March 9th was the deadline to change your major or minor, and depending on your experience, you may be all too familiar with this date.  

Students’ major commitments usually vary from passion and promise to a 5th-time-change-please-tell-me-this-is-the-one hopelessness, with most falling somewhere in between.  

Students from a variety of backgrounds reflected on their changes of major as they’ve progressed through college – as well as some advice they’d give to undecided majors. 

Julia Schumann is a psychology major here at UW-La Crosse. While she has only changed her mind once (switching from elementary education to psychology), she says that her change of heart came from a shift in career focus.  

Her advice to others is to take some time trying out different professions by volunteering or job shadowing because “that will ultimately help you decide what you’re passionate about and what you will be happy doing for the rest of your life.” 

An English education student, Rachel Bartram made a large jump from fashion merchandising to rhetoric and writing studies before landing on her current major. She advises students to “trust your gut” and that making the switch is worthwhile if you feel like something is not right.  

As a biology major, Stephanie Koss has never changed her major. She explains, “I always kind of knew what I wanted to do since high school.”  

She also divulged that she once considered the switch to English, but decided she simply had conflicting interests, and “decided to do things like [work at] the writing center” to fulfill that love of English.  

She advises students who are still searching to use their free time to explore various fields, and, as a simple tip, follow various social media and news pages to get small doses of diversified fields. 

Erika Lichtfuss has had the same major of history education since she arrived at UWL – though she does admit that she has questioned whether it was the right major for her.  

She attributes sticking to her decision to the discussions that she’s had with others in her field, so she advises others to get to know those in their fields of interest. She claims that researching an interesting field can only go so far, but “having a human resource to answer questions about any reservations you have is invaluable.” 

Zachary Noethe claims he has not swayed from his psychology major. While he has found other majors interesting, he finds that psychology offers a wide array of options post-degree, so he does not feel like he’s compromising other areas which he finds interesting.  

His advice to undeclared students is to take advantage of the classes that UWL offers and take a wide range of classes. 

If you are a victim of the deadline to change your major, hopefully these tips will help you. Regardless of how many times you have changed your major, there is comfort in knowing that we have all experienced the same uncertainty and come out the other end.