By Rama Al Mekhlafi<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mera Jalal remembers staring at her laptop screen long after midnight, lines of code blurring together as exhaustion took over. What once felt like a promising future in computer science had quickly turned into something heavier, something suffocating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI used to sit there for hours and feel like I understood nothing,\u201d she said. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t just hard, it felt like I didn\u2019t belong there at all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her grades began to slip. So did her motivation. What started as quiet doubt slowly turned into anxiety that followed her beyond the classroom, affecting her sleep, her confidence and her sense of direction. Even simple assignments felt overwhelming, and the pressure to keep up only made things worse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For many university students, choosing a major is supposed to be the first step toward building a future. But for others, that choice is not entirely their own. Across campuses, students are navigating pressure, from family, society and even themselves, to pursue certain fields, often at the cost of their well-being.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This experience is not uncommon. According to a December 2017 report by the National Center for Education Statistics, \u201cBeginning College Students Who Change Their Majors Within 3 Years of Enrollment,\u201d <\/em>about one-third of undergraduate students change their major at least once.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A 2019 study by Kim and Lee, published in Frontiers in Psychology, found that students whose majors were incongruent with their desired careers experienced higher levels of career distress, including career decision-related stress and listlessness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the University of Sharjah, this reality is shown by students like Mera. Her experience reflects a growing pattern among students who begin in demanding majors they never truly chose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI picked computer science because it seemed like the \u2018safe\u2019 option,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s what everyone told me would guarantee a good future.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But instead of feeling secure, she felt stuck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI was constantly stressed,\u201d she said. \u201cI felt like I was failing at something I never even wanted in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n After a year of struggling, Mera made the difficult decision to switch her major to mass communication. The change, she says, was immediate, not just academically, but emotionally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI finally felt like myself again,\u201d she said. \u201cMy grades improved, but more importantly, I actually looked forward to my classes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n A similar experience unfolded for Joury Wajdy, who began her university journey in dentistry, a field often associated with prestige and stability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEveryone around me thought dentistry was the right path,\u201d Joury said. \u201cIt\u2019s respected, it\u2019s secure, and it\u2019s what people expect you to choose.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n At first, she tried to convince herself it was the right decision. But over time, the demands of the major and her lack of passion became impossible to ignore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI would sit in lectures and feel completely disconnected,\u201d she said. \u201cI wasn\u2019t interested, and that made everything harder.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The long hours, constant pressure and emotional fatigue began to take a toll.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI felt drained all the time,\u201d she said. \u201cIt got to the point where I questioned if I could continue at all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Joury eventually made the decision to leave dentistry and pursue industrial engineering. Like Mera, she describes the transition as life-changing, even though it came with uncertainty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt wasn\u2019t easy to start over,\u201d she said. \u201cBut once I made the decision, I felt relieved. I became more confident, and I actually enjoyed what I was studying.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the American University of Sharjah, Tasnim Alfaqi experienced a similar turning point. Initially enrolled in biology, she struggled to connect with both the content and the demands of the program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI kept telling myself to push through,\u201d Tasnim said. \u201cI thought maybe it would get better if I just tried harder.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But it didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The pressure to continue, she explains, came from expectations, both internal and external.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou don\u2019t want to disappoint people,\u201d she said. \u201cSo you stay longer than you should, even when you know something isn\u2019t right.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n That realization, she says, was the hardest part.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s scary to admit that you made the wrong choice,\u201d she said. \u201cIt feels like you\u2019re starting over.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eventually, Tasnim made the decision to switch to finance. The shift allowed her to rediscover her motivation and sense of purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI started to feel excited about my future again,\u201d she said. \u201cThat was something I hadn\u2019t felt in a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n These stories highlight a broader issue affecting students across universities: the pressure to choose majors based on expectations rather than personal interest. While fields like computer science and medicine are often seen as secure or prestigious, they are not the right fit for everyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to the experiences shared by these students, the consequences of staying in the wrong major go beyond academic performance. It can affect mental health, self-esteem and overall well-being, creating a cycle of stress that is difficult to break.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet, making the decision to change majors is not always easy. It involves uncertainty, the fear of judgment and, in many cases, the challenge of redefining one\u2019s path.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt felt like I was taking a risk,\u201d Mera said. \u201cBut staying where I was felt worse.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite the challenges, all three students describe their decisions as necessary, and ultimately empowering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Their journeys reflect a common realization: success is not defined by choosing the right major according to others, but by choosing the right one for yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI wish I had listened to myself earlier,\u201d Tasnim said. \u201cBut I\u2019m glad I finally did.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Rama Al Mekhlafi Mera Jalal remembers staring at her laptop screen long after midnight, lines of code blurring together as exhaustion took over. What once felt like a promising future in computer science had quickly turned into something heavier, something suffocating. \u201cI used to sit there for hours and feel like I understood nothing,\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5576,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[33,82,25],"class_list":{"0":"post-5575","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-features","8":"tag-aus","9":"tag-aus-campus","10":"tag-sharjah-uae"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mdcmediahub.aus.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mdcmediahub.aus.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mdcmediahub.aus.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mdcmediahub.aus.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mdcmediahub.aus.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mdcmediahub.aus.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5575\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mdcmediahub.aus.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mdcmediahub.aus.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mdcmediahub.aus.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mdcmediahub.aus.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}