Last year at Mercer, Brady Moore was taking classes in Health, Anatomy, and Biology, which he says he enjoyed. After the conclusion of the 2018-2019 school year, Moore transferred to Kean University.
“I am taking mostly sophomore-level classes for Exercise Science, so I’m about a year behind schedule.’’ Moore says, adding, “I am 22 and only have 48 credits for my new major.”
Moore’s college career started back in 2016 at Jacksonville University where he was majoring in Liberal Arts. After the first semester he stopped attending.
“I wanted to take the best course for me and didn’t want to waste money going down an unknown path,’’ Moore explains.
Then, feeling ready to try again, in 2017 Moore enrolled at Union County College. He describes his mindset at the time saying, “After missing a whole semester I felt I had enough time to think. I thought I had college and life figured out, so I started taking psychology classes.”
The 2017-2018 college year went smoothly for Moore. However, at the end of his sophomore year, Moore decided he wanted to change direction again.
“I liked Psychology, but I lost interest in it by the end of the year.” Moore says.
Last year, Moore transferred to MCCC. His Union County College credits transferred, but then he began another new major.
“I always had an interest in athletes and sports, so I decided to enroll in Exercise Science courses, but most of my second semester credits at Union were wasted,” he says.
Moore’s experience is unusual but changing majors in college is common. In an anonymous survey of 40 Mercer students, conducted by The VOICE, 68% said they either already have changed their major at least once or they are seriously considering it.
Of the students surveyed who said they have already changed their major at least once, the majority, 64%, said it is somewhat likely that their decision to change majors will cause them to graduate later than originally planned.
Evan Janiec, a sophomore at Mercer, changed his major at the beginning of this year. He started as a Computer Engineering major and is now in Liberal Arts but is thinking about another change into “either Education or another science.” He says he is aware the changes will slow his overall time to graduation.
Another student facing the same situation is Mercer sophomore, Jordan Dickerson. He switched majors from Liberal Arts to Television Broadcasting and says “I will have to take at least a fifth year of school to get my bachelor’s degree because I mostly took science classes second semester.”
Dylan Ritchkoff, has transferred colleges three times on his way to Mercer and has changed his major as he went along.
“Because I switched schools and majors, I only have 13 valid credits to my major now,” Ritchkoff says, adding, “the cost is becoming close to overwhelming,” and that he is “having to take almost two semesters worth of classes in one.”
For Ritchkoff and others like him, the costs can be high, but overall, for students still finding their way and aren’t sure what they want to focus on, community colleges offer many options for a much lower price point than other types of colleges.
A student who resides in Mercer County taking a typical 15 credit semester at MCCC can expect to pay $2,737 this semester. At Rutgers the same student would be paying almost $5,000 more, assuming they were living at home and commuting.
Princeton now accepts applications for transfer students from community colleges. For those who could get in, assuming they lived off-campus, they could expect to pay $25,935 per semester (not including campus housing, food, or books) if they didn’t get any financial aid.
Associates degree programs in New Jersey require 60 credits to complete with some of the classes–like English 101 and 102–being General Education classes required for all majors. Ritchkoff likely has some of these classes already fulfilled from his other work, but of classes specific to his major he may have as many as 20-30 credits left to complete.
Advisors and success coaches often recommend students who have broad interests take a variety of courses to start out with but pick ones that also fit into the General Education areas so the credits will most likely count toward their degree even if they change majors.
Emanuel Medina, an academic advisor at Mercer, says, “The advising department has multiple students changing their majors every week.”
Reflecting on his own experience, Randy Moore says, “I wish I had been more thoughtful of the future when making my decisions, but I’m glad I went to community college for two years to figure it out.”
