Throughout the past couple of weeks, I have been hearing a ripple of students saying, “I have no idea what to major in” or “How am I supposed to know my major if I haven’t really taken many classes that are applicable to what I want to do?” Those are pretty valid arguments. All first-year students at Notre Dame are required to declare their major by the end of March. While I am a first-year student intending on majoring in business, I cannot say that I am fully confident in my decision, primarily because I have not actually had enough experience with business classes to be familiar with the major. Though I have ultimately decided on business, I realize that I really do not have much of an indication of what majoring in business is really going to be like. As much as I enjoy my university requirement classes, I have not actually taken any classes yet that have given me insight into my prospective major. Nonetheless, I have been able to gain a general idea of the field I want to pursue through business clubs I have participated in at Notre Dame, which gave me some exposure to my intended major. If first year students are still unsure of what to decide, I highly suggest getting involved in different clubs. The most beneficial club in regard to choosing my major has been the Student International Business Council (SIBC). In this club, student can choose from seven different divisions, such as finance, consulting etc., in which they can work on a project with a professional company as part of a larger team. The primary goal is to teach students how to develop analytical and problem-solving skills, presentation skills and gain exposure to business principles and the current economic status. These extracurricular clubs are not limited to business either — there are numerous clubs for students interested in an engineering, science or arts and letters major. So even though it seems difficult for some students to choose a major based off of what they think they want to do, participating in clubs is pretty influential in decision making, and hopefully the clubs can provide some stress relief and clarity to students, too.
Kara Gisleson
freshman
Feb. 15
