Many will agree college is what you make it with opportunities to join clubs, meet new people, change majors and study abroad. As spring 2018 graduation approaches for Kansas State seniors, many are finding the months of April and May as time to reflect on their experiences.
“I think I’ve already done everything in college that you’re supposed to do,” Argel Moncayo, senior in feed science, said.
Websites such as Fastweb or the Odyssey Online push the college experience as one filled with on- and off-campus involvement and hanging out with new people, which Moncayo said contributed to a positive college experience. It is not uncommon though to look back on one’s college experience wishing things had happened a little differently.
Bradley Denten, senior in kinesiology, waited a year after high school before coming to K-State, but said he believed he could have taken more time to figure out what he wanted to do. Two and a half years into his college career, Denten said he was not as confident in his choice, but didn’t want to quit, saying that it became just about getting a degree to him, even though he won’t necessarily use it after graduation.
“When kids are 18, you can’t be like ‘Oh, what do you want to do with the rest of your life?’ because I’m 24 and still don’t know what I want to do for the rest of my life,” Denten said.
According to Doug Lenderman’s Inside Higher Education article, nearly a third of all first-time college students change their major, and an estimated one in 10 will change majors twice.
“I would think about what you want to do in life instead of trying to please other people,” Lenderman said.
Morgh’An Wise-Malone, senior in geography, was one of those students who switched majors. Originally, as an architecture major, she said she did not feel she was doing what she really wanted to in college until she switched.
“I would think about what you want to do in life instead of trying to please other people,” Wise-Malone said.
College is about learning oneself, Wise-Malone said. It is about “getting out there” and figuring out what one wants to do.
Denten said he believes it is important to know what one wants to do before starting college, even if that means taking extra time to figure that out, because not knowing could mean wasting money on tuition.
“Don’t come unless you’re absolutely, 100 percent certain that the reason you’re here will change your life,” Denten said.
Moncayo said he may have done everything he was “supposed to do” in college, but ultimately, it came down to one thing.
“It’s great to be able to say … ‘I pulled through. I got this degree,'” Moncayo said.
