College Majors
What Is a College Major?
A major is the academic focus a student will have during their undergraduate degree. Divided into six main categories (Science, Engineering, Business, Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences), a college major consists of taking a series of required and elective courses for a certain number of credits. Outside of a major, many colleges require students to take distribution courses, which are dependent on each college’s specific graduation requirements.
Why Choose a Major Before Applying to College?
Deciding on what to study before you apply to colleges can be helpful for several reasons. For one, certain colleges are known for certain majors. Knowing what a student’s academic interests are can help inform the college list building process. Another reason for a student to know their major is for understanding what to focus on in terms of activities, course selection, and even hobbies. Certain majors are notoriously difficult to get into (like computer science, engineering, and business). A final reason to choose a major before applying to college is to save time and money. Sometimes, a student not knowing what they want to study in college leads to delays in taking the courses required to complete a potential major. Additionally, if a student decides to change their major during sophomore year, this can disrupt graduation timelines.
How We Can Help
At Thompson College Consulting, we are committed to helping students discover their path to college success. By meeting with our students sophomore and junior year, we ask questions to get to know our students, determining both strengths and weaknesses. Assessing what students are good at learning and what they are passionate about allows us to provide valuable insight and guidance into potential majors. During junior year, we help students decide on what major is the best fit for them. Choosing a major can be a difficult decision for students, especially if they don’t have a clear perspective on what they want to do for a career. Our student driven approach for selecting a major is based on finding a student’s key strength and pairing that with their passions and interests. At Thompson College Consulting, we advise our students on the best courses to take, strong activities to participate in, and other important details to optimize their college application based on their potential college major.
Read our blog post on how to choose the right major for you →
