By Jill Novak

Choosing a major isn’t always easy for college students.

This isn’t a huge shock to Theresa Mickelwait, a career counselor at the James W. Stuckert Career Center.

“With natural human development, students are still discovering who they are as individuals, as well as developing theirpersonalities,” Mickelwait said.

For students facing the challenge of switching their major, the fear of having to start over or take on an extra course load is too unbearable.

“Fear of that additional course work caused by switching late is what gets to most students,” said Ryana Conway, an academic adviser for the College of Education.  “However as advisers, it’s our job to care about the student’s life goals.”

The pressure to graduate in four years has students questioning whether or not they can change majors.

“Statistics are trending toward it taking six years for most students to graduate, contrary to the popular four years,” Conway said.

Being exposed to different courses throughout a student’s college career can often spark new interests, leading students to want to switch.

“Engineering has a lot of math and physics, so after two years of engineering and having absolutely no fun, I switched after my sophomore year to journalism,”  said Stuart Hammer, a journalism senior, in an email to the Kernel.  “I would not have made it in engineering, and even if I did squeak by, I would be hating every second of it.”

The tough reality of finding a job that will correlate with a major has students concerned about their futures.

“Social work is everything I wanted to do with psychology, except I will have a much greater chance of finding a job right out of college with social work,” Eric Gresham, a social work junior, said. “If i could find a way to do something charitable and make it my line of work as well, then I can’t imagine a more rewarding feeling.”

Switching majors doesn’t have to be the terrifying ordeal it’s made out to be, Conway said.

“If you’re willing to do those extra hours and shine through it, it will be worth it,” Conway said.