In this article, we’ll walk through an eight-step plan for switching college majors, including how to know if you should switch (steps 1 and 2) and what to do about it (steps 3–8). If you’re uncertain about your current major or you’re having trouble deciding what to switch to, this article is for you.
Step 1: Categorize Your Current Major
In my opinion, there are two fundamental types of college major: majors that prepare you for a specific career (“career prep”) and majors that have you study a subject for its own sake (“self-improvement”). Let’s take a minute to explore these categories so we can use them later.
Career prep majors prepare you for a specific career by helping you master job skills and acquire mandatory credentials. For example, actuarial science focuses on the knowledge and skills (e.g., probability, statistical computer programming) needed to succeed as an actuary, plus it prepares you for the certification exams. Similarly, elementary education arms you with theories of learning, gives you the opportunity to start honing your craft through student teaching, and gets you on track to become certified as an elementary school teacher.
In contrast, self-improvement majors do not prepare you for a specific post-graduation job; they encourage you to dive deep into one academic subject, study it from many angles, and learn how to overcome challenging material. If pursued wholeheartedly, self-improvement majors can serve as a great opportunity to improve your general abilities—critical thinking, analytical reasoning, persuasive writing, etc.—which can serve you in many areas of life and work. Many self-improvement majors fit within the conventional idea of liberal arts (such as math and East Asian studies), but almost any major can be self-improvement if its approached out of interest in the subject rather than interest in the job opportunities.
So, is your current major focused on preparing you for a specific career or encouraging you to study a subject for its own sake? Put another way, is your current major better categorized as career prep or self-improvement? If you’re unsure, treat it as both for the rest of this guide.
Step 2: Check for Indicators
Next, we’ll use your answer from step 1 to look for indications you may be in the wrong major.
If you answered career prep, how many of these match your situation?
- The job prospects don’t match what you’re looking for
- You don’t anticipate enjoying the career you’re preparing for
- You’re not succeeding in your classes now and/or you don’t think you’ll be able to succeed in the career you’re preparing for
- You wish you were studying something else that interests you even if it has worse job prospects
If you answered self-improvement, how many of these match your situation?
- You’re not interested in the subject matter
- You’re not learning as much as you think you should
- You’re consistently over-challenged or under-challenged by your classes, and you foresee that trend continuing with many other classes required for your major
- You wish you were preparing for a specific career instead of studying a subject for its own sake
If one or more of these indicators matches your situation, you should consider changing majors. I emphasize the word “consider”, because the indicators aren’t perfect. They signal that something might be wrong, but they can’t tell you what to do about it. The remaining six steps in this guide will lead you through the process of figuring out what to do.
If none of these indicators match your situation, you probably don’t need to change majors. Skip ahead to step 7 for advice about adapting your current major to better meet your needs.
Finally, it’s worth noting what’s not on these lists: stress, frustration, unhappiness, etc. Although these emotions can indicate something’s wrong in your life, it’s risky to act on them before you’ve figured out what’s causing them. Instead, I recommend you try to understand your feelings by talking them out with a friend or writing them down in a journal. You may find they’re caused by factors unrelated to your major (such as your grades, student loans, or dating life), in which case switching majors probably won’t help.
Step 3: Identify Alternative Majors
At this point, we’ve established that you might need to change your major. Over the next few steps, we’ll build a list of potential majors, narrow it down to the best options, and then talk about how to compare them with your current major. If you’re one of the rare individuals who already has a firm idea of what you want, and you don’t want to explore any other options, skip ahead to step 5. For everyone else, let’s start brainstorming.
First, you need to decide what type of major you’re looking for. If your current major is self-improvement, for example, should you be looking at other self-improvement majors or at career prep majors? To answer that question, take a look back at the list of indicators. If the fourth indicator on either list resonated with you, you may want to consider changing approaches (from self-improvement to career prep or vice versa). If you need help exploring the relative advantages and disadvantages of each approach, check out my guide to thinking about reasons for college.
Once you’re confident in your approach to college, you’re ready to start building your list of alternative majors. Begin by writing down all the majors that interest you, even if they seem far-fetched. If you happen to come up with four or more good ideas just off the top of your head, you can move on to the next step. If not or if you want to be more thorough, it’s time to open up another tab in your browser and start finding majors that fit your goals. My guide to brainstorming majors lays out specific instructions for this type of research, including the exact wording you can use for better Google searches.
