Design Major | University of San Francisco

Get college advice from design major Sydney, at University of San Francisco. She gives tips on how to choose a major, adjusting to college life and being successful in college.

Q&A: Design Major – Sydney S (2:52)

“I am a freshman in college currently, and I am majoring in design. I chose design because I’ve always known that that was something that I wanted to do. I wasn’t really sure exactly where I stood as a designer if I wanted to do interior design or set design or costume design. I just knew that design was where I needed to be.”

Why College

Ever since I was little, I knew that I wanted to go to college, mostly because I had this stigma in my head that college meant being an adult or getting away from your parents. It’s exactly that, but there’s so much more to that. No matter who you are, whatever income family you come from, you should try to pursue higher education just to broaden your knowledge to become a well-rounded person. If you have the opportunity, I say pursue it.

What I Love About College

For me, the exciting thing about college is you have this whole new freedom, so you’re kind of picked away from your home and dropped into this little bubble area where there are kids just like you who are crazy passionate about a certain thing. They’re new to the environment as well. They don’t know what they’re doing just like you, and you’re in this weird place that you’ve never been in before, and you have to learn the ropes of everything, but it’s so much fun. Just the atmosphere and the fact that you guys are all there for the same thing, you guys all want to succeed, it’s so awesome to me.

Choosing a College

First, I figured out if I wanted to stay in state or go out of state, so I knew I wanted to stay in California, and then based off of my morals, I would look through mission statements, vision statements and see if that felt where I needed to be. If you do have the opportunity or chance to visit your college, definitely do that because honestly, that’s how I fell in love with USF.

Study Tips

Writing things down, I think, is the best way to go about things when studying for an exam. A lot of my teachers and my professors have said that if you write things down, it’s more likely to retain in your head. Testing verbally, I think, also helps. It’s okay to go to the library and sit in a quiet space and just be one-on-one with the material and focus in on that.

Advice for Girls

You may be tearing yourself apart right now trying to figure out where you’re going to end up. You may not even know where you want to go or what you want to do exactly, but that’s okay because no one really knows what they want to do either. So find comfort in the fact that we’re kind of all in this together, I guess.