Undecided Students: Their Stories

Crystal Navoyosky
A University Honors student, freshman Crystal Navoyosky, 19, says she doesn't feel any pressure to make a decision quickly. Like many students starting out, since fall term 2002, she has been investigating her options for a major by taking different courses. Before she arrived at UC, she wanted to major in fashion design but missed the deadline for applications. Since September, the undeclared student from Youngstown, Ohio, has sampled courses in archaeology, art history, anthropology and Latin. Because she likes her anthropology course so much, she now thinks she will choose that as her major.  She admits she may change her mind, however.
"A couple of my friends just picked a random major on the application when they applied," she says.

Kristy Nottingham
Freshman Kristy Nottingham, also a University Honors student, selected Spanish as her major, but is now reconsidering. The Winton Woods High School grad thinks maybe she'll switch to political science or history. "It would be interesting to see where the center would take me," says the 18-year-old. "I don't really want to keep re-declaring a major. I'd like to have a major by the end of the year so I can get deeper into what I want to do."

Beth Fisher
One student who says she'll benefit from the center's job shadowing services is Beth Fisher, a 21-year-old fourth-year student who has changed majors five times and remains uncertain about what her major should be. Currently coded as an English major, she started in 1999 in industrial design. After that, she switched to communication, then art history, then anthropology. She is now considering French, but really isn't sure. The Mother of Mercy High School grad wishes UC had opened a Center for Exploratory Studies in her first year. "I think I really would have taken advantage of it earlier."
 Fisher admits that the decision is difficult and somewhat stressful. "I feel tremendous pressure. I should be graduating in June. But even though I have somewhere around 120 credit hours, I am still really far from being where I want to be."