“What’s your major?” That’s the question everyone seems to ask when they hear you are going to college. So, you may feel pressure to have a major nailed down by the time you arrive on campus.

My advice: Don’t!

Artistic expression, study of the visual arts in civilizations and across media, production of audio-visual and digital texts, socially responsible and sustainable design, and performance all form the core of the arts at UC Davis. Students who pursue majors in the arts learn to think practically and humanistically about the world and their place in it, while also learning to translate their unique vision into creative representations of universal concerns and aspirations that illuminate the human experience.

From research with individuals, groups, and societies to studies in politics and economics, majors in the social sciences learn to ask challenging questions, solve complex problems, becoming the next generation of global leaders. Students who purse majors in the social sciences at UC Davis explore the historical, cultural, and biological perspectives of society, along with their philosophical underpinnings, in top-ranked departments and programs.

The study of chemistry leads to applications in biology, agriculture, medicine, and the environment. Research in physics yields discovery of materials and processes for new technologies. Explorations in mathematics, earth and planetary sciences, and physics probe the origins of the cosmos and the evolution of planets, including Earth. Mathematicians and statisticians represent complex quantitative processes to inform disciplines from economics to engineering.

Cultural literacy, literary analysis and expression, writing, language, women’s and gender studies: these disciplines are at the core of the humanities at UC Davis. Students who pursue majors in the humanities learn to present new ideas and inspired solutions to the most pressing problems.

Attending to past, present, and emergent cultural formations and interpreting culture becomes ever more important as global communication technologies, political forces, and environmental concerns reshape knowledge.