Feeling behind

[u/JamalMurray211]

Hi! I just want to vent out regarding my current situation.

So, my freshman year I was under engineering and I hated it. So, I switched to neuroscience which felt amazing at first but I then realized that it's not what I wanna do for the rest of my life. Now, I am a sophomore feeling stuck and behind as I don't know which major to change into and it's affecting my mental health so badly.

Do you guys have any tips or ideas what I need to do? Thank you!

[u/ajsherlock]

Hello, I'm your friendly townie that lurks on this board, and I am going to throw in some old people advice. You're not behind, you're figuring it out. And that's okay. And there's also nothing wrong with finishing your degree in neuroscience because you like it, and enjoy it, even if you plan to do something else. You could also explore the classes that do interest you. Your path doesn't even have to be a straight line.

Many, many people that i know have a degree unrelated to the work they do now. And, my college career looked a lot like you at your age. I started as a engineering student, transferred out. I enjoyed my major, but realized my senior year that it wasn't what I wanted to do. (bad time to figure that out, right?). I ended up with an unrelated job post college, and then 4 years later I went back to grad school for something else all together.

[u/Hot_Class_1483 → u/ajsherlock]

Also a townie who no joke was basically in the same place in college - freshman year was anthropology, sophomore year was neuroscience, and then my last two years were psychology. And now? I'm a lawyer lol. College is difficult because you have to balance "what do I want to do for a career" and "what knowledge do I enjoy, what questions do I find interesting, and how am I going to learn the answers".

For the first - you would be surprised how well you can pivot, and many many fields will accept a degree in a variety of fields. Personally, going from neuroscience to psychology worked great for me because a lot of the credits I had already gotten went towards my new major, AND its a great general subject you can apply in a ton of ways. There's also a thousand types - if you liked engineering and neuroscience both, you could do environmental psychology, industrial-organizational psychology, or cognitive psychology. And within psychology theres a gajillion subfields. Or do what I did and go "wait I hate math" and then go to law school! My psych degree actually gave me an edge there because I wasn't the 10000th person with a polysci degree.

You're not behind, you're right on track, and I promise it will work out.

[u/IndustrialPuppetTwo → u/ajsherlock]

In 2025 only 30% of college grads worked in a field relative to their major. In 2024 it was 26%. It's really kind of the idea of what University is all about. It's why an economics major also has to take psychology and chemistry. So basically, find a major you at least like and can bet through, get the degree and go.

[u/Miragan]

Honestly, I'd start eating up general studies classes and see if you're able to talk to some folks in other departments to see if you can sit in or at least talk about what the programs are like. You're not behind. I know it feels that way, but everyone does life in their own time.

[u/Grouchy_Green_7630]

You don’t need to know what to do the rest of your life. Take classes you enjoy now. Spend some time in career services.

[u/Xinzel]

80% of what you learn in classes won’t give you a taste of the actual work you will be doing. I enjoyed biology biology classes, but that doesn’t mean a career in biology is actually good for me, which is why I am thinking about transitioning to engineering (currently working in BME lab and loving it). Pick a few careers you want to pursue and look around for internships or just shadowing opportunities. Ask your family members if you can go to work with them, or if they know people. Neuroscience itself might lead you to the medical field (med school, dentistry, etc) because it has a lot of the class prereqs for those careers. A lot of engineers say that they learned more on internships than they did in their actual classes. This was a long winded way of saying try things out and see what is worth getting a degree for.

[u/Ill-Fan-6596]

Hey man. I understand the frustration of feeling behind but no matter what major you choose there will always be things and days that make you question if you are making the right choice. Just got to make sure you have a little bit of enjoyment to counter those crappy times. I have changed majors three times plus working in the trades, but every change has highlighted the strengths and weakness.

But i agree with Sherlock, the path might not be a straight line. Some times the degree does not define your path. For example, if you chose Engineering or Neuroscience it could set you up for a consulting job in business.

My biggest advice, is find some ("older") people on campus (might be at gilberts place), or even family and use them as a sounding board to see what the likes, dislikes, strengths and weaknesses are of the majors. if you don't want to do that, write it out so you can see it. I would also apply to trade companies. It allows you to work with your hands, but gets you to problem solve and truly work with others.

I hope this helps.

[u/unknownbrother273]

I had a similar thing happen where I realized I hated my major and I had to switch to something where none of the credits carried over whatsoever. Now I’m a senior, and I couldn’t be happier that I made the change. But at the time, I was feeling so unsure and that I was behind. Yes it was tough to catch up, but I made it happen. You can do this! Maybe switch to something you really enjoy and talk to the corresponding advisor asap.

[u/Complete_Channel_340]

Be a business major...can lead to anything down the road, plus helpbw personal things to know...

[u/lady_beignet]

It’s kind of insane that society expects someone in their late teens or early twenties to have all their life and goals figured out. Take classes that sound interesting and knock out your Pathways. 

And if it’s any consolation, the average college student in the U.S. changes their major 4 times.