Hi, I’m Muskan and I am a second-year student. I recently switched my major to Criminology, I was in Bachelor of Sciences with an intended plan to major in Behavioural Neuroscience. I took all science courses in my first semester, and it was an absolute disaster. I was struggling and barely passed my courses, it was definitely a huge jump for me from high school. After that semester, I was not sure if I wanted to pursue that major anymore, so I decided to take some electives and figure out what I like. In my second semester, I took a couple of electives such as business, psychology, and health sciences. It was way better than my first semester, however, I still was not sure about what I wanted to major in. Then, I decided to take more electives in my third semester and I ended up taking a criminology class. I loved that, it was my favourite semester so far, I absolutely enjoyed my classes and my tutorials. From there I decided to take more criminology classes and I enjoyed every bit of it. It was quite surprising to me since I have always been a science kid so I never thought about majoring in criminology, and I was not the biggest fan of writing and reading before, but that changed after I took these classes.
From that point on, I started to do more research about the major, including talking to people who were in the program. After talking to those people and researching, I realized there is a wide array of options to choose from. A lot of people decide to go to law school, however, there are still other choices such as law enforcement, forensics, police officer, social worker, probation officer, corrections, paralegal, and many more. I like how this degree is versatile, and if I do not decide to study further, I would still have options to get a job with my bachelor's degree.
I decided to further expand my interests and get involved more with the community and join the CSA. I started volunteering with the Surrey Crime Prevention Society, joined the Wrongful Conviction Collective, Youth Helping Youth, and join the CSA as a media coordinator. These opportunities are making my undergrad experience much more enjoyable and I have loved working with them, and cannot wait to see what the future has in store.
The point here is that it is not always important to know right after high school what you are going to major in, it is important to take your time and think wisely about the choices you make. I took a year to decide what I major in, but there are people I know who took more than a year to choose a major. Some of them even switched mid-way from their degree, and are doing just fine now, in fact, that was one of the best decisions they made. And you don’t need to figure it out all throughout your undergrad years, do your research, make connections, and don’t be afraid to ask questions. One of the most helpful resources for me was academic advising, they walked me through the options and gave me examples of other people who majored in criminology and what they are doing now, so that made me feel a lot more confident. At the end of the day, whatever major you end up doing, there are always going to be options for you, as long as you enjoy doing it.