When students arrive at the University, they might feel pressure to have a strictly laid-out plan for their course of study. However, many students change their initial plans and switch their intended or declared major after taking a variety of courses. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, within three years of initial enrollment, 30 percent of undergraduates who had declared their major changed it at least once. Furthermore, students may change their minds many times between the time they arrive at the University and when they officially declare at the end of their second year.
Meira Kensky, College director of Undergraduate Advising, estimates that nearly a quarter of students in the College will end up changing their major once they spend time at the University.
“[First-years] don't need to know what they want to major in,” Kensky said. “They have ample time to explore different options … we have not historically tracked the data of just how many at U.Va. [change majors]. But anecdotally … we think it's at least a quarter of students who wind up changing their majors once they're here.”
At the University, College of Arts & Sciences students must declare or defer declaring their major by the end of their fourth full-time semester. The College offers more than 50 undergraduate degrees and concentrations and 29 graduate degree programs, which many students may not be familiar with until they start their first-year.
The school encourages first-year students to explore a wide range of topics with its general education requirements, which span seven subjects and aim to provide students with a full liberal arts and sciences foundation. The Engagements program, a yearlong sequence of courses designed to introduce first-years to the typical College curriculum, also encourages students to explore more areas of study. In this program, first-years select four half-semester long courses to enroll in across a variety of topics.
Even though students do not need to declare their major until the end of the second year, they do need to finish prerequisite courses before declaring. Prerequisite courses for a major are designed to ensure students have a strong foundation before taking on more advanced coursework within a department. The amount of prerequisite courses depends on the major — while an English major only requires one course prior to declaring, the economics major has five prerequisites. Often, advisors encourage students to take a variety of prerequisites, so they have more major options by the end of their second-year.
If students have not completed the required prerequisites for their intended major when they are entering their fifth semester, they must submit a “Request to Defer Declaring Major” form, which allows students to delay declaring a major for one semester.
College Advising Dean Shilpa Davé believes that the first two years of university should be a time to take different kinds of classes to see what interests students. According to Davé, there are often many alternative routes to the same career path, so students should never feel isolated to one major.
“The beauty of the College of Arts & Sciences, is that with the general education requirements, we are asking you to try different kinds of classes,” Davé said. “With the general education requirements, a lot of people think, ‘Oh, they're just [requirements] to check off,’ but they also allow you to explore different departments.”
Some students have found new major options through exploring a variety of courses. Fourth-year College Student Ella Luter decided to declare an economics major despite her previously intended pre-health major after she delved into some of the classes in the College. While she enjoyed her high school science classes, she found the college counterparts to be more challenging and high pressure at the University than she was expecting. She ended up switching to economics, not because it was easy, but because she found purpose in the subject after taking ECON 2010, “Principles of Microeconomics,” with Associate Professor Carter Doyle.
“I loved it because I realized that it's literally the study of human decisions and how people make decisions that ultimately affect literally everything we do,“ Luter said.
Fourth-year College student Kierany Lewis applied to the University with an intended major in Political Philosophy, Policy and Law. After taking time to explore other departments, she decided to switch her intended major to the Global Studies department during her second year. Now, Lewis is studying Global Security and Justice and later adding on a Government major as well after enjoying the PLAP 3500, “Election 2024,” in the fall.
“I got to satisfy what initially drew me to a PPL-adjacent major, while still doing international focused classes,” Lewis said.
While there are different undergraduate schools students can apply into, like McIntire School of Commerce and the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, the College also offers a number of application-based programs, including the Interdisciplinary Major Program, the Global Studies Major or Political Philosophy, Policy and Law. Students now apply to McIntire in the spring of their first year, but before Spring 2025 students were required to apply in the spring of their second year. Students apply to most other application-based programs in the spring of their second year.
Other students had to change their major because they were rejected from Commerce. Fourth-year College students Sophia Hanover and Ella Kreft both had to create a backup plan when they were not accepted into Commerce.
Kreft was motivated to apply because she was interested in sales at the time and knew McIntire was very finance and consulting based. However, Kreft struggled to find a solid backup plan after getting rejected because she did not have many prerequisite courses completed for other majors because many of her courses would only give her credit within McIntire.
“Most of my friends at that time did get rejected and had been taking a lot of extra classes to supplement it and I didn't,” Kreft said. “I was kind of scrambling and really nervous, because I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I'm almost in the third year, and I still don’t have a major.’”
Kreft explained that after trying to pivot from McIntire she also got rejected from the Global Commerce in Culture and Society major within the Global Studies program. According to Kreft, after this news she made the impulsive decision to be a Media Studies major after taking a class and really enjoying it. Kreft explained that falling into this major has completely transformed her academic experience.
“I used to be so hard on myself with my classes … and this major has really allowed me to relax a little bit and to enjoy school more,” Kreft said.
Hanover entered the College as an undecided first-year student, but decided to apply to McIntire in her second year because a lot of her friends were, and felt it was a good option for an undecided major. She ultimately ended up deciding to do a Spanish major — a decision which she said she is very happy with — and also added an economics major later in her academic career.
Kensky noted how important it is to have a backup plan when students are not accepted to McIntire or Batten. According to Kensky, advisors in the College were trained this year to talk with students about creating a parallel plan. Kensky advises students to explore all facets of the College and find what truly interests them the most. She encourages students to approach this exploration by telling them to think about what kinds of questions they want to answer in the next four years and what type of research they are most fascinated by.
“All roads can lead to working in business or work in finance,” Kensky said. “It's not required to have a business degree, and in some cases, it's better not to, because you can do a lot with other kinds of majors.”
Davé believes that all students should think about alternative paths when they are planning for their career.
“Your major is just one aspect of the whole part of planning out what you want to do in terms of your career and your academic journey,” Davé said.
Read More
Student and staff organizations host Labor Day Teach-In protest
By Lauren Seeliger | 4 hours agoThe Teach-In followed an organized structure in which four speakers presented on topics ranging from the history of labor organizing at the University to what shared governance means today.
Library Council writes its next chapter
By Tracy Gong | 18 hours agoThe library student council serves as an advisory board supervised by University librarians.
Housing 101: Students share insights for incoming first-years
By Lauren Seeliger | YesterdayThree students interviewed reported that the process of selecting second-year housing so early in their first year can be stressful but that the University has resources.
