Yesterday, I had really busy day. Before taking the written driving test, I declared a major in Political Science and a minor from Philosophy. I will be still declaring a second (double) major from Management and a second (double) minor from Economics this Friday. Eventually, I am hoping to bump my Philosophy minor to a third major since the difference between minor and major in Philosophy is only 8 credits, but for now I wrote it as minor for now. Either way, is there a best time to declare a major/minor?
I think that there is a one moment that should tell a student that one should declare a major/minor, and that is when one decided to do internship in that field.
In my opinion, and many would agree with my that declaring a major the second week of freshmen year is not really smart idea because a lot of students still are not so sure about their career focus. Also, waiting for the last minute to declare the major/minor is, well, not a clever idea because major/minor is recommended/required in some cases in order to do an internship. If there is anything that can make a big difference in one’s after college career than besides grades, honors programs, student position or study abroad then it would be internships. So, if one decides to do an internship in certain department that means the one is dedicated enough to study the department therefore one consider declare the major in that field.
Of course there are exceptions like everywhere, but if one is working 40 hours a week in the summer in a certain field for a couple weeks or months, it may be a good idea to declare a major in that department.