How I Picked My Major at Hopkins

There are three types of freshmen who enter Hopkins.

First: the one who knows exactly what they want do with their life and is driven from the beginning toward that goal. This person knows what they want to major in, knows what career it’ll lead them to and will probably be seen in 10 years doing exactly that. If that’s you, I’m happy for you and only a little jealous that you’ve already figured it out.

But even though you have this specific goal in mind, don’t let that stop you from exploring. Maybe you’ll pick up a second major or a minor. Maybe you’ll go abroad and study Italian for a semester.

All I’m saying is, keep yourself open to opportunities, because even though you know what you want to study, you never know when something might come along and change the way you see the world.

Second: the one who comes in thinking they know what they want to major in but has a different answer every time you ask until they finally figure it out. Twenty years later, they’re the ones who’ll be telling their kids with utmost pride, “Back in my day, I changed my major five times.” If that’s you, I admire you for having the guts to admit that you were wrong and to try your hardest to find the right path. Eventually, know that you will, just because you care enough to keep searching. Sometimes, you just need to figure out what you don’t want to major in to decide what you do.

Third: the undecided. Ask them their major and they’ll either tilt their head downward and mumble “I’m undecided,” or they’ll defiantly proclaim “I have no idea.” They’re the ones who are going to be all over the place, trying all kinds of different classes until they find that one thing they want to major in. And then they’ll realize they picked up a bunch of minors or additional majors on the way without even knowing it.

If this is you, be the defiant kind. Don’t let your indecision stress you out. There is absolutely nothing wrong with not knowing what you want to do. Once you decide, you’ll know you made the right choice, because you tried everything you thought could remotely interest you before you finally filled out that major declaration form.

Coming in freshman year, I fell in the third category: utterly and completely undecided. Making small talk and introducing myself to people on move-in day, I was the only one who didn’t have a clear answer to the dreaded “what’s your major” question.

Orientation can be incredibly overwhelming, especially when you see those thousands of people pouring onto Homewood Field during kickoff. Sitting there in those bleachers, I felt like I was the only one out there who didn’t have a clue. Everyone seemed so sure of themselves. They had these plans of what to do with their lives, they had goals for the future. And there I was, confused, wondering why I even got in.

Through orientation I discovered departments and majors I didn’t even know existed. Everything seemed so new and interesting to me, but with each new and exciting find, I felt increasingly lost.

You’d think this would end with an epiphany of some sort, but it doesn’t. Orientation ended. Classes started. I was still the same amount of confused, so I just pushed the question out of my mind. I just assumed eventually it would come to me, and that was one of the best decisions of my freshman year.

When I stopped obsessing over what I might major in, I just focused on my classes. My physics class was amazing, the professor was exactly what you might imagine an eccentric physics professor to be. When my grades slipped, he called me into his office not to yell at me like I thought he would but to ask me how I was adjusting to life and academics in a different country and to let me know he was there if I needed anything.

Above everything else, there was the collaboration. Coming from a very competitive high school, that wasn’t something I was used to, but from the first day onwards, my study group started turning into my friends. And as the homework got harder, the group just kept growing. People I barely knew stayed up till 2 a.m. helping me with one problem. The group chat went from discussing homework to cracking the stupidest jokes.

Yes, I loved the subject, but I had also fallen in love with the community.

At that point, my major really just picked itself.

I was satisfied by the end of my freshman year that I had used my first semester and intersession to explore the areas I was even slightly curious about. I picked the English minor because I knew there was no way I’d survive without a humanity in my schedule, and that humanities-STEM balance had been important to me since high school. Computer science was something I’d always wanted to try. In the ninth grade, I was told girls couldn’t do it. So I dropped out, because I was afraid. I tried it my freshman year, and just like that it became another minor. At some point, a math minor found its way in there too.

There we have it. Decisions made. College plan created. After that, I still have no idea what I want to do. Maybe the answer will present itself someday, maybe it won’t. But no matter what, I’ll be fine, because I know that what I’m doing at this moment makes me happy, and that’s really all I can ask for.