Helping Students Choose a Major

Many students have difficulty deciding on a major for a number of reasons. Sometimes students are looking for a direct match between major and career because they believe that a major sets their life path with little room to change. This is simply not true. Most people have many careers in a lifetime regardless of their college major. The following suggestions can help Elon students decide on a major.

• Take the full listing of majors that Elon offers and cross off all that you are not interested in pursuing.
• For the remaining majors, thoroughly explore those school and departmental web pages to understand mission, faculty interests, types of courses, what graduates are now doing, etc.
• Talk to current majors in the departments of interest.
• Talk to faculty in those departments of interest.
• Meet with a professional advisor in the Academic Advising Center, Duke 108, to take and process self-exploration inventories such as Myers Briggs Type Indicator and the Strong Inventory.
• Take COE 110: Exploring Majors for 1 hour credit to systematically explore your values and interests, majors and careers.
• Conduct web searches on careers of interest to see the types of educational preparation that is recommended. Some careers require graduate school.
• Review "Career Advising" resources from Elon's Student Professional Development Center