Tatum Burek

Dykas
Intro to PC
9/29/21

Major/Minor Fair Reflection

Today I attended the major/minor fair in Peterson at 3:00pm. I went in with a general idea of what I want

my major to be. Prior to going to the fair I knew that I was leaning toward majoring in Biology (for the

Pre-Med track) and minoring in some field of business or related topic. I first visited the biology

department table and I thoroughly enjoyed my conversation with the kind woman who helped me. I told

her about my interest in taking the Pre-Med track as well as my interest in marketing/business/

management minor. We talked a lot about managing my courses and schedule, and we both agreed that

that alone would be the most difficult part of everything. I know that sooner rather than later I need to

come up with a strategic plan for the upcoming semesters. Following my conversation with her I moved

to the marketing major/minor table, and had a conversation with another nice woman who was a member

of the board of the marketing board. I asked questions about the courses I would need to take for minor

requisites, as well as how difficult it would be to integrate that in a S.T.E.M. major schedule. She was

under the impression that I shouldn’t have a problem with managing the courses, which brought both

clarity and relief. She further explained the options that I have for courses, and how some of them may

even overlap and can count for some (general) mandatory credits. Eventually, I will sit down and talk

through which courses I should consider taking, to both earn the minoring degree I want while also

making my schedule more manageable by choosing the courses that can lower the future workload. After

my conversation with her I headed to the physics and engineering program table and had a very

informative conversation with two gentlemen who gave me information on both programs. I stopped there

because I didn’t want to rule out either of these topics as a major since I’ve had an interest in them for a

long time. However my conversation with them lead me to realize that declaring both of those as my

major would drastically change my course of action for the the next four plus years. After my
conversation with them I learned that it would be nearly impossible to manage a biology major track and

keep physics or engineering as a possibility incase I wanted to switch. There is a time requirement placed

on the engineering program to finish all course required by my third year. Following your third year you

would transfer to another school to finish the program. (Keep in mind I am part of the PC Swim and Dive

Team) This is the 3+2 year plan, which would cut out my senior year of swim. This I do not want to do

(at least for the moment). He said they offered another program called the 4+2 plan which would entail

four years of schooling here and an additional 2 years somewhere else. This program is a little

intimidating, requires what appears to be a lot of sacrifice on my end, and seems like a considerable time

commitment for something I’m not 100% set on majoring in. However, I will remain open minded and

will not be quick to dismiss this as a possibility. The last table I visited at the major minor fair was the

psychology table. I regret not asking more questions while I was there, but I got distracted and didn’t

maximize the time I had there. Regardless, I wanted to just hear a little more about that as it was

mentioned as an alternative S.T.E.M. major on several occasions (even by people in the biology

department. At any rate, what I got out of my brief interaction with the girl at the table, is that you can

easily incorporate elements of biology into your studies if you choose to (especially if you choose to

participate in something like the neurology program). I definitely plan on keeping this as a potential

major, since it is not something way beyond my current interests.

Overall I found the major minor fair to be quite useful in guiding my next course and action, while also

informing me on what some of my potential interests actually entail.