On a weeknight in late fall, the kind of night when everyone is half hungry and half tired, the question arrives anyway. It comes between the clink of forks and the phone that keeps buzzing in someone's pocket: So, what are you going to major in?

Some teenagers answer with the confidence of a brand new label maker. Computer science. Nursing. Business. Others offer a shrug that looks like indifference but often hides something more tender: the fear of getting it wrong, the awareness that college is expensive, the sense that the world keeps changing faster than their own self knowledge can keep up.

Parents are not wrong to ask. The major can shape a student's first jobs, their earning power, and, at certain universities, even their odds of getting in. At the same time, the pressure to decide early can make a normal developmental stage feel like a high stakes wager. The result is a familiar household tension: a child who wants room to explore, and a parent who wants to protect them from the consequences of drifting.

This is not a piece that will tell you which major your child should pick. It is a piece about how to think, and how to talk, when your student is undecided in a moment when college admissions is quietly becoming more major specific and the labor market is being remixed by artificial intelligence.

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The first thing to know is that being undecided is common, and the statistics you see depend on what, exactly, people are counting. Many colleges report that a substantial share of incoming students arrive undeclared, with estimates often landing somewhere between one in five and one in two. But what counts as undecided varies: some students truly have no idea, others have several ideas, and many have a direction but do not want to lock it in on day one.

What is clearer, because the federal government has tracked it, is that changing direction is normal. A National Center for Education Statistics analysis found that within three years of first enrolling, about 30 percent of undergraduates who had declared a major had changed it at least once.

Other researchers and foundations use broader definitions and longer time horizons, and they often find higher churn. A Lumina Foundation report summarized a range of estimates and suggested that the first major is "rarely final," with some studies placing switching in the 75 to 85 percent range over a full college career. Both things can be true at once: many students stick with their initial major, many others shift, and the rate depends on whether you count only declared majors, how many years you follow students, and whether you include changes between closely related fields.

There is also a psychological reason the question lands so hard. Jeffrey Jensen Arnett, a developmental psychologist who popularized the term "emerging adulthood" for the late teens through the twenties, has described this period as one with "more time to figure out who they really want to be and what direction they want to go in." In other words: uncertainty is not always a problem to solve. Sometimes it is part of growing up.

Still, families can be forgiven for feeling like the stakes are climbing. When tuition bills arrive, the innocent sounding phrase "just explore" can start to feel like code for "take extra semesters." And in certain majors, the course sequences are less forgiving: you can sample anthropology, economics, and political science without much penalty, but you cannot casually wander in and out of engineering without running into prerequisites.

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When Admissions Becomes Major-Specific

Here is where the conversation has changed in recent years, and why some parents feel blindsided. At many selective universities, intended major is no longer just a preference, it is part of the admissions machinery. Applicants are evaluated for fit to major, a phrase that sounds benign until you look at the numbers.

UCLA makes the point with unusual transparency. Its first year admissions profile is published by major, and for the Fall 2023 cycle, computer science had an admit rate of 3.1 percent. That is not the overall UCLA admit rate; it is the admit rate inside that major. The same profile shows that even within engineering, selectivity varies, and that an "undeclared" track within the engineering school can still be highly selective.

At The University of Texas at Austin, the McCombs School of Business posts an equally bracing number. Its admissions page lists a 9 percent acceptance rate for the BBA program in the 2025 admissions statistics.

Georgia Tech offers a different kind of clue. In a March 2025 release about the Fall 2025 first year class, the institute reported that the admit rate was 30 percent for Georgia residents and 9 percent for nonresidents. Its published admitted profile for the same cycle shows that computing is among the most common intended areas of study for admitted students. When overall odds are that tight for many applicants, high demand majors function like pressure points in the process, even if the university does not publish admit rates by major.

What this means for an undecided applicant depends on the institution. Some universities allow students to enter undeclared within an arts and sciences home and then declare later. Others admit directly into highly structured schools or programs, and those programs have limited seats. In those places, applying undecided can accidentally read as not ready, especially if the school is trying to predict which students will thrive in a demanding sequence.

There is another subtle shift parents often miss. In a world where many applicants look broadly strong, selective programs sometimes use evidence of sustained interest as a sorting mechanism. That evidence can be coursework, a long running extracurricular, a personal project, or a summer job. It does not have to look like a startup, but it does have to look like a pattern. Fit to major, in practice, often means: does this student's story align with the program they say they want.

