College and Majors

I don't have much direct experience w/ changing majors and such, but as an Ambassador for my department I get asked questions similar to yours a lot. []

If you love soc, I'd recommend taking more classes and doing more research on the job outlook and requirements for being hired in that field. If all your research and a few more classes all look and feel great to you, then go ahead and change majors - no need to hate what you're doing just because at one point you thought you'd like it. Many students I know have switched at least once if not 2 or 3 times over the course of their time in college before they found what they really wanted to do.

One other thing, you mentioned prevet, but have you considered animal science? I'm currently a senior in AnSci and love it and I'm *not* going to be a vet. I'm currently looking into behavior related and public policy jobs as those are my two specific interests. I minored in psychology and have a specialization in Animal Behavior/Well-being and a certificate in Animal Welfare and Social Concerns. [] I once wanted to be a vet but, like you, decided the work really didn't fit me all that well, luckily AnSci can be a *very* flexible major.

Good luck w/ whatever you decide!

Actually, I was an AnSci major with a pre-vet option.  I would love to do animal behavior.  I don't think we have a major for that here, but I will talk to my old advisor(who is also my mentor for breeding/showing dogs) and see what he can help me with.  Our AnSci curriculum is based on livestock production.  Most of the jobs it lists are livestock production stuff.  Other than vet school.  I want nothing to do with any kind of meat production!  I eat meat, but I don't want to see it before it looks like a package at the store.  I don't know what to do!

Sounds like my exact story- I was a AnSci major as a freshman going with pre-vet, and then i watched a cow being slaughtered for meat, and i couldn't do it.

I changed to business my sophomore year, and Statistics and Accounting was kicking my butt. I am more of a history/arts person rather than a math/science person. The numbers ran through my head, and didn't stick a bit.
 
I am currently am a Junior now and majoring in theatre production, and I am loving every single minute of it. It's the thing i live and breathe for. I want to be in a produciton company or be a "roadie" after i get out of school. Live life like a rockstar!
 
Be careful about how many credits you are taking in the end, because many schools have a "limit" program where they raise the tuition rate after so many credits (for my school after you hit 128 hours, you have to pay out of state tuition fees for the rest of your classes!)
 
I would say follow your heart. After school you have to do what you love- you're probaboly going to be doing it for the next 30-40 years (until retirement at least). And it's not good to go through life doing something you do not enjoy.

I just thought of it this way...originally, I was going to be in school for 8-9 years including vet school.  Now, I will probably be here 6, which isn't that bad if you compare it to 8-9!

I don't have any specific advice - I jumped right into management and haven't looked back - but really, no matter how many years it takes to figure out what you want to do, it's really no comparison to the amount of years you'll actually be doing it.

I dreamed of being a veterinarian a few years before I hit post-secondary, but thankfully my all-knowing father showed me the reality (he plainly said that someone like me - who loves animals so much - would not be suited to seeing many sick pets, much less have to put them down), and I realized it's not what I want to be doing either.

So I hope to get the skills I need to start up my own business. Perhaps it's my own way of procrastination, since I still don't know what I want to do for the rest of my life. But I'll figure it out sooner or later - and I'm sure you will too []

Sounds quite familiar to me.  I initially began college as a PR major.  Yes, until I took my first journalism course.  When the next semester began, I changed my major to journalism and never looked back.  I now work for a newspaper as a staff writer.  While I do have some regrets, I feel that it's better to be where I am now, as opposed to switching majors and being stuck in college for years on end.

Some of us do have to test the waters until we are comfortable with a chosen field.  That may take a year or three years.  Until solid confidence is is felt, it's best to not declare an official major (in my opinion).  Otherwise, you'll be going back and forth, wasting money, time, and your life. 

Welcome to my world![]

This is my 6th year and I am still so confused. I got up to around 120 credits towards a geology degree and just 2 classes before I would have graduated I took a semester off and changed my degree. I'm now going into Animal Science and can not get that degree at the college I went to for 5 years so I have to transfer and take anouther 2 years, at least, to get it all done. There are days I scream at myself for choosing to do this but when I look ahead I see that this is what I really want and love, if it takes anouther 6 years to get it done then it's more than worth it. I'm now double majoring in geology and Animal Schience.

The best thing I ever did was take a semester off to stand back and see what I really wanted. Thats when I got a job as a vet tech and worked in a field I loved. I never thought I could be a vet but after working for a vet I realized that if thats what I truly set my mind to I can become a vet. I'm not saying this is what you should do, but it's always best to look at what you want from anouther angel. Try doing an intership over the summer or even try to find a job that is involved around what your major is. What you learn in class is a lot differnt than what you will run into in the working environment.

I don't know if things have changed now, but 30 years ago when I got my sociology degree, I graduated with the knowledge of how to do absoutely nothing.  Granted, I got married right after college to a military guy who didn't want me to work, and we moved around a lot, so I didn't look very hard.  But I still had no hands on experience.  I loved sociology, but...it's like English majors.

