By Ana Ruiz Brictson | Staff Writer
A survey of soon-to-be college freshmen revealed that around 42% of them believe that the pandemic has affected their choice of major.
In the spring, Intelligent — a team that has created a website for free general knowledge — asked 1,250 high school seniors about their interests and found that there was a significant change in the results from 2019. It believes that freshmen are having a more difficult time choosing a major and that the pandemic could be playing a role in this.
According to Bob Shipp, Baylor’s director of University Advisement, there are currently 450 students who are undecided on their major.
“It doesn’t look like there’s been more than normal changes in majors, at least this year,” Shipp said.
However, Honduras freshman Laralissa Montealegre said the pandemic did have a big impact on her choice of major. Since the pandemic forced people to stay at home and change their entire routine, mental health has become a prominent issue and a trending topic. Montealegre said the prevalence of discussion on mental health influenced her decision to major in psychology.
“Since it was a repeating topic, it brought more of what I wanted my input to be in the world,” Montealegre said.
According to the survey, at least one third of the 1,250 students who responded said they were looking to major in and pursue something that not only interested them but also helped other people.
“Given this, it’s no surprise that when choosing a major, one in three students starting college this fall are thinking about how a particular area of study will allow them to have a positive impact on society,” Intelligent said.
Many companies are continuing to offer an option for employees to work from home, which is taking away the need for a lot of in-person jobs. The Woodlands sophomore Madison Breaux said that because of this new reality, she is unsure whether or not she selected a major that is a good fit for her.
“With remote jobs becoming the norm now, if you want to change to an in-person job, you’d almost have to change your career path, and I want an in-person job,” Breaux said.
