Nicole Robinson

In kindergarten, it was fun when they asked what you wanted to be. In high school, they say you have plenty of time to decide what you want to be. In college, they say being undeclared is perfectly fine. After all, 25 to 30 percent of students come into UW-Eau Claire undeclared, according to Career Services. However, the decision of what we want to do with our lives becomes rapidly problematic as early as our freshman year.

The pressures come from all different directions. Seemingly every holiday, the first question that comes out of the mouths of our relatives is: “What’s your major?” Perhaps the second question tends to be: “What year are you?” or “When do you graduate?” If we knew the answers to these questions, taking classes would be merely a formality.

However, with both time and money on the line – not to mention our futures – finding and sticking to a major or profession becomes extremely complex.

Here are some guidelines coming from the next best thing to Career Services – a student who has lived through the process.

The university recommends taking a broad list of courses the first year. Great advice, but you have to remember that you can’t just take any courses. The wide range of courses you take also must count for designated general education requirements.

If those roman numerals aren’t haunting you already, don’t worry, they eventually will.

Assuming that some, if not several, of your general education classes prove to be intriguing enough for further study, anyone will advise you to take the next step and take a 300-level class offered by that same department. At the very least, it will count for yet another general education requirement and, at the very most, it may be interesting enough for a possible major.

However, before jumping at the prospect of becoming a certain major, think the process through. Talking to other majors or department affiliates only can help your decision. After that, looking into prospective jobs and the outlook of your future can prove fruitful.

Along those same lines, try thinking backward and seek a major that matches a profession you could see yourself in decades from now.

After you’ve completed all these steps and you’re ready to declare your major, do one last thing: Declare that prospective major as your minor. Either way, you’ll have to take those same classes, and you don’t want to have to switch your major a year down the road. Those classes you just took then will become a little more than useless.

The key is being able to stick to it once you’ve made a decision. Not being sure of what major to declare is perhaps the better of two evils. If you declare something and don’t like it, you always can change majors, but that’s a waste of time and money. However, waiting too long in finding what to declare may prove to bite you in the end. One of the best things to do is declare a minor early, but it has to be one you are interested in. If you want to change that minor to a major – great.

How hard can it be to decide to stick to a major? It’s not like this will affect the rest of your life or something, right?

What people – especially family members – don’t seem to understand is this process is a long, hard road made harder when time and money become grueling factors.

During orientation, freshmen learn the mean for college students to graduate from this university is not four years, contrary to popular belief, but rather four-and-a-half. Even those students who are on top of the ball from the start will find that unmitigated circumstances hold them behind. These circumstances range from scheduling conflicts to classes only being offered once a year. On top of that, you’ll find faculty disappear more often than they replicate. Departments work harder and harder every year (and let’s face it, for much less than they deserve) with diminishing professors to teach the classes.

But don’t sweat it. It’s not as if tuition costs are on the rise or anything. And it’s not like we’re in a rush to get out of college either. After all, this is supposed to be the best time of our lives, right?

The university claims you will be able to finish most majors in four years. What they don’t tell you is the deadline of when to declare. Here’s the answer: as early as possible!

The university offers several promising options to explore. The advisors at Career Services, the Career Discovery Lab and different major fairs all are viable resources. Believe it or not, Eau Claire also offers a one-credit course called Academic and Career Exploration.

Eau Claire’s Center for International Education also prides itself on sending nearly one in every four students abroad to about 30 different countries. However, keep an eye out for how many of the classes/credits you earn overseas actually carry over into the university’s various department qualifications.

All of these guidelines may be dizzying or even circular, but such is life at Eau Claire.

Kupfer is a senior print journalism and major and a showcase editor of The Spectator.