Over 50 percent of students entering college are an undecided major and up to 75 percent change their major at least once according to Liz Freedman of Butler University.

Cerritos College Career Center helped weather the storm for students on campus by hosting a Choose A Major event, Wednesday, April 27 at 11:30 a.m.

Traci Ukita, a career services counselor discussed the five most important things students should know about choosing a major.

Ukita emphasized, “My main goal of the event was to dispel the misconception of majors and careers.”

The first tip was to assure students they are not alone in being undecided on what major works best for them.

Nursing major, Marlin Panduro expressed her excitement on hearing that and said, “This event just reassured me that I am not alone and that I do know myself. We are not alone in choosing our career and it takes time for it. Also, I didn’t know about all the good resources that we could look up for a career.”

The next tip Ukita stressed was that choosing a major is not the same as choosing a career.

She confessed that she didn’t get her bachelors in counseling but in political science.

Ukita then gave students examples of other successful people like billionaire Oprah Winfrey and NBA legend Michael Jordan, who both got their degrees in something totally different than their careers.

She continued by explaining that there are three broad categories majors called non-career specific, career specific, and career related.

Non career specific majors prepare students for a wide range of careers and include majors like political science, history, and English.

Career specific majors are majors that prepare students for a particular jobs like nursing, engineering and social work.

Lastly career related majors target a specific career but no specific jobs like journalism, business administration, and criminal justice.

Ukita stated the most important tip is that majors and careers are not the same thing.

Students often think that such and such majors means such and such career. For example, the English major means an English teacher as a career but majority don’t enter that field.

The English major can actually prepare students for a wide range of careers.”

The third tip placed the spotlight on students and urged them to get in tuned with who they are that relates to their career interests.

The fourth tip was to know the world of work and know all about your career and its requirements.

The last tip put students at ease and it reassured students that choosing a major takes time.

Ukita then provided students with other places where students can get additional help like the career center, family, professors and internet resource http.//www.collegeboard.com/student/csearch/index.html.