Is it Bad to Apply to College Undecided?

Is it bad to apply to college undecided?

Colleges have decided that's not a bad decision to make.

I've heard many people say you shouldn't start college until you make a decision. And some colleges won't let you apply until you decide.

The Europeans like to make people make a choice in high school, unless they are tracked as apprentices in middle school because of bad test scores.

They have better job prospects for people because they track them early.

And they also have many people who get a degree and decide they don't like the job, stuck in what was decided for them a decade before.

Whereas an undecided college major has more time.

They say that over half of all college majors switch majors. At least if you start undecided, you'll have a year or two to take core courses before you have to decide.

Can you get a general bachelor's degree?

That used to be a liberal arts degree. It created a well rounded, logical and educated person.

Who now serves coffee with great conversation at Starbucks if she is lucky, flips burgers while reporting to an under-employed MBA at McDonalds if not.

You should pick at least a field you want to enter, like science or medicine. You can concentrate in that area while narrowing it down with volunteering, job shadowing and part time jobs.

What do you mean?

Volunteer at a hospital to find out if you like medicine. You may end up a lab tech instead of a nurse because you don't like sick people.

*Or study law, but what if I don't have the grades to become a lawyer?

Become a paralegal or legal clerk. That's where you have to match your skills to your interests.

*What if I tried engineering? A lot of people flunk out of that.

There's a joke that as GPA approaches zero, engineering students become business majors.

Then they are bosses of engineers.

Or code enforcers, or building inspectors, or schedulers or buy supplies.

It sounds like even picking a major gives me a lot of choices.

But it is better to pick a field and alter career paths than waste two years studying education before realizing in student teaching that you hate kids.