A Lesson in Learning As You Go: Making Major, Career, and Grad School Decisions

Being a high school senior is tough. You have the grandiose pressure of finishing off your high school years strong, on top of your many senior-ly duties—often including, but not limited to, getting your driver’s license, making it to Senior Sunset on time, thinking of just the right senior quote that will memorialize your existence, finding the perfect date for prom/being too cool for prom, and most scary of all: figuring out the entire rest of your life’s future.

Sounds like an over-exaggeration, but that’s really what it feels like when you’re on that section of the college app that displays a “Select Major” heading, and a list of dozens of subjects under it—each one begging to be checked off.

Should I major in biology? That’s what doctors do, right? Or maybe political science, if I want to be a lawyer. Is a philosophy major what I need to go to graduate school.

Spoiler alert from an almost-senior in college whose mouse has hovered over the “change of major” button more times than he can remember: You don’t need to have it all figured out.

Can’t believe it? Well don’t just take my word for it. Let’s hear what graduating senior and soon-to-be law school student Akif has to say about his (very nonlinear) journey through undergrad.

Hey Akif! So glad you decided to sit down and talk about your time at UCI. Let’s jump right into things! So, you’re majoring in psychology, comparative literature, and material science engineering—did you somehow always know this was what you would be studying at UCI?

Absolutely not! To be honest, very little of my experience so far has been about knowing what I will do and more about deciding what I could do. When I applied to UCI, I actually had chemistry down as my major of choice until five minutes before I submitted the application. I quickly switched over to comparative literature, thinking that my lifelong enjoyment of reading and seeking meaning through literature would be a skill I could develop even further at UCI. When I arrived at UCI, I began a full-on exploration of everything the campus offered. From majors to resources to campus events, I knew about everything when I got started so I could make the most informed decisions possible. 

I have always been interested in people and how we function, both socially and cognitively. I decided to take a biology class (for non-majors) called Mind, Memory, and the Brain -- and I was hooked. That summer, I took more psychology classes and declared the psychology major later that year. Then, after a year of being a double major with psychology, I decided I wanted to pursue a career in neuroscience and chose to begin taking classes to get the cognitive sciences major. I took the appropriate summer classes and replaced my psychology major with cogsci by the beginning of my third year. While taking psychology lab classes and completing my humanities degree requirements, I was also a student in the UCI Campuswide Honors Collegium. Through CHC, I took a series of classes on sustainability, particularly a class with a focus on cities and sustainability during my third year taught jointly by a few professors. In this class, I gained my first exposure to materials science and was completely hooked (again!). Though it seemed impossible, I set up a meeting with Professor Julie Schoenung to discuss the major and what I could do. She encouraged me to give my interest a try, so I did.

In spring quarter of my third year, I took physics and chemistry classes, and continued to complete prerequisite courses throughout that summer. By fall quarter, I decided to drop cognitive sciences and pick up psychology again, which would allow me to keep working on my engineering requirements. I’ve worked diligently since then, and was able to declare the material sciences and engineering major by the beginning of my fifth year at UCI. The journey was not at all part of my plans when I arrived on campus. At one point, I told myself that I could finish the comparative literature major in three years and just graduate early. However, somehow I’ve gotten to where I’m at with the support of a lot of friends and professors, and lots of meetings with academic counselors.

Now even though you ended up majoring in three different subjects, you decided that at the end of the day, you wanted to get your J.D. Most people would expect someone who is pre-law to major in political science, philosophy, or criminology, law & society. How did you end up landing on law school, when your actual fields of study would typically set you on such different paths. 

Law school has been something on my mind my whole life actually. I used to do a lot of reading, I enjoyed writing, and my childhood was full of me making bizarre but sound arguments to my parents about why things should go my way. Naturally, every older family member I had told me I should be an attorney one day. Though I liked the idea, I had no idea what it meant. Going into undergrad, I was not set on any specific career path. Comparative literature for me was my first choice major because I thought it would give me the most experience with critical thinking, communication, and connecting with people, which I thought would pay off no matter what I ended up doing. I considered being a journalist, a fiction writer, and even trying to get a PhD in comparative literature and lecturing, but when I tried each of these out (through the New University newspaper at UCI, fiction writing classes, and humanities-oriented research), I didn’t really feel passionate about them. As for psychology, I thought I would get my degree and go into research as well, maybe with a focus on memory or automation. However, again, when I worked in a research lab, I didn’t feel at all motivated to keep going. Finally, I thought materials science would be my path. I loved the concepts, worked really hard to earn the degree, and spent a lot of my fourth year scouring different companies for sustainability and waste-related engineering positions. I submitted applications to be an intern at a lot of different places, but the pandemic got in the way of a lot of those potential opportunities.