This is where families can get tangled. A student who is genuinely exploring may feel pressure to perform certainty, and a student who is genuinely committed may feel pressure to sound like a miniature professional. Neither is a great recipe for joy. Parents can help by reframing what admissions is asking for. It is not asking for a lifetime commitment at 17. It is asking for a coherent next step.

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Universities Supporting Undecided Students

If that sounds like a trap, it helps to remember that universities themselves have been rebuilding the on ramp for students who are still deciding. A growing number have formal exploratory or discover programs designed to make the first year feel less like wandering and more like structured curiosity.

Duquesne University launched Duquesne Discover as a home base for students who are undecided or undeclared. In describing the program, the university emphasizes meeting students where they are and helping them explore interests while staying on track with core requirements.

The University of Toledo's QUEST program takes a similarly explicit approach. Its description notes that students can take up to three semesters to choose a major, with access to specialized success coaches and advisers, while completing core classes that apply toward graduation.

These programs reflect a broader movement in higher education toward guided pathways, an attempt to solve a very practical problem: students who explore randomly are more likely to take excess credits and less likely to finish on time. Researchers at the Community College Research Center at Teachers College, Columbia University have described guided pathways as a model that provides clearer program maps, earlier advising, and structured exploration rather than leaving undecided students entirely on their own.

Some colleges do this through meta majors, broad groupings like business, health, or STEM that let students begin in a neighborhood without picking the exact house on day one. The point is not to eliminate exploration. The point is to make exploration count.

Parents can listen for a few signals when evaluating whether a college supports undecided students well. Does the school have a dedicated advising home for exploratory students? Do advisers help students understand how switching affects time to degree in sequenced majors? Are there first year courses that connect coursework to possible jobs? And perhaps most importantly, does the institution treat undecided students as normal, or as a problem to be fixed.

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The Labor Market Reality

Once parents see how major specific admissions can be, it is tempting to treat the major as the single most important decision, as if the right major is a golden key. But the labor market is messier than that. Some majors lead to higher starting salaries, and the patterns are persistent. The National Association of Colleges and Employers reported that for the Class of 2025, engineering and computer sciences were among the top projected starting salary categories.

Longer term earnings also vary by field of study. Georgetown University's Center on Education and the Workforce, in its 2025 report "The Major Payoff," found that workers with bachelor's degrees in fields like computers, statistics, and mathematics and architecture and engineering tend to have higher median earnings than those in arts and humanities, though there is wide variation even within STEM.

It is easy to stop there and conclude that the safest parenting move is to steer every teenager toward a high paying major. The trouble is that motivation and aptitude are not side notes, they are the engine. Students who choose a demanding major for status or salary but lack interest can burn out, limp through, or abandon the path later. Students who choose a lower paying major but find a genuine fit can build remarkable careers because they stay with the work long enough to become good at it.

This is where many parents land on an unglamorous but useful insight: for most students, the major should not be the primary driver of the college decision. There are exceptions. If your child is set on nursing, engineering, accounting, or another field tied to licensure and sequenced training, the program matters enormously. But for a large share of students, what matters more is whether the college will help them develop strong skills, connect learning to experience, and graduate without crushing debt.

Employers, for their part, often sound less major obsessed than parents fear. In NACE's Job Outlook 2025 findings, nearly 90 percent of employers said they look for evidence of problem solving ability on resumes, and nearly 80 percent look for teamwork. Written communication, initiative, work ethic, and technical skills were also widely valued. Those are not the skills of a single department. They are portable.

This is one reason career connected degrees have become a quiet priority. A career connected degree is less about a magic major name and more about what gets baked into the experience: internships, cooperative education, project based courses, research, mentoring, and a clear bridge between classroom and workplace. Families can often spot the difference in the way a college talks about learning. Does it treat career services as an optional add on, or as a stitched in part of the curriculum?

When parents worry that an undecided student is wasting time, it can help to ask a different question: is your student undecided about a subject, or undecided about a life? Those are not the same. A student can be undecided about a major but very ready to learn, work, and build skills. The goal is not to force certainty. The goal is to reduce the penalty for exploration.

