want to specialize.”

Like Weng, senior Kanika Seth has known since a young age that she wanted to pursue medicine in college.

“I’m pretty big on helping others while also learning more about human biology,” Seth said. “In high school, I decided to take Anatomy and Physiology to learn more about the function of our bodies.”

Seth also geared her community service toward medicine. Although she has known for years that she would like to major in some area of medicine, she decided during her early junior year that she would like to major in neuroscience after completing a summer program in cognitive neuroscience.

Safine said that deciding a college major or career in the middle of the teenage years is less important than students may think.

“Data shows that most students change their initial major or add a second major during their undergraduate experience, so students do have the chance to change their minds later,” he said.

Late in her junior year, Ramesh said she decided she is interested in pursuing statistics, but she is also willing to adjust her major in college based on learned interests.

Many students also go into college undecided on what they want to pursue in college. However, because “undeclared” students will eventually have the option of pursuing any major of their choice, they need to be qualified enough to get into all of the potential majors, thus making it a more challenging application path for some impacted or competitive fields.

While students do also have the option of switching majors during their college years, they may have trouble depending on the major and the college. If the university is particularly known for a specific major, then it is much easier to get accepted to the major straight from high school than transfer while attending the university. University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), for example, has an overall 18 percent acceptance rate. Transfer rates between majors, however, hover around 4 percent, according to UCLA published statistics.

While choosing one’s career path early on in high school does provide students with the option to further solidify their interest in the field, students are also easily able to delve into a variety of fields and later decide which one they enjoy the most and be just as competitive of an applicant during the college admissions process.

“At the end of the day, I don’t think it matters how early someone decides their major, but rather if they’re truly passionate about it,” Ramesh said. “I’m glad I waited to find out exactly what I want to pursue. I really enjoy it and am looking forward to exploring it even further.”