The study choice process

Making choices is part of life. You make larger or smaller choices in everything you do, and you progress from one choice/decision to the next. All decision-making processes involve three aspects: making a choice, experiencing that choice and reflecting on it.

Making a (study) choice involves the following elements:

• Delving into yourself (your interests, competences, traits, values, etc).
• Researching various study programmes (choice options): you conduct in-depth research into what study programmes involve and whether they suit you.
• Committing to your choice: eventually, you come to a final decision. For example, you choose to study Psychology and you commit to that.

Once you have chosen, it’s time to:

• Experience and reflect
  You won’t know for sure if you are in the right place until you have made your choice and started studying. Only then will you experience what it is like to follow that study programme, reflect on it and conclude whether it was the right choice. You can stick with this choice if it feels right, or you can make a different choice (choose a new study programme). And then the choice cycle starts all over again.

The right study programme or not?

Despite all your careful consideration when choosing a study programme, it is still possible that the chosen study is not the right one for you. That is disappointing but it’s understandable: you can only really judge whether you’ve made the right choice after you have started studying. Don’t think of it as something you failed to do well; instead, think of it as part of the study choice process in which you are searching for the place you belong. There are certainly students who switch to a different study programme.