Transferring into USC her sophomore year, junior Kiana Castillo thought that the business administration major at the Marshall School of Business was her path toward a career in marketing. To Castillo, the choice felt natural — the school was prestigious, ranking in the United States News & World Report’s top 25 schools for business. Suddenly, that all changed.

“When I got to Marshall, my first week there, I already kind of dreaded it,” Castillo said.

At USC, approximately 60% of students change their majors at least once. In Castillo’s first classes, she already felt she was missing out on the creative projects she loved in marketing — her course load heavily focused on analytics and math, with classes like financial accounting and microeconomics. Castillo turned to her course plan, only to find that her marketing emphasis would not truly begin until upper-division electives.

Castillo took to TikTok, where she found creator and senior Elise Monsanto, who also entered USC as a business administration major before switching to the public relations and advertising major at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.

Castillo saw a possible path forward in public relations, interested in finding creativity in marketing. She went to her advisor, but since her advisor was in Marshall, not Annenberg, Castillo conducted her semesterly planning on her own. With the semester in full swing, she felt it was too late to change her major.

“I just remember being so miserable, kind of the whole semester, and waiting and waiting to switch [my major],” Castillo said.

Castillo felt a certain level of pressure from her family when picking her major as a first-generation student. Still, her mother supported her decision, knowing that Castillo’s strengths and passions lie in writing.

“My parents … didn’t really understand,” Castillo said. “I honestly still think [that] they think I’m a business major, but I’m not.”

Growing up, junior Aiden Moss excelled in science classes and always envisioned becoming a neurosurgeon. He also dreamt of being an actor and, after coming to Los Angeles, figured he could do acting on the side.

Moss came from one of the lowest-funded school districts in Colorado. He was one of the few students from his high school who committed to a big university, and one of the few to excel in STEM classes. Moss began at USC as a neuroscience major on the pre-med track, then later switched into theatre due to the rigor of the neuroscience program and his passion for the craft.

“There was going to be a knowledge gap,” Moss said. “A lot of [USC] students had access to a myriad of AP and IB [courses], and we only had so many at my school. I understood that I [had] to encounter that gap and face it head on.”

Alice Zhou, a sophomore studying game art, switched her major twice, moving from game art initially to civil engineering, then back to game art, which her parents encouraged her to major in at USC.

However, upon entering USC’s game art program, she felt disappointed with the lack of concept art classes.

Her curiosity about buildings and desire for stability post-grad led her to switch into civil engineering.

“I wanted a more lucrative career,” Zhou said. “I think the pressure of being a first-year college student and also being the oldest daughter in my family, I put the responsibility on myself to be able to take care of my family after I graduate.”

Zhou’s second major switch, returning to game art, mirrored the experience and struggle that other interviewed students felt; their expectations for their majors mismatched with reality. Even though Zhou, Castillo and Moss had differing reasons for pursuing their respective majors, each struggled academically in their first semester in their majors — in civil engineering, business administration and neuroscience, respectively.

“I almost failed chemistry, barely passed by the skin of my teeth,” Moss said. “I knew at that moment. I had inklings that this was going to be so much harder than I thought it was going to be.”

Similarly, Castillo felt as though she excessively studied in preparation for her Marshall classes, only to earn a C on her first test. Zhou, meanwhile, was unable to remain in the Viterbi School of Engineering, which requires students to pass all classes with a B+ or above during a “screening semester” in order to switch into the school after dropping her Calculus II class.

Outside of the classroom, the class rigor began to affect each student’s personal lives and mental health. Castillo felt a sense of doom hanging over her as she walked to class each day. Moss felt that the rigor of his classes only added to his stress of being in a new city and in a new home.

“Really, it was just so overwhelmingly difficult with these classes that were intrinsically designed to weed out as many people as possible,” Moss said.

After switching into the public relations and advertising major at Annenberg — which, for Castillo, was predominantly done independent of her advisor’s help — Castillo and Moss experienced major improvements to their mental health and enjoyment of studies, even though Castillo switched into public relations and Moss switched into dramatic arts.

“My roommate was really supportive of it, because she saw how miserable I was,” Castillo said. “I’m definitely so much happier now than I was before. I feel happy to go to class … I don’t feel a sense of dread [or] doom anymore. I feel like a lot of opportunities are opening up for me.”

Sophomore Jonathan Gantt entered USC as an international relations and the global economy major, but switched to mechanical engineering because he felt he missed the puzzle-solving atmosphere that excited him in high school. Looking at his group project members in his engineering classes, he realized he did not share their passion for engineering.

Gantt then returned to international relations and added another major, economics and mathematics, citing his passion as his motivation for the switch.

“What I really enjoyed about [international relations] is that it’s like a story of human behavior, and that’s something that is very linked with [economics and mathematics],” Gantt said. “I’m still able to do things like puzzle solving, the computational element analysis of [economics and mathematics], but I [am] also able to chase my passions at the same time.”

When Gantt told his parents he was returning to international relations, they were very supportive — they had noticed his passion when he would discuss international relations at home. As a student on a four-year scholarship, Gantt plans to overload his credits, taking 20 units for a few more semesters in order to graduate within four years.

Zhou similarly felt frustrated when she switched into civil engineering, but also liberated. After Zhou switched from game art in the School of Cinematic Arts to civil engineering in Viterbi, she eventually switched back into the game art major — this time with a new attitude.

“For the first time ever, I thought about what it was like to not be an artist,” Zhou said. “Before I did civil engineering, I was kind of disappointed with the game art program because of how little illustration classes or concept classes they offer … Now I feel like it’s less about what it gives you on a baseline and more about what I look for and how flexible I can be with my skills.”

Gabriel Kahn, a professor of professional practice of journalism at Annenberg, emphasized the importance of exploring career options. Upon graduating from Stanford University, Kahn had no strong passion for any one career.

“Every career that people were pursuing to me sounded like some different part of a death sentence of boredom,” Kahn said. “I thought the goal of life [was] not being bored.”

Kahn graduated with a degree in Italian and moved to Italy, where he began working at an English-language magazine. Upon receiving his first byline, Kahn began to realize he had found a career he truly enjoyed.

“This is really a job about asking questions and trying to pull out a narrative and make sense of the world,” Kahn said. “I very quickly fell in love with that and thought this is something I can do the rest of my life and not be bored — that was correct.”

Now teaching “Follow the Money: Business and Economics,” a class designed to teach journalists about the world of business reporting, Kahn has found that Annenberg students and USC students at large have found their own ways to couple their majors with other studies.

With over 150 majors across 23 schools, USC’s breadth of options can leave students aimless, drifting in infinite possibilities. Still, through the noise of each student’s unique paths, peace can be found.

“If at all possible, follow your passion,” Gantt said. “I think that people who are passionate in their degrees are going to be far more successful than those who aren’t as passionate … At the same time, be realistic as well. You have to balance those two things.”