Besides the internet, you can find potential majors by talking to the people around you (e.g., classmates, friends). One common mistake is to immediately ask about the person’s current major and why they chose it. The problem with that approach is that it puts the person into a defensive mindset, encouraging them to only provide you with information that makes their choice look smart. Instead, ask them to tell you about all the majors they considered and why each one appealed to them. If that doesn’t work, try this question: If their current major was eliminated, what majors would they consider? Pay particular attention to the majors considered by anyone who has similar college goals as you.
Don’t stop brainstorming until you have at least four good alternative majors on your list.
Step 4: Compare Alternatives
Now that you’ve got your list, the next step is to narrow it down. I previously developed a guide to comparing majors that lays out the factors I consider most important. It’s a good guide, but it should be supplemented with all the additional information you have access to now that you’re in college. So, let’s talk about how to do that.
For career prep majors, the key factor is outcome: How well does the degree ready you for getting and doing the job, and how good are the jobs? I recommend you try to get an answer using a two-pronged approach. First, get a sense of the immediate job prospects by talking with recent grads. If you need help connecting with recent grads in any major you’re considering, try asking people currently in the major (preferably your friends or friends-of-friends) to connect you. When you get hooked up, ask them about their experience applying for jobs, their satisfaction with how well school prepared them, if they wish they had done anything differently, and how things seem to be going for the other recent grads they know.
Second, get a sense of the longer-term career prospects by talking with active, experienced practitioners. This isn’t an easy task, but it can be done. For example, you could ask students currently in the major to recommend friendly professors who work in the field. (Be aware, though, that the experience of professors probably isn’t representative of the experience of most people in the field.) Similarly, you could try asking around to see if your parents or the parents of any of your friends know anyone in the field. Being able to talk to someone with personal experience allows you to hear what it’s actually like to do the job, including how the industry/field is doing overall.
For self-improvement majors, it’s all about how much you learn. As I’ve discussed previously, the learning that matters most for self-improvement in college comes from engaging with challenging material. In addition to online research, you can get a sense of how well a major will allow you to do that by talking with students who are majoring in it. Start with people you know well, but don’t be afraid to also ask for help connecting with anyone they know. For anyone you talk to, here are some questions that should elicit helpful feedback: What do they like/dislike about the major? Do other students in the major seem satisfied? Can they show you what their homework tends to look like? Are there any big lectures you could sit in on to get a sense of the content?
I think internet research, introspection, and talking with current students can be enough to judge self-improvement majors, but a final option is to talk with recent grads. Because self-improvement majors don’t typically lead to a specific career, the post-college plans of graduates tend to be all over the map (and thus not very representative of what you’re likely to do). However, you can ask them about their satisfaction with their college experience, what they wish they had done differently, and what they plan to do next. And just like for my career prep recommendation, the easiest way to find them is by asking students currently in the major to connect you.
In summary, use all the information you can gather to evaluate your alternative majors on the factors that matter most, and eliminate majors that don’t perform well. Aim to whittle down your list until you’re left with the best 1–3 alternative majors. As a final sanity check, take a look back at the indicators from step 2. For each of your alternative majors, consider: Does it seem like this major will have any of the same problems as your current major? How will this major help you improve your situation? Make sure the majors you’re considering really seem like they would put you in a better situation and/or solve your problems.
Step 5: Label Key Strengths and Weaknesses
For each major that made it through the last step, identify its top strengths and weaknesses. What are its defining features compared with other majors, including your current major? What problems does it solve? What problems does it create? Does it come with any noteworthy risks? Summarize your answers into two short sentences per major: one sentence of the key benefit(s), and one sentence of the key drawback(s). The value of completing this step comes from having to decide which factors matter most to you, so only include benefits and drawbacks you consider to be relevant and important.
Next, do the same for your current major. Because you have experience with it, your assessment will be more informed than for the new majors you’re considering. That insight is good, but don’t let it cloud your judgement. Try to be impartial, using what you know to be true about your major and avoiding any temporary, emotionally-driven concerns.
Step 6: Assess the Cost of Switching
Now that you’ve got your list of potential majors, you may be tempted to make a decision. Resist that temptation. There are still two final factors you need to consider before you can make a fully-informed decision. The first, as we’ll discuss in this step, is the set of costs inherent to switching.
For example, switching majors often delays graduation. You probably imagine your college experience lasting four years, but a problem with transferring credits to your new major could easily cause you to need to stay in school longer. Some majors are more likely to cause this than others: The stricter the major’s course progression requirements and the more limited its course availability, the more likely it is to delay your graduation. Similarly, your year in school plays a big role in how things turn out: If you switch as a freshman or sophomore, you’ll have a decent chance of being able to graduate on time. If you’re currently a junior or senior, in contrast, you’ll likely have to stay late and rack up some additional tuition bills. For each major you’re considering, assess if it would require extending your stay in school and if it would be worth it to you.
