by Emma Melchiori
As a huge pack of new Huskies joins the Michigan Tech family this fall, I am finding myself reflecting on the beginning of my journey at Michigan Tech, and particularly, the uncertainty I felt surrounding my major. It did not take me long to realize that engineering was not for me, and I was worried that it was not a good thing to feel this way.
If any new Huskies are reading this, I am here to tell you: it is okay to not feel settled in the major that you chose when deciding to come to MTU. If you feel like you made the wrong decision, do not panic. There is more than enough time for you to switch your major and make any changes necessary to ensure that you will get the right education for what you WANT to do!
When applying to Michigan Tech, I applied into environmental engineering and shortly before classes started in the fall, I switched my major to engineering management because after finishing out my senior year of high school, I knew I wanted to do business as part of my career. After my first week of classes, I figured out that engineering was just not something that I was interested in. This is when I discovered the general business pathway within the School of Business and Economics. Although you cannot graduate with the major of general business, it has helped me to immerse myself in all sorts of different business classes to find out exactly which business path I want to travel down. It’s the perfect placeholder for a major if you know you want to end up in some field of business, but you aren’t sure exactly which one yet.
And remember, it is okay to be unsure!
Through general business, I have taken different business courses already and there are many more to come, of course, as I am a sophomore here now. So far, I have taken a liking to accounting, and am planning to declare my major in accounting soon. Other courses that I have enjoyed surround topics like economics and marketing. Some of these business courses can fill elective slots as well, so if you are simply curious as to what a business course might have to offer but do not want to declare a major in the School of Business and Economics just yet, why not take a business course and see what it is all about? It certainly can’t hurt! Maybe it could lead to a minor in business?
The thing that really sparked my excitement for accounting was the internship this past summer with an environmental engineering firm in my hometown of Marquette, Michigan. I was an accounting intern at a company called TriMedia Environmental and Engineering Services. It was a great learning experience for me, and I was able to do hands-on projects and tasks, which gave me a preview of what an entry-level job in accounting might look like. For these reasons, I urge anyone who wants real-world learning and a view into what a career in their field might look like to seek out an internship. For me, this experience sold me on accounting and helped me to envision what I want my future to look like.
If you are thinking of changing your major, my best advice to you would be to do the necessary exploring to find out what you love to do and chase that. I would rather be pursuing a major that I love than pursuing something that I will be kind of happy with. It might feel scary to abandon a major that you have declared for yourself, but from personal experience, I am much happier now that I have found accounting, and I believe you can find the perfect major for yourself, too!
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