“If you don’t know what you want to be when you grow up by the time you’re 12, you’ll never finish college in time!” said no one ever.

Actually that’s not true – a lot of people have probably said that. Many people, maybe even some of you, think you HAVE to have everything planned out long before you begin your undergraduate career. Well I’m here to tell you, “Pump the brakes!” There’s no need to rush! For those of you who have known what you wanted to do since you were in diapers, awesome! But for those who feel a little lost, welcome to college! You’ll find your way and the Enrollment office at PUC is here to help.

For me, throughout high school I was the girl with the plan – physical therapy, specifically sports medicine. That’s all I wanted to do and I was convinced I would be perfect at it. I took a series of personality and career tests my senior year and discovered something very obvious: I was good at communicating (and something I learned my junior year, not good at Chemistry).

Now, cut to the first day of freshman year at PUC to a newly declared Communication major. I had no idea what I was getting myself into and within the first quarter I apprehensively made the decision to switch to being undeclared and you know what? I wasn’t alone. Research shows up to 50 percent of college students change their major at least once, and some change it several times. For the next year and a half, I made up my mind and changed it quite a few times, all the while smartly taking classes in many areas from different departments. The beauty of PUC being a liberal arts college is you will need to take classes in different subjects to fulfill your GE class requirements (You can read more about those in our recent “What on Earth are General Education Requirements?!” post). This is the perfect way to try something new while learning about your strengths.

As it would turn out, I would find my way back to the Communication Department a couple quarters later and fall in love with Public Relations, and I never would have discovered that had I not been open minded.

If you’re struggling to see where your future is headed, be smarter than I was! Don’t wander through your first year of college without some kind of plan. PUC comes fully equipped with a Career & Counseling Center at your disposal. You’ll have access to multiple personality tests, interest surveys and Laura Gore, our Career Counselor, will happily give you one-on-one career counseling.

While it’s on your mind, why not spend a few minutes taking this short career test to get a few new ideas about what majors might be a good fit for you! We found it surprisingly insightful. Be more informed before scheduling an appointment with Laura in the fall! Check it out at http://www.yourfreecareertest.com/#.