How Can You Assist Your Student?
Our goal is to support your student in making a
well-informed choice about their major. We also want to assure you that
Exploration students graduate at the same rate as students who enter
Ohio State with a major selected; in fact, most of our students change
majors less often than students who come in with a plan declared.
Choosing a major is a process and can take students several semesters to
work through.
You can assist your student in this process by:
- Encouraging your student to meet with his/her advisor and make use of campus resources
- Allowing your student to explore new ideas, experiences and majors without judgment
- Listening to your student’s interests and thoughts about majors and careers
- Valuing your student’s skills, abilities and
interests and objectively considering strengths and weaknesses as they
relate to majors and careers
- Talking about your career path and connecting your student to acquaintances that will share their career paths
Your student may be feeling a great deal of stress and
uncertainty while they explore majors. Often one of the first questions
someone asks is ‘what is your major?’ Changing the focus to ‘what are
your skills and interests’ and ‘how is your process going’ can help
alleviate some of this stress and show your support.
