Switching College Majors: Advantages and Disadvantages

There are many reasons why some college students choose to shift majors, some of which are as follows:

* No longer contented with what their current major is giving them. This is usually the problem of those students who were just coerced by parents to take a particular college major, or who were forced to take up another major when they already have another in mind.
* Discovering that their skill sets actually match another course major.
* Need to transfer to another college. Sometimes, the college that they have to transfer to does not have the same course offering as their old college. So, these students are forced to take up another course major that is still in line with their previous major.

Now, here’s the question: what does shifting majors entail? Does it have a substantial effect on the college student involved? Following are the pros and cons of shifting majors:

When shifting majors can be an advantage

The pros in shifting majors is actually more personal than practical in nature. Many college students transfer because of the aforementioned reasons, especially the two first ones, which, if you would notice, have more to do with personal choice. While that may be deemed by others, especially the conventionalists, as a waste of time, truth is, if you still decide to push through with a major that you don’t like, you’d waste time even more. That’s because pushing through something you didn’t really like may pave the way towards delinquent behavior that may result in you abandoning your study habits to pursue what you really want. Or, if by chance you do graduate from the major, you may end up in a different career, anyway. So, it’s like you just pursued the major to have a degree.

When Shifting Majors Can Be A Disadvantage

On the other hand, the cons of shifting majors is based on practicality issues. You need to consider the fact that once you start on a major, you have and are already investing time, money, and effort on it. Also, when you shift majors, if you were lucky, none of your previous course subjects may be credited and you’ll have to start back to square one.

Photo credit :  Paul Keleher

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