Blog

Over a year ago when I was working on my application to U-M, I remember trying to edit every detail to perfection. But one question I could not answer—no matter how I much I wanted to—was my prospective major.

Most of my classmates seemed to know what they were going to major in or had some idea of what they liked. (This, of course, was not and typically is not the case. I’d venture to guess half the people around you are not 100% sure what they want to study, unless they’re pre-med or in engineering.)

In contrast, I was feeling extremely burnt out after high school; I didn’t even want to think about what I was going to study, and seriously considered taking a gap year. The idea of attending another four years of school—really just spending another second in a classroom—seemed daunting.

But taking a gap year without an alternative plan, especially while all my friends were enthusiastically heading off to their respective colleges, was even scarier. So, in September, my unsure, very green Welcome Week-self tried to suppress my doubts, put on my yet-to-be-stuffed backpack, and departed the shelter of my dorm room to go to my first class.

Unfortunately, I did not have a cure-all class that alleviated all my worries about my academic future. In fact, I started to grow more and more unsure as the semester wore on and the workload piled up. The classes I had signed up for out of interest started to feel less like fun and more like work.

Don’t worry; I’m getting to the silver lining.

It might seem obvious, but it wasn’t until I stopped caring about whether I had my life together or not that things started to fall into place. I took some boring but necessary steps to find out what I liked. I registered for classes for the winter semester, all purely out of interest. I talked to an adviser. I browsed the LSA Course Guide. But I didn’t just look at 100 or 200 level classes that I was qualified to take. I browsed higher level, more specialized courses, and took note of how a lot of the classes I wanted to eventually take seemed to fall under the same, or similar, majors. I talked to an adviser again.

Coming in undeclared was easily the best decision I could have made. Even though in the moment I felt like I wasn’t getting anywhere closer to selecting a major, in hindsight, every day I was learning what I did and did not liket just by engaging with course material.

I had the opportunity to take a wide breadth of subjects—some I probably will never pursue again and some I most definitely will. I didn’t have to worry about signing up for a certain class that I needed for my major or distribution. I did some serious, much-needed relearning: I made a conscious effort to approach my classes (even the ones I didn’t particularly enjoy) as opportunities to learn. It was by no means easy, but with this mentality, school started to feel a lot less draining even when my workload increased because I was constantly working towards a larger goal.

Next semester, I’m signed up to take the prerequisites for economics and organizational studies. I’m still only 75% sure these majors are the path I want to pursue, but I’m okay with being at 75% because, as corny as it sounds, I’m excited about learning again. It took a year of looking past the busywork, truly engaging with the material, talking with my professors, and lots of advisor appointments (seriously, do it!), but I’m slowly beginning to carve a path of my own and cannot wait to see where I will be in another year’s time.