CHH CHH Changes
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You have to rebuild your support network, maybe even cut ties to individuals who haven’t been as supportive, so now you might be looking at making other changes in your life. It is always a difficult decision to pivot to a new path, but it’s doable and this support network will be valuable in ensuring that it is successful.
Change Major. We don’t know many students that enroll in a college that hasn’t done this. It’s perfectly acceptable to go into college as an 18-year old and not know what you want to do when you “grow up”. It’s perfectly acceptable to still try to figure out what you want to do when you are 30. Hi, Ayrielle and Krista both went back to college to study something different!
In some colleges, there is little in the process of changing majors. Simply log into your student portal and initiate the change through a form, and then the next business day your entire student record is changed. In other colleges, there is an entire process that might take weeks, and they have a valid reason to do it this way other than having one program saturated with students more than other programs. For example, Purdue University has this transfer major process called CODO (Change of Degree Objective). In part, one reason why they have CODO is that they don’t want everyone admitted to change their major to a program that is already pretty full and won’t have the resources to support more students then they can handle — like Engineering. The other reason is that they want to have built-in conversations with academic advisors to talk about realistic requirements and create a path towards graduation.
This second reason is recommended by BGF regardless of what your university process looks like. It is important to first have a conversation with your current academic advisor that you have this change of heart. Talk to them about your reasons why you want to make this transfer and what are your goals. They often can point you in the right direction to talk about that department’s advisors about making that transition, they can also create a registration plan for the next semester or internship opportunities that can easily transfer into experiences needed in that new major. When you do have an appointment with the desired major academic advisor, talk to them again about your reasons to make the switch and your career aspirations. They should be able to draw up a reasonable map of what your academic path should look like to graduate on time and achieve the goals you want to make.
Sometimes these transfer goals are a challenge…sometimes they are plain unreasonable or unrealistic. As a result, this might have elements of a difficult conversation. Do not expect an academic advisor to give you positive affirmation about transferring to a program that requires a lot of something you exhibit weakness in – for example, if you are failing chemistry, transferring into a pharmacy major may be discouraged. These academic advisors, however, should be able to provide you with transferring routes that you might not know about. If your reasoning to transfer into pharmacy was to help sick people but you absolutely hate the idea of blood and needles and yet wanted a steady income of a certain figure, a good academic advisor could recommend you to a health and kinesiology program where you could have several related careers that provide you with the same values which lead you to seek pharmacy.
Change College. Often the change in major might mean a change in college. Or, you might love your major and dislike the college you ultimately choose to enroll in in your freshman year. That’s ok. Not all colleges are the same even if they have the same major and same accreditation. Ayrielle attended the same undergraduate program at two different universities. Both would have provided her with the same education, experience, degree, and licenses. One of the universities was a satellite of the other until they separated and became their institution – Ball State used to be a satellite of Indiana State University until the mason jar Ball family purchased their independence sort of speak. However, Ball State and ISU are completely different in their campus cultures despite their foundations of this major having been the same. Some things to consider when transferring:
Transfer admissions aren’t always as competitive as general admissions.
Some colleges seek transfer students and as a result, have pathway programs. If you are enrolled in a two-year college, chances are your university has pathways to four-year colleges that make transfers super easy and less stressful than a high schooler applying to that four-year as a freshman.
Learn what a school is looking for in transferring. Often you don’t worry about your SAT/ACT nearly as much as you did when you were in high school because, in the transfer process, universities care more about the current college GPA.
Learn what on your transcript can be transferred. Going from a public state to another public state (in the same state) is often the easiest transfer progress. However, institutions do like to think their programs are unique and thus not everything will be transferred. Speak with your current academic advisor about transferring, and speak with the transferring college’s admissions office to see what can and cannot be transferred. If something cannot be transferred and it’s not a grade issue, review if the program you want to enter has a course with similar learning objectives to your course. You might need to pull your old syllabus and have someone from that department review it to validate (or provided a one-time acceptance to transfer). One of Ayrielle’s 100 level Ball State courses was not being transferred to ISU because at ISU it was a 400 level course. After reviewing the required textbook and course learning objectives (and the fact that it was a required course for the accreditation both programs were a part of) the course was approved for a transfer. Moreover, Ayrielle had a 100 level communications course that wouldn’t transfer to another 100 level communications course, but she found that both colleges said they were equal to same communications course at a community college. If A equals B, and B equals C, then A equals C. She just had to show the university this was simple transitive law. So it’s doable – but it will require some difficult back and forth negotiations.
Change Career Path. This is something that both Krista and Ayrielle are familiar with and part of the reason why they are both pursuing a master’s degree. Master’s degrees are not always required to make a change in your career path, rather look at the education and skills you have already obtained. Someone who has an education in life sciences can easily pivot that knowledge to become a science teacher with a school system willing to provide an emergency teaching license. A teacher has the skill set to oversee an academic development of 30 to over 100 people at a given time, and can easily transfer that skill as a business manager that needs to oversee the operational progress of 50 people. The idea behind using your education and skills in a transferable way is not a bad idea at all, but it might be hard to execute. BGF would recommend that you seek out support from your smart friends and even a college network, like a career coordinator or counselor, to do this. You are bound to have one friend that is super great at writing a resume and help guide how to articulate this change to a potential employer. Keys to Krista and Ayrielle’s success in making their career changes was to create a narrative that inspired the employer to take action – we made ourselves sound like a great asset regardless of the pain points the hiring committee might have thought about us. Some recommendations we have are:
Know your audience. Explore their pain points – what are they frustrated? How can the right person in this position fix this?
It’s not about us, it’s about them.
Establish credibility, likeability, and trust
Demonstrate your experience. The show, don’t tell, and don’t do it in a bragging or arrogant way.
Appeal to the head and the heart. Tell personal stories and ask meaningful questions. You might be speaking to a data-driven individual, but most decisions are made because of emotional buy-in.
Counter objections proactively and positively. Ask questions to reveal the benefits of hiring you. Call out what the hiring committee might be thinking and refocus their action to hire you. Use words that spark thoughts and feelings that feel good.
Follow Up. Don’t just ask if a decision is made, follow up to draw the hiring person back in. You can write a thank you note, ask questions that you know will motivate and ease a pain point, tell relevant personal stories, identify the internal dialog the hiring committee might be having. “If you are anything like me, you…”. “I know that [blank] is really important to you.”
If a master’s degree is required for this change in career path, these recommendations should be considered when writing the statement of purpose letter. In Ayrielle’s current job, she sees a lot of applicants that have a very different undergraduate major wanting to apply. Those that address this desire to change are often positively received by the admissions committee. Those that do not address the change leave the admissions committee in the dark on what has motivated the change. Do they want to marry the undergraduate education with this graduate education? Did a work experience make this mind shift? What’s going on and how can this program help? Do not under any circumstance write a whole page that can be boiled down to one sentence “You are the best program, so that is why I want to go to you.” We mean it’s great that you recognize and gave them a bit of affirmation that their program is the best – but often they are the best at something… and that something is typically providing an educational service that helps students realize their career goals and part of that educational service is that students contribute to that educational environment. Inspire the admissions committee to invest in you. Graduate programs often cost the department more money than tuition brings in (albeit the tuition is costly to you) so the program’s pain points will be cost and the time spent with you during the program. You need to counter that by showing something like an enhanced sense of self or immediate relevance you possess and contribute.
We hope this information is helpful as you make those big changes in your life. As a reminder, you can comment on the blog and reach us over on Instagram and Twitter.
Sincerely, Your BGF