Your guide to finding (and losing) a second major, by Eva Martin. Eva is Vice President of the Peer Advisors, and is a junior double majoring in Middle Eastern Studies and International Affairs with a concentration in Security Policy. Or is she?
Step 1: Get really excited about your second major. It’s a perfect fit, you just declared, and now you MUST be super marketable for all the jobs you want.
Step 2: Take some classes in your major. Because you love the topic, you already know a lot of the basic stuff. The classes aren’t super interesting, but you like being able to nod along and put together the pieces of what you already know. And you get to write papers about whatever you want that’s related to class, so you investigate some very specific things you’re into. Which is pretty awesome.
Step 3: Sign up for some more classes about things that you are into. They sound super relevant, and you’re excited to investigate further the things that you like.
Step 4: It’s a new year. You’re doing some leadership things, so it takes you some time to feel settled. The classes are okay. You go over some things you already know (like where the Sunni-Shia divide originated… for the seventh time), but you’re confident that soon enough things will get interesting.
Step 5: They don’t. You’re learning the same things you know. Over and over. With people who don’t know them, so they ask questions you know detailed answers to, and professors give them a quick 30 second rundown. And your papers are all on assigned topics, and it feels like high school (“Describe two challenges the Ottoman Empire faced and how the way they were resolved shaped the structure of society.”).
Step 6: Get frustrated. This isn’t why you wanted to take this major. You wanted to delve into the details and build a complex knowledge base. You wanted depth of knowledge, and instead you’re hitting some arbitrary bottom, again and again.
Step 7: Decide this major isn’t for you. You aren’t getting anything out of it. It’s frustrating. You don’t want to go to class, which being a typical Honors kid is weird. You usually LOVE class. You don’t feel like yourself, and it’s not right.
Step 8: Talk to everyone you know who you trust as an advisor. Talk to Catherine and Mary. Talk to your favorite professors. Talk to your friends, even though they have no idea what’s going on. Tell them what’s going on, tell them how you feel, tell them you want out.
Step 9: Tell your parents. It’s going to be okay. You can still get a job. Actively explore your options.
Step 10: Go to your official advisor. Fill out a form. Drop your major. Experience the freedom of saying “no (more).”
If you ever want to talk about a major not fitting, shoot me an email (evamartin@gwu.edu). I’ve been there. Dropping a major isn’t a failure. Knowing something isn’t right for you and letting go of it is a sign of personal growth. Now I can take classes I like rather than ones that fulfill requirements. I can take an internship for credit, I can dedicate more time and energy to being an RA and peer advisor, and I can maybe graduate early. It turns out major changes (get it) can be a good thing.
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