Seniors: Declare "Undeclared" and focus on your AP Calculus Exam

Choosing a major is one of the most important decisions a high school senior can make. Close runners-up include: who to take to prom, whether to start the wave at graduation, which ACT prep book to purchase and what to write in people's yearbooks. A person's can major can determine he entire career path, even the entire rest of her of life. That's definitely a decision a seventeen year old should get to make, right?

There's a whole litany of reasons why leaving a high school senior to choose his or her own major is a pretty terrible idea. Not the least of which is that most high school seniors don't have a clue what they want to do with their lives. The most intrepid of them may have completed an internship or some other kind of practical training, but the average high school student's work experience is limited to folding shirts at the Gap. And while a job like that can help someone pay for car insurance, it's not likely to help him narrow down a major, let alone a career field.

The average high school senior's experience is somewhat limited. It's likely that he or she has not that many opportunities to determine what his or her passion is. She may think that because she did well in her AP Calculus class that she should major in math, but what if her true gifts and passions lie in linguistics or computer science, but she just hasn't had the opportunity to explore those arenas yet?

The average high school student will take courses in the following subjects: English, history (or civics or economics, depending on the year), math, science, a foreign language, physical education (at least for the first two years), and some kind of arts requirement. Sure, the odd high school will offer courses in psychology, but it's rare that a high school student will really be able to gauge his possible future interest in subjects like environmental science or art history, unless he is able to explore those avenues on his own time.

Just like saying "I like animals" is not a good enough justification for going to vet school, saying "I like books" or "I got a 5 on my AP English Language exam" is not a good enough reason to major in English. If someone likes books, she can still read them while majoring in mechanical engineering. Likewise, if someone enjoys speaking French, he can do a semester in France while he studies political science. It's rare that high school students possess the wherewithal, let alone the forethought to make a decision that could determine the rest of their lives.

"What's your major?" may be a popular question at dorm rooms and fraternity parties all over the nation, but that doesn't mean that every person should have an answer. General education requirements exist not just to add breadth to a student's college education, but also to give students exposure to fields of study that they may not have previously encountered. Declaring "undeclared" is totally fine.