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Courses
Students often think that the best way to explore majors is to take some courses in those majors. On the one hand, scheduling a few introductory courses to test your interests and abilities can be very helpful in exploring majors, especially if these test courses are also General Education courses that you can use in many majors. On the other hand, taking very specific, narrowly focused courses designed for just one major may not help much if you haven't already explored the major in other ways, especially if these courses won't count in other majors.
Most Penn State courses weren't designed to help students decide on a major. Exploratory students who schedule very specific major courses just to see if they might like the majors often end up ruling out those majors after only a few weeks of classes. Then they either spend the rest of the semester in courses they don't want or need or they end up dropping the courses. And while these courses might count in some other majors, they still won't have helped these students to select a major, just to eliminate one.
If, however, you've already narrowed your choices of major to two or three, then scheduling a few major-specific courses might help you finalize your decision. If you think you're ready to schedule some of these courses, discuss them with your adviser or visit an advising center to help you decide which major courses might be best for you.
Through your experiences in test courses or major courses, you may even decide against a major (or a group of majors) if you find that you aren't doing well in the courses or that you really don't have any interest in them. Poor grades in required science and math courses, like chemistry, physics, biology, and calculus, could mean that majors in science and engineering aren't the best choices for you. In that case, you might start ruling out majors that require the kinds of courses you're not doing well in. Also, a lack of interest in a group of related courses could mean that majors requiring those courses might not be the best match for you either.
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