Strategies & Resources

Choosing a major can be hard. Many students are undecided about their majors when they enter college - and many who think they have decided will change their minds more than once before they graduate.

Students are often impacted by a variety of factors while trying to select a major. These include family pressure, peer pressure, questions regarding employability/career choice and personal preference to name a few. While students have developed a number of strategies to decide upon a major we have found the following "Process of Elimination" can serve as a good start in narrowing down the options.

Process of elimination:

1. From the list of majors in the College of L&S, cross off every major that you would never consider. Do not cross off a major because you don't recognize the title. Look for descriptions of those majors in the General Catalog that still appear on your list. Leave on your list any questionable majors or those that arouse some further curiosity.


2. Visit the departmental offices of each major still remaining. Obtain the available literature and read it thoroughly. Cross off further majors if appropriate.


3. Talk with departmental staff or faculty about the majors to clarify the nature of the major, the types of skills and course work required. Resolve any questions you have, such as, do I need a minimum GPA, or can AP credit fulfill a prerequisite?


4. Make parallel lists of prerequisite courses for each major you are still considering. You will probably have narrowed the list to four or five majors. Frequently, these majors will have similar or overlapping prerequisite courses. Use these lists to select courses for future terms.


5. Talk to other students, faculty, and GSI's in your courses. Sit in on upper division courses (for more than a single session) to get some sense of the nature of the major subject.


6. Attend departmental undergraduate association events and pick up the undergraduate association newsletters that some departments publish. Gather all of the information you can. Don't count on one course to inform you fully.


7. Narrow your list of possible majors term-by-term. Don't pursue one major at a time and discover you don't like it and then switch to another and discover the you don't like it either.

Try to use your first two years for experimenting and testing in an organized and thoughtful manner. A random selection of courses doesn't work for many majors, especially if they have four or more prerequisites (many of which must be taken in sequence order.) These are tools that can aid in assessing Major Compatibility, planning a Classroom visit or Department visit, and serve as Sample Questions in your research.

Resources

Some people just have trouble deciding on a major. The choice is not purely rational and logical, but can include one's emotions and self-image. Many things can contribute to prolonging a decision about a major: fear of the unknown, fear of making the wrong choice, fear of failure, questions concerning the major and possible careers, and lack of real focus. Many of these fears are just part of normal anxiety and can begin to be addressed using the wealth of student services available at UC Berkeley.

Career Counseling Library
Offers resources that can help students assess interests, personality, values and skills, choose a major, explore career options and research graduate and professional school. Students can meet with a career counselor, take interest and personality inventories and receive help in researching majors, careers and graduate school. Students also have access to two computerized assessment and information systems: MyRoad and Eureka. Based on interests and personality, the programs suggest majors and careers an individual may want to explore further and provides specific information on the areas of study and on the occupations. Students can register for the computerized programs in the Library.

Career Center
Offers a wealth of online resources as well as appointments with career counselors to help you evaluate and make decisions related to choosing a major, career path, graduate/professional school, or the job search. It is helpful to remember that making such decisions is a process and not usually something that happens overnight. Some particularly helpful resources include the What Can I Do With A Major In...? section of the Career Center's website as well as the Planning Your Future section. Here you will discover what previous students have encountered after Cal in addition to finding some practical tools that can guide your decision-making process. For information on specific career fields (including job opportunities, internships, volunteer experiences, and Career Center events), sign up for CareerMail. To make an appointment with a counselor, visit http://career.berkeley.edu/Info/MakeAppt.stm.