Social work actually required a master's degree in social work, so do some careful research on that.   

If I had it to do over again, I may have gone to a tech school and been trained to do something.          

And, when you get a Master's in Social Work, that gets you the equivalent of about $40k a year. [:'(]  Pretty sad for all that work. 
I earned more driving a truck LOL.
If you really like animal behavior, get a psychology or animal science degree.  Then, go to grad school.  When you have a Master's in that, you can do behavioral consultations for $80 an hour.

ORIGINAL: marty_ga

If I had it to do over again, I may have gone to a tech school and been trained to do something.

I went to a tech school for 5 years and discovered I am not ment to be an engeneer. Basicaly the amouth of math, cheimistry and phisics a person has to take at a tech college turns them into an engeneer no matter what degree they choose. So unless you are a math wiz and can handel crazy amouts of math, with Calc 2 being the minumum math requirement to graduate, then I would stay clear of a tech school. Then to add that every class you take you are compeating with super smart people that rase the curve so high that getting a C in the class is a good thing, you could get an 80% on a test and still fail. Most tech schools are like MIT and have higher standards for their students, it's not easy. Yes, the pay is great, starting around 60K a year without any grad school but if you want to sit in an office all day and calculate numbers then it may not be what your really want in life. Most of my friends who graduated got a job offer before they even got out of school just becaue they went to my college, now making between 50 to 80K starting pay.

i went to morehead state university in morehead, ky as a pediatric nursing major. my junior year i decided i wanted to persue my life long goal of being a teacher and switched majors. with taking 21 hours a semester i finished in a total of 5 years and now have a minor in french and science.

i am not persuing my master degree in k-12 school counseling....what fun.

I'm going to Purdue (which is of course known for it's engineering programs) and I've foudn the requirements pretty reasonable, though I did hate having to take two semesters of organic chem and calculus. [:'(]

On the ANSC thing: even if the classes are primarily livestock, often you can find neat classes in anthropology, psych, and, if there's a vet school associated to your school, some vet classes, among many others. Purdue is still very large animal focused (the behavior/well-being specialization has only been around for 5 years), but I've taken (or will be taking) classes in ethology (psych/bio), learning (psych), animal behavior (ansc), animal welfare (ansc), cognitive psych, companion animal mgmt (ansc), animals and society (vet pathology), animals and ethics (philosphy), and applied small animal behavior (vet path).

Other than the mgmt and sm. an. behavior classes, all have focused on wild or livestock species (or humans), but I have found the material universally applicable and managed to make all my written assignments apply to my interest area. [] Sometimes it just takes a bit more work to tailor your classes to your interests, but it's well worth it!

If you love sociology, do it.   But absolutely don't do it for the 'career options'.    I  did my undergraduate degree in women's studies, which I loved so much, but it's not exactly swinging open doors in the workplace.   I also started a PhD in sociology, but dropped out after realizing that I didn't want to be in academia and the degree would not really prepare me for anything else.   Then I have my MA in Cultural Studies - again, totally professionally useless unless I want to be in academia.   Well, sort of.   If I want to work for a women's non-profit, in media, publishing, etc. these degrees would definitely help me in some ways, but they would be entry-level positions and my specific research interests, publishing, work experience, etc. would be far more important than the degree itself.

Now I'm thinking of doing a MSW so I can one day get a real job    Sometimes I am so jealous of my husband who knew what he wanted to do since he was 15 and now has a dreamy job in TV broadcast engineering.    He has a skilled job, but his skills were all learned through practical training at volunteer positions and employment.   His degree (Radio & Televisions Arts/Media Studies) wouldn't have prepared him for designing high definition broadcasting systems.

As for switching majors - I started out going to art school (School of the Art Institute of Chicago), then dropped out after a semester, took a year off, decided to do women's studies, when to UC-Irvine, then decided to move to England and finished my degree there.    Don't worry too much about changing your mind - everything you learn is valuable and makes you a more well-rounded person.   It's *hard* to know what you want to do!

What is good about sociology is that it's a really wonderful foundation for many grad school programmes and you can apply what you've learned to many practical fields, it's just that on its own it doesn't really qualify you to do much career-wise.

ORIGINAL: spiritdogs

And, when you get a Master's in Social Work, that gets you the equivalent of about $40k a year. [:'(]  Pretty sad for all that work. 
I earned more driving a truck LOL.
If you really like animal behavior, get a psychology or animal science degree.  Then, go to grad school.  When you have a Master's in that, you can do behavioral consultations for $80 an hour.

Anne, is that what you have?  I was actually thinking of going to the community college near here for classes in Psychology as an Undergrad.  You aren't talking about what Patricia McConnell has though are you?  She is a Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist.  There are only 50 of them in the world!  Plus you need a Ph.D. for that too.  I can't see myself doing 8+ years of college.   
 
What about more short term schools like Animal Behavior College?  Is there an alternative to them for short term?