So you're an Exploring Major... Now what?

Finally! After all those years of studying in high school you applied to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and got accepted! Yay! You are excited that you have made it this far and can’t wait to see what the future holds for you. But wait...what if you’re not sure what you want to major in? Suddenly you get this feeling of confusion and start thinking, “Why am I going to college when I don’t even know what I want to do for the rest of my life?” Trust me, I know the feeling. However there is one option available for you if you are confused like I was: Exploring Major!

Exploring Major is a “major” offered by the Academic Success Center that basically allows you to, well, what the title says, explore majors. So when you apply to UNLV as an Exploring Major, you do not specifically fall under a specific “college”. You attend the ASC for advising and their advisors (who are lovely people by the way) will help you to guide your path until you ultimately decide which major is right for you.

So you may be wondering, how does it work? Well, basically when you apply to be an exploring major, you consult with one of their advisors and they help you plan out your semester based on the majors that might interest you. Obviously, your first year you are going to have to take your General Education classes, such as ENG 101, MATH 124, etc. Among those you will be taking your first year seminar class, which is the COLA 100E for Exploring Majors. This in an interesting class that we will talk about later on ;)

When you meet with your advisor, they will ask about what sort of majors interest you, whether it’s something in Fine Arts, Science, Urban Affairs, etc. This is the opportunity that you will have to explore those classes that might interest you within those majors, and will ultimately help you decide which one you’re going to declare. However, you can’t be an exploring major your entire academic career, so the recommendation is to decide by your sophomore year of college.

Earlier I mentioned the first year seminar COLA 100E. This course is extremely useful because you are to meet with representatives of each college and they deliver some useful information about them. Additionally, in this course you are able to use the Focus2 assessment, which is a series of questionnaires that determine which career matches you depending on your skills, passions, personality, etc.

Also you may be wondering, what is the benefit of being an exploring major? Well for starters, since it is a smaller college that does not have a lot of students, it is much easier to schedule appointments with your advisors, and you do not have to necessarily wait a month or so to be able to meet with them. Additionally, there are scholarships available just for exploring majors, such as the ASC Dean’s Award Scholarship!

Overall, if you feel overwhelmed by deciding which major to choose, just know that there’s that one amazing option available for you! The ASC will welcome you with open arms and its advisors will help you along your journey until you ultimately decide which major is the best one for you!

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Alina Amat Perez Orientation Leader

Hometown: Havana, Cuba

Favorite Thing to Do in Vegas: Trying new restaurants in Vegas

Major: Exploring Major