Let's be honest. Not every kid who goes to college knows what he wants to do with the rest of his life. He's 17 years old and has just learned to drive. The last thing he knows is whether he wants to be an accountant or an astronaut. So what do kids do when they enter college for the first time and have to choose a major? Well, a good many of them remain undecided for as long as the college will allow them to do that. Most will allow this up until your third year.

So in the meantime, what does a kid take while he's in school? He hasn't declared any type of major so he doesn't know whether he should take music courses or computer science courses or anything for that matter? Doesn't he have to get moving on these things right away? After all, he's only got four years to get his degree and accumulate so many credits. Won't not declaring a major become a problem?

Well, fortunately, most majors only require you to take so many courses in that particular major. For example, if the average college requires you to take 16 credits per semester and each course is four credits, this means you're taking eight courses a year or 32 courses during your time in college. Out of those 32 courses you usually only have to take about eight in your particular field of study. So you could conceivably take those eight courses in your last two years if you have to.

But what does somebody take until they ultimately decide what they want to major in?

It is for just this reason that colleges run their academic programs the way they do. Many people wonder why you have to take all these other courses, like math, history, or whatever, when all they want to do is program computers. Well, the answer to that has to do with the fact that there are only so many courses in each major field and that many students don't know what they want to do when they first enter college. Those "extra" courses give these kids something to do to keep their minds active while they're deciding what they want to major in.

To answer the question on what they take, usually they will take the more common subjects like history, math, science, political science, psychology and religion. There are plenty more to choose from but you probably get the idea. Many of these subjects the school may not even give a bachelor degree in, though some like psychology, math and history usually do offer degrees. But with the wide assortment of "other" subjects to choose from, the undecided student can get a feel for college life and then hopefully come up with an idea of what he wants to do.

Too many students feel pressured to pick a major right away. They shouldn't. There is more than enough time to do that because of the way college programs are designed.

After all, you just learned how to drive. The rest will come in time.