Changing majors not difficult

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Students wishing to change their major should know they’re not alone.
CMU does not officially keep track of how many students change their majors, said Vicki Steele, coordinator of the Registrar’s Office, but students do occasionally change their majors – usually after they have signed one.
Steele said both processes of signing a major and changing one are not difficult.
Students wishing to sign their major must first contact the department of their major. Each department handles it differently, but they all follow the same general procedure, she said.
Students need to set up an appointment time to meet with a faculty adviser. They can choose their own adviser and while many do it alphabetically, others choose based on other criteria, Steele said.
Some students wish to have an adviser who is also a professor they have had and others choose based on whether or not the adviser is a professor. After choosing an adviser, students will sign a copy declaring their major, she said.
One copy will remain in the department’s office and another will go to Academic Services, where it will go in the student’s academic folder.
To change a major, students must go through the same process. When signing a new major, there is a section to check on the form to have an old major replaced, Steele said.
Some majors do not have the box, and in this case, students must meet with someone from the pre-graduation audit office, in Undergraduate Academic Services, to officially change their major, she said.
If this is not done, CMU is not aware the change until graduation. There are no records in Academic Advising Services unless students directly take them there, which could cause confusion at graduation and make problems for granting a degree.
Steele said she is unsure of how many students change their major, but most who do tend to change it once.
There is a new rule in effect this year for incoming freshmen, she said. They must sign their major before completing 56 credit hours; if this is not done, the enrollment process will stop until they sign their major.
This is mainly to put students in touch with faculty advisers early in their career. It also prevents students from waiting until their senior year to sign a major. When students wait this long, they typically run into problems after finding that they need to take a lot of classes they didn’t know they needed for their major, she said.
Steele said, faculty advisers will let students know the classes they need to take for their chosen major. The adviser will also let students know how long it will take to graduate.
For more information on changing or signing a major, call Academic Advising Services at 774-7506.