Going down the undecided path of careers
College is coming around fast and it's time to think about what you want to do for your career. But most students go undecided and half go with a major and end up switching. Photo attributions to Yealin Lee.
by Jaclyn Thompson, news editor
By the time it comes to applying to colleges, students have to think about what they want to spend their college lives majoring in and what they want to have as their careers. However, 80% of students go in undecided, and 50% of them with a declared major end up switching majors.
Students should be given the chance to test out career options. This would give them the chance to see what they really love and want to pursue. When exposed to careers, one will be able to find something he or she really loves to do, which will decrease the undecided rate of colleges.
“Students are very young and it’s hard to determine what they’re into and should go into college with an open mind,” guidance counselor Mr. Lumetta said.
Lumetta continued, “Students should be able to test careers because it’s difficult to pick a career they’re interested in; and when they experience it, they can determine what they want or not want to do.”
How do students decide what they want to be if they are not able to experience them? If students were able to test out a career for different things every week, they would be able to get a taste of what they want to do and can cancel out things they dislike. Not only would it be a learning experience in terms of career, it would be a learning experience for students to know more about themselves.
“It frustrates me not knowing what I want to do, so if I was able to do a program to test our careers I think it would benefit me and benefit everyone who experienced that,” senior Sabrina Rasizzi said.
It may be argued that it is a part of the college experience to find oneself and decide what one wants to pursue in life. However, if this [career experiencing] program existed, the majority of people would graduate on time because they would already have a declared major. Students with declared majors that end up switching majors is because they never got to experience the major they declared.
It would make students’ lives easier, if there was a program that allowed them to have trial runs on careers.