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Realizing Your Major is Not for You

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Purdue chapter.

When I got my acceptance letter into Purdue, I was one of the happiest girls in the world. I felt like I had everything lined up and I would study Agricultural Economics that fall and start the best four years of my life. Then the plan was to get a job with a large agricultural company selling row crop seeds. But plans change. Since I am now in my junior year, I have been reminiscing a lot and I have realized my major was not the correct one for me.

Looking back, I realized it started in high school. Originally, I wanted to become a nurse, like my mother, but I quickly noticed it was not my career path after passing out in my medical terminology class. The next three years of high school, my career interest changed, going from family therapist to an artist. However, one thing stayed the same, I wanted to attend Purdue. When my senior year started, I applied to all the colleges I wanted to attend and at every school I applied to different majors because I had no clue what I wanted to do. I ended up being accepted to Trine for business, Manchester for environmental science, Valparaiso for art, and Purdue for agricultural economics.

 

Its pretty obvious which school I ended up choosing, but I did not change my major, even after being accepted. My first year I did not particularly enjoy my classes. I wrote this off as them being my pre requisite  classes and I kept telling myself that all my classes pertaining to my major I would love. It was so hard for me seeing other students be so passionate about agriculture and I always felt like an outsider. When I was interviewing for internships that year, it seemed like every company asked me “why did you choose agriculture” and I would be stumped by this. I did end up getting an internship and it was what I believed I wanted to do for the rest of my life, selling seed. I absolutely loved my internship, I enjoyed all the people I worked with and wanted to go into work. I was so blessed to find an internship that helped me realize my career goals, even if it was not in that field.

My sophomore year I was so excited for new classes, I thought I would finally be getting into the classes I was going to enjoy and willingly roll out of bed for. This was not the case, I felt like I was so uninspired and just learning information to pass tests. I dropped out of most of my clubs that were related to my major, but joined an agricultural marketing club. I loved this club more than my classes. My favorite part was researching markets and making a plan for a product to promote. When career fair time came around, I wanted to try a marketing internship but when I would tell a company this they would look over my resume and tell me to apply to the sales internship. All of the interviews I had lined up were for seed sales, so instead I just worked at home.

 

It was not until this semester I finally realized that I went into the wrong major. I talked about it with people who I am close with and decided that I am going to graduate with an agriculture major and just tack on a communications minor too. I wish there had been more resources and outlets to talk to people when debating a major change, but sadly I have not noticed this on campus. At the end of the day, it will all work out, I have loved all the people I have met in my major and will be graduating with a Purdue degree.

 

Rachael Lowe was born in northern Indiana (the Region) and was raised knowing she would be attending Purdue. As a third generation Boilermaker she is majoring in Agricultural Economics and minoring in Communications. Her passions are traveling, wine, and puppies. In her free time she likes to craft, paint, have a nice glass of moscato, watch movies with friends, and bake. When Rachael graduates in May of 2018 she plans on having as much fun as she did in college. Follow her on Instagram @rachael03
Born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois, Rachael made the move to West Lafayette, Indiana where she attends Purdue University. She is currently a junior studying English and Communications. She is a co-correspondent and the President of Her Campus Purdue University. She currently is a reporter for The Purdue Exponent, where she writes about everything that is going on around campus. She hopes to become a note-worthy journalist and a strong business woman. Rachael is a traveling junkie and wants to explore all 50 states in her lifetime, along with going back to London, which is her favorite. She loves watching 10 Things I Hate About You and can't live without dancing to Beyonce, running, and finding new restaurants to eat at. Doughnut shops and pizza places are her go-to's.