With the spring semester in full swing at Texas Woman’s University, students might be embracing the phrase, “New year, new me.” Some take it one step further by embracing a new major.
According to Associate Director of University Academic Advising Kimberly Taylor, students tend to change their majors in order to explore options available to them, or because they realize that their current study is not what they want to pursue.
“Some weeks, there’s three to four students a week depending on schedules and the time of the semester,” Taylor said. “Maybe at the beginning of the semester, not as many, but we start getting midway — midterms start happening, the advising season starts opening up. […] They’re finishing up and then starting to plan for the next semester and then they’re like, ‘Okay, I’ve tried it for one semester and I want to go ahead and make that change for the next.’”
A 2017 study conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics reported that roughly one-third of college students pursuing a bachelor’s degree changed their majors and that nearly one in ten students changed their majors multiple times. Another survey from BestColleges found that 61% of college graduates said they would go back and change their majors if they could.
One-third of college students pursuing a bachelor’s degree changed their majors.
National Center for Education Statistics
For TWU students facing academic probation and suspension, Assistant Director for Academic Recovery and Resilience Wylijanna Cole would especially recommend finding a different major.
“Studies have shown that doing major exploration and then changing their major to a field of study that’s more interesting to them, that they enjoy, ultimately makes students more successful and helps them to make better grades because they’re taking classes about things that they’re passionate about,” Cole said. “So their grades increase, and they are, you know, ultimately more able to get to graduation because they’re not enrolled in a major that they hate.”
While Cole noted that this reasoning seems like common sense, she explained that a lot of students enter majors that align with stability and higher income, rather than their own interests and enjoyment. This “single-minded commitment,” as she puts it, can lead to their GPA dropping until they reach academic probation or suspension. When students return from academic suspension, one area that Cole counsels them in is whether or not they choose to stay in their major.
“So many of them will say to me, ‘Oh, I don’t want to do the major that I had when I was here because I think that those classes are what contributed to my suspension, unfortunately,’” Cole said. “So they come back and they pursue majors that have to do with careers that they’ve either picked up since they’ve been away from TWU, so they’re coming back to pursue degrees that help them move up at the job that they’re already in, or the time away has given them distance from the school and has given them time to reflect and think about like, who they want to be what they want to do with their life.”
A lot of students enter majors that align with stability and higher income, rather than their own interests and enjoyment.
Both Taylor and Cole emphasize the importance of meeting with advisors and consultants when considering a change of major.
“One of the things that I want to encourage students is to be open, be flexible on exploring these options,” said Taylor. “We talk with them and say, ‘Okay, we’re all kids at heart. What is it you want to be when you grow up?’ […] We never know until we try, so we got to try this, but we want to start looking at that and then if they have additional questions on career paths, what I would encourage them to do is meet with Career Connections to meet with their career consultants that are assigned to the different colleges.”
TWU houses five colleges and over 91 undergraduate and graduate degrees across its Denton, Dallas and Houston campuses, making options abundant for any student wanting a change of pace for future semesters to come.
Jocelyn Truong can be reached via email at jtruong1@twu.edu.
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