declaring my major!
If I'm being honest with you all, I've been saying I'm a Computer Science major probably since my first semester at Smith despite me not actually officially declaring. I was pretty sure of what I wanted to major in before actually coming to Smith, but I wanted to give myself the space to explore some classes before really committing.
It took me until literally the last minute to actually officially declare... not a good idea! Please don't do this!! I definitely don't recommend it. I do, however, recommend not declaring right away. Many people have some idea of what they want to major in and declare right away, and some unfortunate people realize too late that their major is actually not what they actually want to study.
No fear! You can always change your major during your first two years of college, but I think giving your space to explore is also very valuable. Especially with Smith's open curriculum, some may find it rather easy to just take classes that are in their realm of study. However, despite being a STEM major, I actually took a lot of humanities courses alongside my major requirement courses. I've really enjoyed them! I think having a balance between the two has made my semesters not too busy but also very interesting.
But alas, after 1 and a half year, I decided that I do indeed want to major in cs and I finally did just that! It isn't hard at all. For computer science specifically, when you go on the cs page on the Smith website, there is a form you can take to pick an advisor for the major. Before declaring, everyone gets a liberal arts advisor. They may not necessarily be in the field you plan on majoring in, they're really just there to help you get started! Mine was a Spanish professor, which is obviously very different from CS.
Every time we have registration, we have to meet with our advisors prior to discuss what courses we plan to take for the following semester. Your advisor is there to help you! Sometimes they might recommend a course that you wouldn't have previously considered, or they might warn you that your workload might be too heavy for you to handle. Previously we did registration on a website called BannerWeb which required a code to be given by our advisors, but we recently switched to do registration on another website. Now, you have to meet with your advisor still, but they just have to take off a hold on your registration account.
Once you declare, you get an advisor that is in your major. You just have to get your new advisor to sign the declaration form, and also get your previous liberal arts advisor to sign, and then you turn it in to the Registrar's Office so that it can process. It's really simple!
I think CS is unique with having the advisor form, but no worries! If you take some classes from your major before declaring, you might find that you really like the professor that you took a certain class with. You can even personally ask them to be your advisor. Even if they say no, I'm sure they'd be happy to advise you on who else in the major you can ask.
Usually you will find smithies take pictures in front of the front gate at Smith with their declaration form, but I unfortunately did not have the opportunity to do that because of the pandemic. However, Smith has released plans of having us all be in person for next fall, so maybe I'll get the photoshoot I've been wanting!
Here is a photo proving that I am a CS major anyway :P :