Outside the Connelly Center on Friday, Oct. 25, freshmen packed together to learn about the different majors and minors at Villanova. Faculty and students manned numerous different tables to help the newest students at Villanova find a possible passion.
The theme of this year’s Majors and Minors Fair was Monopoly, and each student was given a folder with a paper to be stamped by the different tables. From majors such as math and statistics to communication and neuroscience, almost all disciplines within Villanova’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences were present.
But if one is a freshman and was overwhelmed by all of the tables to walk through, don’t worry. Villanova students are not required to declare a major until the end of their sophomore year, so there is still time to take electives and explore what one might want to do.
“I liked the Major[s] Fair,” undecided exploratory arts freshman Kane Chapman said. “It was helpful for undecided people like myself who have no idea what we want to do to get a better grasp on where our academic career will take us.”
And if one isn’t in CLAS, don’t worry either. While there is a lot of focus on majors at the Majors and Minors Fair, the Minors are also important. Something many students may not know is that one’s minor can overlap between different Villanova colleges, like the School of Business or the College of Engineering.
Each incoming student into CLAS is placed in an exploratory major, either arts or sciences. While some students may come into Villanova knowing what they want to do, the University offers a unique undergraduate experience that allows students to explore a number of their interests. The tables were mostly split between the arts and sciences, but students were free to mingle and explore as much as they wanted, as well as have some pizza and pretzels provided by the Majors and Minors Fair executive committee members.
No one is alone in their stress over what academic path to pick, it is one that almost anyone–freshman, upperclassmen and faculty alike–can understand. So make sure to reach out to advisors, professors and even friends.
In a community based in unity, Villanova is here to help, and there are many resources across campus that can be explored if the fair didn’t provide enough answers for curious students.
