Undecided, open-minded

The very first response that I got was not from the admission officer but from some parents in the crowd. That response, interestingly enough, was laughter. Apparently the mere thought that anyone would consider wasting their time applying to college without a major firmly in mind or, even worse, that someone would actually spend up to two years in college without having success in one field planned out every step of the way was so stupid it was laughable. The representative assured me that students did not need to declare a major right away, but the damage was done.

That being said, a lot of people argue that it is better to start school undecided, but it was only recently that I started to believe that being among the undecided might actually be the way to go.

Most proponents of entering college undecided will mention that it allows you to have “an open mind” during your first couple years at college. You have the ability to sample a wide variety of different departments while seriously considering the pros and cons of each as a potential major, thus making a more informed decision. Undecided students are also more likely to be adventurous with their course selection, testing the waters of the big and small departments alike and taking courses in topics that they know next to nothing about. Being undecided during the beginning of college seems like the best way to satisfy the broadest of intellectual appetites.

And honestly, having an open mind is the best way to truly appreciate the liberal arts education that we are here to receive. By choosing to go to a school like Princeton instead of a trade school or a vocational school, we are signing off on the idea that having some “extraneous” knowledge is inherently a good thing even if we won’t necessarily be making money off it in the future. Princeton institutionalizes its devotion to the liberal arts through the distribution requirements that we must fulfill.

Herein lies another nice perk to being undecided at Princeton: You tend not to mind fulfilling the distribution requirements as much. Undecided people relish the opportunity to explore a number of different topics, and being forced to fulfill the distribution requirements validates that indecision. The current policy that mandates a broad array of classes makes it so that undecided students aren’t penalized for not specializing the second they arrive on campus.

On the other hand, many of the students that I have talked to who decided on their major long before coming to school have found the distribution requirements bothersome, citing the lack of pragmatism that goes along with taking courses that do not directly contribute to the major or certificates that they plan on pursuing. The liberal education mindset that the distribution requirements embody is likely to be all but lost on those who have closed their minds to anything but the one predetermined major that was decided on before even strolling through the FitzRandolph Gates. This makes sense; if you have a conclusive plan to specialize in math, what are the two literature and the arts requirements doing for you?

Yet the favorite classes of a number of decided people are completely unrelated to their major, and the only reason they took those classes in the first place was to fulfill distribution requirements. For example, I know people in PSY 254: Developmental Psychology that love the class but would never have dreamt of taking it if it didn’t have the letters “EC” next to it on the course catalogue. I know I’m just a freshman and haven’t had the opportunity to observe this, but it seems that decided people in this situation would rarely act on their newfound interest, too determined to continue following the blueprint. Students with a plan that is too firm may miss out on a major that they would have otherwise loved.

This whole discussion seems to boil down to what you see as the purpose of the first two years (one year for engineers) of college before deciding on a major. Should this period be primarily exploratory or preparatory? Is breadth of study more important, or is it depth? And — the biggest question — should this period be a time of finding your academic identity or strengthening the one that is already there?

It seems that to ascribe to an econ-or-bust mentality and cut yourself off from all other fields before even stepping foot on campus is to do yourself a serious disservice. College is invariably a time of growth and change, and to firmly decide on a major before arriving on campus is to deny that these first years will play a role in determining your academic identity. Princeton’s liberal art-minded academics have more than a diploma and a specific skill set to offer. You just have to be open to it.

Richard Daker is a freshman from Evergreen Park, Ill. He can be reached at rdaker@princeton.edu.