Even if you can finish on time, there’s no guarantee you’ll get the full benefit of a major you switch into. For example, many majors enable and encourage you to pursue relevant internships, research, or projects over the summers. If you switch into the major, you’ll have fewer opportunities (fewer summers to apply) for such endeavors, and you may struggle to compete with your better-prepared classmates for the opportunities. The same is true for optional classes: By switching into the major, you may not have enough time to explore the interesting but non-mandatory classes the major offers. So, it’s worth asking: Will you have missed out on any critical benefits of the majors you’re considering if you switch into them in the middle of college?
The final switching cost is the inherent uncertainty of replacing something you know well with something you don’t. Even with all the research you’ve done, things may not work out the way you’re hoping. For example, maybe the key benefits you were counting on don’t end up materializing, leaving you further behind in a major that’s just as bad as your first one. Or, maybe you experience a life-altering event (such as a family illness or a pandemic-induced economic downturn), and you suddenly need to graduate early, shift to part-time status, or transfer to a new school. Switching majors will make it harder to adapt to circumstances like these. So, be careful if you find your thoughts conforming to the “grass is always greener on the other side” fallacy. The grass often is greener on the other side, but finding out comes with risks.
In summary, switching majors is a bet. You take on additional risk—having to stay in school longer, being disappointed by your new major, or being in a more vulnerable position if a big change occurs—in exchange for the potential benefits. None of this is to say you shouldn’t switch majors, but it does mean you need to factor the cost of switching into your decision.
Step 7: Consider If Your Current Major Could Be Adapted
The final factor presents an opportunity to play devil’s advocate. In all of our comparisons so far, we’ve treated your current major as a foregone conclusion. However, the truth is majors are often malleable and can be formed to better suit your needs. Could the problem be not with your major but with how you’ve been approaching it? Changing your approach to your current major isn’t as sexy as switching to an entirely new major, but it has the substantial advantage of coming with reduced switching costs.
So, let’s talk about some of the ways you could make things work without jumping ship. If you take a look at the indicators your current major failed and the key weakness(es) you identified for it, can you imagine any ways to resolve those issues? For example, could you add a minor that would address the weaknesses of your major? If your major offers concentrations or other ways of controlling your path, would any of those allow you to get what you want? Are there any other creative ways you could get the key benefits of your alternative majors without actually changing majors?
Besides adapting your major, there are many other ways to get what you want out of your college years. If you need job skills, maybe you can build them through self-study, projects, or internships. If you wish you were more challenged in school, nothing is stopping you from adding on additional classes (even outside your major) or pursuing self-learning. If used correctly, the tools available to you—such as classes, internet videos, hobbies, and clubs—should be enough to fix many of the most common problems you’re likely to experience with your major. And if you can’t get everything you want from college, you can always work to change things after you graduate (such as through lateral career shifts or returning to school for an advanced degree in a different field).
None of this is to say that you shouldn’t change majors, just that changing majors isn’t the only option to make things better. In the next step, we’ll put it all together and try to come to a decision.
Step 8: Consider Switching
Although you probably still feel uncertain about many aspects of your choices, there’s not much more you can do besides make a decision and see how it goes. So, take a look back at your list of key benefits/drawbacks. Based on that list, which alternative major seems like it would be best for you? And if you compare that major (including the costs of switching to it) with your current major (including the potential to adapt it), does the switch seem worth it?
Whatever you decide, the final step is to see what other people think of your decision. Go to the people who support you and know you best (probably friends or family), and give them a quick rundown of your thoughts and conclusions. You don’t need to be able to convince them you’re right, but be on the lookout for any signs they think you’re overlooking key details or overemphasizing small matters. If the people that care about you think your decision is sound, it’s probably a good one.
Conclusion
With all that said, here are my personal recommendations: The higher the switching costs, the more you should consider adapting your current major instead of switching.
If you’re currently a junior or senior, you should probably try to stick it out with your current major. Explore other ways of getting what you need, such as minors, concentrations, classes outside your major, or personal projects. If that doesn’t work, plan to use your time after graduation to start redirecting your path, such as through lateral career moves or advanced degrees.
If you’re currently a freshman or sophomore, give real consideration to switching to a better major. You have enough time to switch without incurring overly-onerous switching costs, and you’ll probably be happy you did.