6 Ups and Downs of Being an Exploratory Major

When thinking about it, people who come into college knowing what they want to do with their college career are pretty darn lucky. They have academic advisors in their field, they know what credits they need to fill and are able to do the extracurriculars that fit within their major. Being an exploratory major can certainly have it’s ups and downs though, especially since Ithaca College has such an individualistic program for exploratory majors.

Here are a few things you may experience:

1.     You have no idea what classes to take.

For most college students, once they declare a major, they know which classes to take and which credits to fill. However, being an exploratory major, the possibilities for classes are endless and you may just take whatever looks interesting. Then, by the end of sophomore year when you declare a major, you realize you have an insane amount of credits you still need to fill and you kind of just want to cry. Plus, most students have an academic advisor for their major to tell them what classes to take, but problem… there isn’t really an academic advisor in the art of exploratory majors.

2.     No one outside of Ithaca College knows what an exploratory major is.

Whenever you tell someone at Ithaca College that you’re an exploratory major, they instantly know what that is and curse you for having the luck of being able to choose your classes the very first day they all open up. But when you try and tell someone else outside of Ithaca what you are, they have no idea what you’re talking about, and you have to go into the whole spiel of “Well, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do so…”

3.     You never know if you’re doing enough.

Even when you’re cramming in the 18 credits, 7 extracurriculars and other 20 hours you spend doing work, you never know if you’re doing enough as an exploratory major. One week you may want to be a film major, the next week an occupational therapist. So you never know if you’re doing enough to get the credit where you want it to be, and you’re always left wondering (while signing up for 10 more clubs).

4.     Internships are hard to attain, but everyone wants you to have one.

As an exploratory major, everyone tells you that you need to have an internship to really get the insight in knowing what you want to do with the rest of your life. That’s much easier being said than done, because the one thing you need for an internship is experience. Experience, as in you took the classes, joined the clubs for this and have the advisors in the major to recommend you. That’s hard to have when you don’t even have a major or area to concentrate in. You just don’t know what you want, but you can’t even try it. Sigh.

5.     You meet tons of new people.

Since you’re able to take whatever classes you want, you’re also able to meet whoever you want. Most people stick to getting to know people within their major, but as an exploratory major, you get to jump from major to major and widen your group of friends. This just means that you have even more opportunity to make great memories during your time at Ithaca!

6.     You get to watch people sweat and bleed with choosing classes.

The one major perk that everyone is jealous of is that exploratory majors get first pick of classes, no matter what. So essentially, the schedule they craft up will be the schedule they get. Then exploratory majors get to watch their friends with actual majors scream at HomerConnect out of frustration for shutting down and then getting their last pick for classes.

Although it can be tough not knowing what you want in life, Ithaca College has done a pretty good job at making sure you have opportunity to explore. And that’s just another reason why it’s a great day to be a Bomber.

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