College students arrive on campus with big dreams and choices to make, with a plan of study being chief among their decisions.

It may seem easy for students to follow their passions into their college tenure, but the process is not that simple. Many students find themselves regretting the major that they chose.

According to a PayScale.com study of 248,000 college graduates, 12.2% expressed regret about the major they studied.

Nicholas Hegdahl, a sophomore accounting major at the University of Oregon, believes that his choice of major came out of a desire for financial comfort.

Hegdahl says, “The post college job may not be what I love, but [my parents] live very comfortably as accountants. I do not want to risk not being comfortable after graduation.”

Forbes found that approximately 75% of accounting majors cited a “career-related word” as the reason for choosing their major. Only students studying pre-clinical medicine ranked higher in this department, and majors related to media studies, marketing, law, and physical therapy display numbers above 50% in the same category.

Ethan Harris, who studied physics at the University of North Georgia, acknowledges that peer pressure played a role in his choice. He later switched his major to marketing.

Harris says, “I didn’t love my major, and I only took two years of it before switching. I wanted to pick a major that people would see and be impressed with when I left school, but I realized that it just wasn’t worth the struggle to prove myself to people around me.”

UNG provides students with outlets to talk about their issues and make changes that better suit their goals. Whether through academic advisement or student counseling, there are options available for those unhappy with their studies.

Jorge Pino is a recent Florida International University graduate, now studying post-graduate biology. He believes that students who stick to majors they are dissatisfied with can become trapped.

Pino says, “I know people who got pressured by family or fear of a bad future and ended up taking classes they hated. I took a semester of engineering courses before realizing I hated them, and I got out. Not everyone is as lucky as I was.”

Students at UNG who wish to explore different majors can contact their advisors and discuss their concerns through the UNG website.