I came to USC as an Undeclared Engineer, and I didn’t know which discipline I wanted to pursue.
My advice to students who don’t know which major to choose is twofold: first of all, talk to older students in different majors to get a feel for what you learn in classes. By networking with fellow students, I learned why they chose their majors and what their career objectives were. This helped me understand what each discipline entailed. Secondly, I advise undecided students to attend Viterbi’s Spotlight program. Every month Viterbi puts on awesome events, where professionals come and speak about their engineering careers. Every month is focused on a different Engineering discipline. Four to five engineers from each field come and talk about their diverse jobs. It gives a good feel for what job opportunities post-graduation and what working as an engineer is like.
Through the Electrical Engineering spotlight, I learned that the major would give me a lot of flexibility in job opportunities and that electrical work interests me. By continuing to talk to students and professors beyond when I declared my major, I have learned more about which emphasis I would like to choose in my future Electrical Engineering studies. These conversations have been quintessential to my decision to become an Electrical Engineer, and my studies are perfect fit for me.
