Can you make a major decision?

Imagine one of the hardest decisions of your life. You have a choice. Imagine that choice determining your future. For high school seniors, this choice looms ahead: picking a major.

Each student’s hard work culminates at one decision: the major they decide to pursue at a given college. This is an enormous decision for teenagers to make.

In fact, high school experiences are too limited to make such an important decision. On a daily basis, students are influenced by a handful of people: teachers, parents and peers. Having only dealt with a limited number of people, one can not gauge what they’re truly passionate about.

Having different experiences are essential, and students need to have had these experiences in order to make decisions about a potential career. For high school students, it is difficult to gain this experience. Yes, internships or volunteering can lead a student to potentially liking a major/field. But two internships in the span of four years are not enough for teens to be completely sure what they want to do.

A factor that rushes students into making their major decision is social pressure. Students are constantly surrounded by parents and peers who push them into applying for an accelerated math and science program and the few who decide that they would like to try an arts program feel as though they are making a mistake since they aren’t following the “norm”.

College is a playground for a student fresh out of high school, a place to experiment. The people they meet, the subjects they learn – these are all factors that help students decide what they want to pursue.

However, for high schoolers who do not know what they like yet, the decision to choose a field of study can be a daunting one. Fresh out of the mix of groups and pressurized control from parents,they are exposed to complete freedom.

How can they be expected to make a life decision in a matter of four controlled years? It is unfair for a student to be forced into making a decision after four years of high school, a decision that will affect the rest of their professional lives.