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The Daily Wildcat

The Daily Wildcat

 

Freshmen meet their majors at UA fair

The annual Meet Your Major Fair will take place Wednesday in the Student Union Memorial Center’s Grand Ballroom. The fair will feature representatives from different majors and will allow students to learn more about various degree programs.

The fair is put on by Bess Ecelbarger, advising specialist for the Colleges of Letters, Art and Science. Ecelbarger contacted various major departments to see if they would participate in the fair, and then set up the layout of the event and the location of student ambassadors within the event.

“It’s a great opportunity for students to be able to gather information about a lot of different majors all at one time in one place,” Ecelbarger said. “So to have all the representatives available in the ballroom for a few hours so that they can speak with the representatives and find out more about those majors is a really great opportunity, as opposed to having to go meet with people individually all around campus.”

This opportunity is one that is especially geared toward those who are uncertain of their major, according to Ecelbarger.

“It could be an opportunity for students who do have a major declared but perhaps are thinking about changing that major,” Ecelbarger said. “They feel like they’re not in the right place but they’re not quite sure what they want to change it to, so those students could certainly use the fair as an opportunity to explore.”

Students with undeclared majors aren’t the only ones who could potentially benefit from attending the fair. Ecelbarger said that the fair could be helpful to those who want to explore options for a minor or a second major.

Morgan Soehl, an art history freshman, is attending the fair in order to learn more about potentially double-majoring in gender and women’s studies.

“I want to make sure I can handle both of them at the same time and make sure they are applicable in some way,” Soehl said. “I’m exploring more options, but that’s my number one [second major choice] right now.”

When it comes to who attends the fair, Ecelbarger said that students from Pima Community College who are thinking of transferring to the UA are invited to come and learn about different majors. But, according to Ecelbarger, the majority of students that come to the fair are UA underclassmen, though there are occasionally upperclassmen.

“Certainly the department representatives would be able to speak with students about the kinds of opportunities that are available for them in their respective majors, so they might talk to students about what kind of internships might be available, or the courses that they would be looking to take, or other kinds of opportunities that could be available to them,” Ecelbarger said.

Some students feel they do not need that extra step of visiting the fair in order to solidify their major choice. Tessa Patterson, a journalism junior , cited the helpful guidance of the counselors in her major’s department as one of the reasons she doesn’t feel the need to go to the fair.

“I probably won’t go, just because I’m really far along in my program,” Patterson said. “It’s such a specific field that I don’t really need to have it broadened for me.”

This broadening is done through an in-depth explanation of each major, in which the fair offers students a look at what lies ahead if they decide to declare that major.

“Being a freshman, I haven’t been exposed to all sorts of things yet, so I want to double check that I’m doing what I’m supposed to do,” Soehl said.


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