College applications were submitted. Graduation is approaching. Parties begin. But seniors, have you already decided what you want to learn in college?

Senior Yuzhu Zhang is taking AP Calculus and accounting at school now. She came to study in America from China in her junior year. Her deep interest in business and math makes her want to be an actuary. Zhang plans to major in mathematics to practice her computational and analytical skills. She bought books about certification examinations and researched information from Society of Actuaries website. She is also studying AP Physics C, AP Statistics and AP Psychology herself. “I want to challenge myself and strengthen my English and math skills,” Zhang said.

Zhang is very firm and passionate about her major choice. So is senior Si Hou Lon.

Lon is already enrolled in Williams College and plans to major in chemistry. His reason for this major choice is that he wants to be a doctor to help people. To better prepare himself, Lon is taking AP Biology now and got a full score on AP Chemistry test last May. He also began to volunteer at a hospital at the beginning of his senior year to gain more learning experience.

“Do not let other people sway your decision on what major you want to pursue,” Lon said.

While many others are still undecided about their majors, teacher Cami Yoshioka gave her advice.

“For students who have no idea where to even begin, it is good to start with discovering themself or their interest.” She suggested that there are many self-assessments and career assessments to help student to discover who they are. Students can also find their career interests through volunteer work, internships, career talks, guest speakers, and school classes, which “give students first-hand experience of what their future careers will be like,” Yoshioka said.

Senior Kathy Yeung is doing an internship at a child center. She wants to major in early child education and the last semester of high school provides her opportunities to try out what she likes. Interacting with children can sometimes be really tiring but she still enjoys it.

“You will never know whether you like it or not only after you have tried,” Yeung said.

Some students may ask “What if I find that the major does not fit me and I want to change it?”

As math teacher Jon Furukawa said, changing majors in college actually “happens more often than you think.”

In a September 2014 article in The Daily Princetonian (the student newspaper of Princeton University), it said, “Approximately 70 percent of students change their course of study during their time at the University.”

A study from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in 2013 also showed that only 27 percent of college graduates were working in a job directly related to their college major.

“There are both good and bad things about changing majors,” Yoshioka said. “If students do decide to change majors, do it early because the later a student makes a change, the more costly it may get with tuition and time.”

For those who change their majors or career choices, Furukawa’s suggestion is “Do not feel bad like you failed something. You just gained more experience so that you can use that experience to better yourself in some other career fields.”

Furukawa majored in accounting before. After working in the area, he found it did not fit himself and chose to be a math teacher. He enjoys his work now and can apply his accounting experience to his daily work such as organizing records using spreadsheets.

“Regardless of which career field students choose, not everything they learn in the classroom is going to be directly related to the job,” Furukawa said. The main thing about college study is that “it provides students with background knowledge and teaches them how to think.”

It is not only about a major or a degree. It is about the passion to do what you want. It is about the motivation to learn what you like. It is about an opportunity and a new beginning of your life. Now, it is time for you to make a choice.

This article placed second for features in the public school division of the 2015 Hawaii High School Journalism Awards.