Using a college catalogue, while thinking about college majors goes hand-in-hand. The catalogue states the institution's Mission Statement, includes information regarding the Accreditation of the institution, provides graduation requirements for the various majors and degrees, and usually gives a historical overview of the college. Depending on your interests and purpose, the catalogue provides a vast amount of additional information about the college. 

The purpose here is to focus on the courses offered by the college, and how those courses fulfill college graduation requirements. Some colleges require certain courses to fulfill lower-level requirements. These lower-level requirements are sometimes call general education courses or distributive courses. There can be a wide variation on how colleges expect these requirements to be met. Some colleges offer a broad offering of courses to choose from. Other colleges have little flexibility and prescribe in detail what a student needs to take to fulfill lower-level requirements. It is to the student’s advantage to explore how lower-level requirements, if the school has them, are met. The student could have a good reason for preferring a certain format over another. 

Another reason to use a college catalogue is to gain an understanding of the courses that are required by a specific major. As an example, environmental science, environmental engineering, and environmental studies sound very similar. It isn’t uncommon for a student to perceive these as being the same major. By using a college catalogue to compare these majors one can learn that there are real differences between them. The classes vary from demanding science classes, courses in surveying, courses in material collection out in the field for analyzes, to courses that consider policy formation at a governmental level. Each major has a different focus and requires different course work. Students considering a particular major should review several college catalogues to check if the considered major is really what they expected. It is better to discover this before enrolling than during the first semester on campus. College and university catalogues are also available online.