As graduation season approaches, many students are faced with decisions about their majors and whether their chosen path will lead them to success–or be their biggest regret. While changing majors can feel like a setback, it’s often a necessary step to find the right path. 

Approximately 80% of students in college change their majors at least once during the time of their studies. On average, students change their majors at least 3 times. Changing majors is often associated as indecision, however it’s more of a journey of self growth and awareness rather than irresponsible indecision. 

For some students, the decision that sparks the change in majors can come from personal burnout. Student burnout leads to resentment toward oneself and their studies, and can often lead to realizations about whether this is truly what they want to do for the rest of their life. GCC student Areli Arriaga was once a Computer Engineering major and has changed her major to Biology. Arriaga was inspired to take up Computer Engineering after an internship with Disney. She expressed the desire to learn how to code after the internship. However, when the pandemic hit, Arriaga experienced burnout from her major, “I had reached a point of fatigue after the pandemic and knew that I didn’t want to stare into the computer for long hours or torment myself searching for small error codes,” she said. However, she has found solace in her new major of Biology that she can see herself doing in the long run. “As a bio major, working in labs and actively engaging with the material is a nice change of pace compared to computer science. I am no longer on my laptop [for] more than a couple of hours and learning no longer feels like too much of a pain,” said Arriaga. 

“However, changing majors can also result from personal obstacles or uncontrollable circumstances. During his own time in college, GCC Counselor Paolo Banaang was originally a nursing major but due to being undocumented, he wasn’t able to apply for the nursing program. As a result, he changed his major to English. The major transition wasn’t too difficult on him since all he had to do was do the classes required to get the degree in the major, Banaang explained. “I always tell people I changed my major and never looked back,” said Banaang. When asked if at the time if he felt like he was falling behind after changing his major, “I knew the only person I had to compete with was the person yesterday,” Banaang stated. 

Chloe Segui can be reached at [email protected]