Choosing a Major, or, What Can Indecision Do For You?

A few weeks ago was the deadline for 3rd-semester declaration of majors. (Mudd has two deadlines -- you have to declare by sometime in the spring of your sophomore year, but if you want an advisor in your major when you're choosing your 4th-semester courses, you need to turn in your form around the end of October.)

A lot of the people here know what major they want to be by the time they get here. (This doesn't necessarily mean they know what major they're going to be, though. For example, when I came to Mudd, I knew I wanted to be an engineering major. One year later, I had realized engineering wasn't for me, and I declared for CS a few weeks ago.) Not everyone does. (If you want an anecdotal non-representative sample, of my friends here at Mudd who are in my grade, about 1/3 declared for the major they thought they wanted when they were new frosh, 1/3 are deciding between their original choice and another major, and 1/3 are considering a double or joint major with their original choice and another major.) So while a lot of sophomores have stuck with the major they preferred as frosh, a lot more are asking upperclassmen how to keep their options open.

This is both easier and harder than it sounds---it's not particularly difficult if you're trying to decide between, say, CS and Math. Those two majors have a lot of overlap, and you can even have a joint CS-Math major if you enjoy the intersection of the two. However, if you're trying to decide between Chemistry and Engineering, it gets more difficult. The two majors share no classes, and it's strongly suggested that you start preparing for each major early (by 2nd semester in the case of Engineering, or 3rd semester in the case of Chem). This isn't to say it's not doable, but it will be difficult.

There are also people who come to Mudd and then decide on a non-science major. Again, this isn't too tricky to do. I have a friend who recently decided to be a Literature major with a math minor. (At Mudd, you're either a science major with a humanities "concentration"---which is like a minor---or you're a humanities major with a science minor.) The most difficult part, according to her, is meeting with a professor from another campus to discuss your major. Because of the way Mudd is set up, a humanities major is an off-campus major---so my friend is a literature major via Pomona now.

On the other hand, I have a friend (who's a junior) who was a physics major and a math major, and decided to be a CS major sometime around the beginning of this semester. He'd already taken CS60 (the intro-level, non-core CS class), so he didn't need to "catch up." (With its chain of prereqs, you have to start taking CS60 in your 4th semester to finish the CS major without overloading/pain.) So, long story short, you don't have to know what major you are until your 4th or 5th semester, so long as the classes you're taking will "work" for all the majors you want to be.