Do you all remember in high school when the teachers and counselors would all tell you that you’d be locked into your decision the second you chose your major and that changing courses would be one of, if not the most difficult thing on the face of this Earth?
Well, if that misconception hasn’t been cleared up for you by now- it’s not.
Taking it in stride, we’ll clear up the biggest misconceptions from high school- and the biggest transition of all of them, from dependency to independence.
1 – The Myth of Locking In
First and foremost- you aren’t locked into a major once you pick it. Most colleges will have you pick a major before you even start your General Education classes, but really; it’s so easy to change it, it’s almost foolproof. The easiest way to go about it is to visit the Schedule Advisors. All you’ll need to do is go to the room, sign in, and once you are seen, tell them you want to change your major. From there, they’ll walk you through what to do.
If you’re socially anxious, don’t have a way to get there, or simply don’t want to, it’s just as easy to do it through Lighthouse. You’ll go in through the student tab, then go to registration; from there, you should be able to change your Major.
See? There’s no muss, no fuss, and it didn’t even require you to convince anyone else that you absolutely cannot do the major that you’re doing right now, or that you’ve lost interest in it- it’s only you, and the computer.
There’s absolutely no shame in changing majors. Your reason could be anything- you’ve decided you do not like it, you would rather do something else, there’s something more interesting, or even that you just don’t like the people there. Any reason is a good reason.
2 – Class Change
It’s a little more finicky to change classes- once it hits about midway through the semester, or even near the end, it’s more efficient to withdraw rather than change- but if you’re in the beginning, or classes haven’t even started but you accidentally signed up for the wrong class, it’s childishly easy.
You could do the same thing with your major- if you have the time, energy, transportation, so on and so forth, it’s a matter of going to Scheduling and telling them you need to change a class. With them, they’ll even be able to tell you what you’ll need or what you can take in its stead.
And once again, you can do it on your own time through lighthouse; you’ll go through the student tab, registration, add or drop a class; from there, you’ll drop the one you don’t need or are removing, and add in the one that you need. I don’t like to use this as much, personally, as I can never remember what I need to take versus what I’ve already taken, or even what’s relevant to my major… but that aside, it’s a lot easier for people to do this, should they have the classes they need to take.
3 – The Ultimate Transition – Dependency
If you’re like me, you relied on your teachers barking at you to do everything on time, that this assignment was due that day, so on so on; for others, you most likely found it annoying. For the latter, good news! It doesn’t happen as much anymore.
For the former…well, unfortunately, that doesn’t happen as much anymore. Once you enter college, independence is the real hard worker- and the real reason everyone says college is hard, in my eyes. It’s very, very easy to forget to check Canvas, and very easy to simply not do things. So, what do you do if you’ve relied on this dependence for so long?
Weaning yourself off is the end goal. You want to be able to fend for yourself in these situations, for the most part; and relying on other students isn’t exactly ideal, either. Set reminders for yourself through whatever means you must; phone, sticky-notes, promise threads, anything that will make you able to think about what you have to do. You should pace and portion your work between each day, which means don’t leave everything until the last minute. That’s the easiest way to mess yourself up in these situations.
And if it doesn’t work? There’s no shame in asking for help. Sometimes it’s a little too much all at once.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
E.MCALISTER
Student Author - Fall 2020
I’m just a small-town student.
