The United States college/university system is such an interesting place for a 17-year-old, don’t you think? I mean, back in 2022, I loved playing Pokémon and Robloxwith Minecraft YouTubers’ videos playing in the background. But, according to the shiny college acceptance letter that landed in my inbox as I was in the middle of my fourth loss against the boss Giratina, I was also, apparently, the proprietor of a half-a-million-dollar investment that would dictate the trajectory of the rest of my life. After I rage quit from losing for a fifth time, I entered my college portal and elected to study Computer Science and Cognitive Psychology. At 17 years old, I had 3 reasons why I chose this major:
- I went on my college’s website and checked which Computer Science combined majors had the prettiest name.
- One of my favorite YouTubers studied psychology, and so did my sister. They both loved it, so surely, I’d love it too!
- I wanted a challenge that wasn’t Economics, so to supplement a major in a field of study I’m comfortable with, I chose a major that I had absolutely zero experience in.
I am very lucky that I ended up loving the field of study I basically picked on a whim. But, I have also met peers and students who intentionally chose a major to start off with and switched their major to find a better fit. Anything can happen throughout your time at college, so to make the process of finding the right major for you easier, I’d listen to 22-year-old me and follow this 5-point thesis:
Pay attention to how you feel during your first semester
To this day, I remember how I felt after my second Intro to Psychology test back in freshman year. That 8 am course had 5 tests, each worth 20% of my overall grade. I diligently took notes, took practice tests, the whole nine yards. So, when I looked at the big “77” on my laptop, I wondered if I made a mistake choosing a challenge that felt too difficult to overcome.
When you start taking the introductory classes related to your major, whether they are placed in your freshman fall curriculum or not, do not disregard how you feel when you are taking the course. Do you like what you’re learning? Are you retaining information that might be useful in future related courses? Do you see how the concepts you’re learning relate to your plan of study? Or, even more importantly, do you see how
they relate to what you’re interested in? These are the kinds of questions you need to ask yourself as you start the major you initially pick.
Determine whether to throw in or fold the towel
I was determined to ace that third exam. In fact, I even made a study buddy who taught me some tactics, like mind mapping, to remember the correlations between certain terms and their definitions. We spent hours studying together, so when I walked into my classroom the next day, bright and early at 8 am, I was ready!
Let’s play a game: I want you to guess what grade I got on this next exam.
I’ll give you a hint: it rhymes with “76”.
I still remember closing my laptop slowly and walking to the local park. I looked for the path through campus that not as many students walked through, so I could cry in peace without bumping into any of my friends. When I called my dad, mid-breakdown, to tell him that I’m not “college-ing” correctly, he told me that one difficult semester wasn’t enough of a reason to abandon a field I enjoyed.
If you’re currently on the fence about your current major because you genuinely like the course content, but you might be struggling a bit academically, that isn’t an immediate indicator to throw in the towel. Maybe it’s better if you fold it instead. If my attempt at sounding like a modern-day philosopher didn’t work, what I’m trying to say is that maybe it might be better to adjust your approach to studying the course content than to withdraw from the course altogether. Yes, I did worse on the third exam (and, though I hate to admit it, even worse on the fourth), I had so much fun learning new studying strategies from my buddy, and I found ways to apply the concepts I was learning into everyday life. It took a pep talk with my dad to realize there’s a difference between “this is hard” and “I can’t stand this”. As long as the course isn’t frustrating enough to feel the latter, it’s worth giving the towel a new fold.
Learn from those who learned
Okay, I guess I was going to stick with Psychology, even though my GPA tanked from the get-go. I was curious to know more about the concepts I had learned…but I also wanted my GPA to be high enough so I wouldn’t lose my scholarships. Which classes could I take, and with which professors, so I could enjoy what I’m learning and perform well academically?
If you only take away one thing from this, let it be this: never underestimate the power of underclassmen. They had the opportunity to experiment with their college experience, so that you could learn what worked best for them and what they would probably never do again. This kind of information is golden for your path. There’s no easier way of knowing what future classes will be like than asking the students who have been in your shoes and have made it through your plan of study. College advisors can be helpful, but if you can find upperclassmen who give you the outright facts of how your classes will be like in the future, you’re made.
Celebrate your wins
Eventually, things started clicking! I loved Cognition. Statistics finally had logical aspects of Psychology I could understand. And, over time, I found out there were classes related to understanding how aspects of technology use psychology to entice end users to interact with their software more often (shoutout to the Psychology behind Human-Computer Interaction!!). I started to find an interest in psychology, and somehow, even my grades reflected the effort I put into loving this challenge. I’ll never forget when I got an email saying I got inducted into the honor society for psychology at my school. Yet again, I found myself at the park, calling my dad, but this time I was crying tears of joy.
Most of this write-up has focused on the turning points in your college career, but I’ve barely talked about what to do if you’ve made a lot of progress in your major already. If you’re currently writing that pros and cons list, it’s easy to pile up the cons based on personal anecdotes. But I urge you to put in a lot of effort into that pros section. Think of the times you enjoyed the most. Those papers you wrote that you still think about sometimes, that study group that helped you develop an interest in frequenting coffee shops, and that professor who saw so much potential in you that they invited you to work in their lab are data points! They’re proof that there’s a time you really enjoyed the work you were doing. If you can see yourself having more of those moments in future classes, don’t overlook them just because they’re surrounded by difficult classes, bad grades, or assignments that make you question every life decision you’ve ever made. The little wins can be the evidence you need to keep going.
Look beyond the major
Right now, I’m staring at my degree, the one that has the major I picked written in fancy letters because it looked pretty, in the school I picked because it, and I quote, “had less red brick buildings” than a school further down south, riddled with blue jays. Though I am a futurist, I would never have envisioned the life I’m living right now (remember, by now, I thought I’d cave into studying Econ). During my freshman year, I
struggled to imagine what I could do with my degree after college. Programs like Rewriting the Code empowered me to pursue a career in Software Engineering, but without them, I still would be as lost as I was at 17.
Although I despise thinking of college as a business, it kind of is (remember that half-a-million-dollar investment?). You have to realize that the kind of business you’re dealing with is your own personal growth. Yes, there are parts of college that are meant to be fun. But, at the end of the day, you need to align your focus with the overall end goal: what am I going to do with this degree after college?
I’m not saying to silo yourself into “traditional” roles related to your degree (I have a friend who moved to Japan this past summer to be a farmer. Would you believe me if I told you she graduated with a degree in Computer Science?). I just don’t want you to get to the summer before your senior year and only start to plan your future goals then, if you have a little bit of extra time now to start that planning process. Especially if you’re
much younger, you have a lot of time to solidify your goals, so start small. What would you want to try out in the form of an internship that seems interesting? It can be in any field, not just related to your current major, but you would have to put in the work to start applying for those kinds of roles. You’d be ahead of the game though if you start with that initial step of asking yourself, “Self, what do I want to do for the rest of my life?”
What I’m trying to say here is that your college experience might be the most straightforward experience ever; it might have more twists and turns than you can anticipate, or anything in between. Regardless of how you go through this journey, please keep this thesis in mind. Make sure to make the most of this investment in the best way you can, because future you will thank you for all the work you put into making their life possible.
Paula Sefia
Paula Sefia is a TechStart Associate at Liberty Mutual Insurance. In April 2026, she graduated Summa Cum Laude in Computer Science and Cognitive Psychology from Northeastern University. She has been a member of Rewriting the Code since her freshman year of college, and she loves to provide mentorship and guidance to students who wish to pursue an interest or career in tech.