As college application season is well underway for the graduating seniors of 2025, a common question asked to students is, “What do you want to major in?”
Due to the pressure this question creates, many high school seniors feel they must have their entire lives figured out by seventeen, but that doesn’t have to be the case.
Applying to colleges as undecided or undeclared is perfectly fine. Applying undecided allows you to explore courses of interest during your first year of college while collecting general education credits. According to Signature College Counseling, over 50% of high schoolers apply to college as undecided, and almost 75% change their majors at least once.
As reported by Coursera, the top 5 majors of 2024 are Business, Health, Social Sciences and History, Biological and Biomedical Sciences, and Psychology. However, if your major isn’t on this list, that doesn’t mean your proclaimed Major or lack thereof is lesser than.
Deep diving into college websites can be a great way to understand what you want to do. Many schools even have college major quizzes to aid students in deciding their career path. For example, the University of Pittsburgh has a web page on everything you may need to know about the school’s programs. Pitts’s four-step guide is helpful for many applicants unsure of their plans. Innovative sites like these are something that many schools have already adopted to help incoming applicants, but it is arguably something that every school should be implementing for their students.
With that being said, you can still apply as undecided, even if you may have an idea for a major. Deciding your future can be incredibly daunting when you aren’t 100% sure about the next steps.
For many students, the pressure to apply Early Action instead of Regular Decisions is another key factor in the high-stress rates of college applicants. According to Higher Ed Dive, more than 60% of high school students reported that advice given to them for college applications had overwhelmed them, and nearly half said they felt pressured to apply to colleges they weren’t even interested in attending. The added pressure to declare a major as soon as possible isn’t always the best approach for every student. Some students benefit from applying to their schools by the Regular Decision deadlines rather than the EA deadlines because it allows extra time to prepare for applications without the additional stress of an early deadline.
It is perfectly okay not to know what you want to do with the rest of your life. Being seventeen or eighteen and being told you must decide on a career path can be incredibly stressful.
So what can you do? Contact colleges, ask them questions about their programs, request meetings with whoever you can, and take as much time as possible to learn about yourself.