UWG’s Major Fair

The UWG Advising Center hosted the first annual Major Fair on Wednesday, Feb. 15 in the Campus Center Ballroom, from 11am to 2pm. The fair gave students the opportunity to speak with faculty members from all of the departments at the university in order to gain a better insight on what a specific major or minor would entail. The purpose of the event was to help facilitate the decision a student makes about what department would best suit their personal needs as opposed to relying on the advising department to make that decision for them. 

 “The overall goal is to give students a non intimidating space to go talk with faculty or others in an academic department about being a history major, biology major, etc. So that they’re not going into a faculty member’s office, with whom they don’t know to ask some questions,” said Melissa Tarrant who is the Director of the Advising Center. “It’s just more of an informal setting for making this information available to students in a low-key, informal format.” 

 Considering that this was the first year that this event has taken place, there was some uncertainty as to what the student turnout was going to look like. Additionally to help assure that there was a large student outcome, various awards and prizes were given away to students. 

 “We will ask students to fill out a short survey when they leave and we will use those to draw names for our raffle prizes,” said Tarrant. “We’ve got UWG swag, someone’s going to win lunch with the President, and we’re going to be giving away priority registration.” said Tarrant 

 Initially, the Advising Center partnered with Career Services due to the fact that there are many students who do not know how to declare or change a major. 

 “We partnered with the advisors in the College of Education, Richards College of Business and the School of Nursing, and so we just formed a little committee and we made a big spreadsheet of everything that needs to be done, and who was going to do it, and when it needed to be done by,” explained Tarrant. 

 The Major Fair was the first of many upcoming events that will help current and upcoming students at UWG decide which major best suits them. UWG hopes that these events will help students decide on what they want to do for the rest of their lives.