Today’s college students are more likely to choose a major in business than previous students, but a large number are also selecting majors in the health professions (e.g., nursing or physical therapy), biology, and engineering. Your college or university might require you to select a major during or before your first year, even before you have figured out your own purpose for college. Some institutions will allow you to be “undecided” or to select “no preference” for a year or two. It’s OK if you don’t know which career to pursue yet; in fact, it’s perfectly normal. Although many students will declare a major when they enter college, more than 60 percent of them will change majors at least once, often because they discovered a match between their strengths and a potential career field they had never considered before.

Even if you are ready to select a major, it’s a good idea to keep an open mind. You can pursue so many avenues while you’re in college, many that you might not have even considered. Or, you might come to learn that the career you always dreamed of isn’t what you thought it would be at all. You will learn more about choosing a major and a career in Chapter 15, but you ought to use your first year to explore and think about your purpose for college and how that might connect with the rest of your life.