It’s Okay to Switch Majors!

Growing up all I heard was “Nina, just be a nurse, there’s always going to be a high demand for nurses and you can work anywhere with a good pay”. As a kid, the thought of being a nurse was so amazing to me, especially since my older sister was a nurse and I had always looked up to her. But, as I grew older, I started to realize more and more that as amazing it might be to nurse, that was just not what I wanted to do. I actually started to become irritated every time one of my family members would suggest going into nursing.

When college applications started to roll around, I decided that I still wanted to go into the healthcare field, just not as a nurse. I couldn’t really decide exactly what I wanted to major in. I ended up applying to pharmacy at some schools and bioengineering at other schools. I ended up getting into Northeastern through early decision, where I applied for bioengineering. So, I started my first year as a bioengineering major. I was really enticed by the idea of technology and the medical field coming together and I thought I would try to pursue a later career of creating medical devices, but I honestly never really saw myself enjoying that too much; especially because I didn’t like physics. Towards the end of my first semester, my overthinking and anxiety kicked after hearing how difficult some of the upper level bioengineering classes are. Usually I have more confidence in myself, but knowing that I wasn’t even really interested in bioengineering in the first place made me lose my confidence in feeling like I could succeed in those upper level classes and furthermore a career in that field. By the end of the first semester, I somehow thought that I would really enjoy working with some big tech company as a computer scientist or data scientist. Truthfully, I only thought I would enjoy this and be successful in it because I did really well on a coding exam for one of my engineering classes.

I started taking some of the required classes for computer science/data science at the start of my second semester. I went to my classes for the first day (syllabus day, easy), then went to the next day of classes. After my second day of classes, I cried, but attempted to do the homework. I was so lost already and I felt like my professors were just speaking another language. I had a breakdown in my advisor’s office and talked to her about what I should do, but ultimately, I knew it was 100% up to me. I ended up skipping all my classes on the third day of the semester to just take a day and figure out what I wanted to do and what I thought I could handle. This day was so helpful, I was able to really look at what options I had and to just relax and calmly take the time to think about things instead of impulsively making decisions.

I ended up switching back to engineering, but this time Industrial Engineering. Industrial Engineering is a field of engineering that is much more broad and I can work in pretty much any field. It’s basically engineering that involves making systems and processes more efficient. So, I could work at one of those big tech companies if I still wanted, or a government agency, or Disney World, or a hospital, or many other places. However, something that always stuck with me was my interest in the healthcare field. I watch Grey’s Anatomy every single day, so there’s really no way for me to not be so interested in it. I recently decided to minor in Healthcare Systems Operations where I will learn to improve the design, operations, and management of healthcare systems. I’m not exactly sure what my future career will be, but at least now I’m learning something I actually enjoy and feel confident in. I’ve always dreamed of being able to save lives like my sister and Meredith Grey, and now I’m en route to my dreams — just not on the path of a nurse or surgeon.

I decided to share all this because I used to think that changing majors (especially multiple times) was something that would just negatively impact me. I’m here to say that it really doesn’t! It’s not always easy to find something that you’re passionate enough about to major in and eventually find a career in. Even though I felt like I was just dragging myself behind every time I changed my mind about my major or had any types of doubts, I learned that all of that brought me to where I am today and showed me what I liked and didn’t like. So, it’s okay to switch majors and try to find something that you want to do and are confident about. It’s way better than staying in something that you don’t really enjoy, and on top of that find it very difficult.