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The AI Factor

Now add one more variable that is reshaping the entire conversation: artificial intelligence. Parents see headlines about bots writing essays and coding assistants doing junior work, and they wonder whether any major is safe. Students see the same headlines and wonder whether their future will require constant reinvention.

The World Economic Forum's "Future of Jobs Report 2025," based on surveys of more than 1,000 large employers, describes a labor market being reshaped by technological development, the green transition, and demographic shifts across the 2025 to 2030 timeframe. The report emphasizes that employers expect significant reskilling and that analytical thinking and technological literacy remain central capabilities.

The OECD has tracked similar dynamics. In a 2025 report on generative AI and the workforce, it describes companies using these tools to compensate for skill gaps, while also highlighting the need for training so workers can use AI effectively.

Two things can be true at once. Technical majors can offer strong pay and clear pathways. They can also experience volatility, especially at the entry level, as industries adjust. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York's tracking of the labor market for recent college graduates reported that in 2025, unemployment for recent grads remained elevated and underemployment rose to 41.8 percent, its highest level since 2020.

In this environment, the degrees that age well may be the ones that combine durable foundations with flexible application. Computer science is not just a set of tools, it is a way of thinking. Economics is not just a field, it is a framework for decisions. Psychology is not just a major, it is a lens on human behavior. Students who learn to pair a discipline with real world practice, and who learn to work alongside AI rather than pretend it does not exist, are building career resilience that does not depend on predicting the next hot job title.

For parents, this is where the conversation can become unexpectedly hopeful. If the job market will keep changing, then the parenting task is less about picking the perfect major and more about helping a young person become the kind of learner who can adapt. That includes curiosity, the ability to write and speak clearly, comfort with data, and the habit of doing real projects that leave a trail of evidence. Those traits can be developed in many majors, at many kinds of colleges.

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What a Wise Parent Does

So what does a wise parent do at the dinner table, when the question returns? You can start by naming the truth your teenager already suspects: this is genuinely hard. Then you can take the pressure down a notch by separating two decisions that often get tangled. One is the admissions story your child will tell for the next step. The other is the lifelong identity story they will discover more slowly.

If your student is applying to major specific programs, it may be pragmatic to choose a direction that is real enough to be supported by coursework and activities. That is not selling out. It is translating who they are right now into the language an admissions office can understand. If your student is applying to schools that support exploratory entry, it may be equally pragmatic to choose a college because of its advising, its pathways, its cost, and its capacity to help a teenager grow into an adult.

For a student who is undecided, the best outcome is not a sudden epiphany. It is momentum with guardrails. It is taking courses that count. It is meeting advisers who know how to keep doors open. It is doing internships or campus jobs that turn vague interests into lived experience. And it is learning, slowly, what kinds of problems make them feel awake.

In the end, the major is not a verdict. It is a first draft. Good parents do not demand a final copy on the first try.

Sources

  • Bailey, Thomas R., Shanna Smith Jaggars, and Davis Jenkins. "What We Know About Guided Pathways." Community College Research Center, Teachers College, Columbia University, 2015.
  • Duquesne University. "New Discover Program for Undecided Students." Duquesne University News, 2023.
  • Duquesne University Admissions. "Duquesne Discover." Duquesne University, 2025.
  • Federal Reserve Bank of New York. "The Labor Market for Recent College Graduates." 2025.
  • Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. "The Major Payoff: Evaluating Earnings and Employment Outcomes by Field of Study." 2025.
  • Lumina Foundation. "How Late Is Too Late?" 2013.
  • Mary Christie Institute. "Questions and Answers with Dr. Jeffrey Jensen Arnett." 2021.
  • McCombs School of Business, The University of Texas at Austin. "BBA: Admissions and Cost." 2025.
  • National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). "What Are Employers Looking for When Reviewing College Students' Resumes." 2024.
  • National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). "Engineering, Computer Sciences Top Salary Projections for the Class of 2025 Bachelor's Grads." 2025.
  • National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). "Beginning College Students Who Change Their Majors Within 3 Years of Enrollment." 2017.
  • OECD. "Generative AI and the SME Workforce." 2025.
  • UCLA Undergraduate Admission. "First Year Profile by Major, Fall 2023." 2023.
  • University of Toledo. "Exploratory Studies: QUEST Program." 2025.
  • World Economic Forum. "The Future of Jobs Report 2025." 2025.