When it comes down to what it is I care about accomplishing, I realized my three majors set me up for something else entirely. I care a lot about implementing sustainable design and policy in a just and equitable way in the world, and my majors have helped me understand how to get there. Materials science has taught me all about how things are made, why they are made a specific way, and how to improve those designs. Psychology has shown me the power of biases in thinking and why we continue to perpetuate wasteful systems even if we know they’re harmful. Comparative literature has given me the tools to ask the right questions and push past my own limitations in thinking, while keeping in mind that seeing others’ points of view can be just as informative as reading about numbers and research. All of these combined have led me back to law school, particularly environmental law. I want to use all of the skills and knowledge I’ve been picking up to spearhead environmental policy change that is inclusive and grounded in both science and real human experience.

Sounds like what was first your journey through undergrad, ended up being a really wild rollercoaster towards a grad education! Was graduate school always on the horizon for you, or was that also an unexpected discovery along the way?

Given how much I enjoy learning, I always pictured myself going to grad school. I didn’t know what I wanted to do in grad school for most of my life, but I love researching and synthesizing different pieces of information into a greater whole. However, I also have to add that I sought out as many resources as possible during my undergrad years to help me as well. I attended countless graduate school sessions in all three of the schools I’m in at UCI. I’ve been to the Division of Career Pathways many times for guidance and information, and I talked to professors and TA’s about their experiences in graduate school as well. I wasn’t decided on going to grad school until I really looked into law school curricula and application processes, but it was definitely something on my mind throughout my time at UCI.

You sure have had lots of great involvements! What resources on campus would you say were the most essential in bringing you towards this point of self-discovery?

I’d say the two most influential resources on campus were two involvements of mine: AMP and Campus Representatives. AMP stands for the Antleader Mentorship Program, which is a program geared towards providing support for first-generation and low-SES freshmen at UCI. AMP gave me the social support I needed on campus to feel connected and motivated to my goals. I always felt like I had a community behind me, cheering me on and helping me get through the tough times. Campus Reps—the tour guides on campus—also provided me with a unique community of UCI students who were all highly motivated and supportive. Along with that support, being employed as a Campus Rep by the Office of Admissions gave me the chance to constantly share my journey with prospective and new UCI students. I shared resources I utilized, tips and tricks I gathered, and reminded them that anything is possible once they set their minds to it. This chance to share and support new students was also a great way to remind myself that I shouldn’t give up on who I want to be and what I want to do.

Akif and one of his favorite orgs on campus, AMP. Here they are in 2019, on the annual mentor retreat.

What do you think you’ll miss most about the UCI undergrad experience?

Most definitely I’ll miss the feeling of exploration. Though I’ll be starting law school soon, and I’ll be learning a lot more, I think undergrad for me was about learning about myself, about my friends, about my majors, and about how the world functions as a whole. Of course classes were hard and there have been so many tired days and nights full of working through equations and readings. But I think that challenge is what made it so worthwhile. UCI undergrad gave me a chance to really push myself to learn as much as I wanted to, as long as I continued to do the work. Law school of course has a much more specific focus, and I’m excited to get started on that path, but I will miss the way undergrad allowed me to experience whatever I set my mind to.

Any last words of advice for our readers who might be thinking about if a certain major, career, or graduate education is right for them?

You don’t have to decide on anyone else’s timeline but your own. There is always going to be outside pressure, whether from family, friends, role models, etc. However, nobody knows your journey as intimately as you do. So trust yourself with your path. If a major feels right, go for it. If you’re interested in a class and you have the energy to take it, don’t talk yourself out of it. You’ll never know what paths lie hidden ahead of you until you let yourself take those first steps. Finally, remind yourself that asking questions is always useful. Email a professor if you’re curious about their research. Call a friend if you want to hear their experience. Talk to a counselor or a parent if you need guidance or support with planning out your next steps. People are here to help you through your journey, and I wish you the best of luck in getting to the future of your dreams.

Akif enjoying a cup of coffee with his friend Henry, who he met at UCI.