Computer and Information Science; Vol. 15, No. 1; 2022 ISSN 1913-8989 E-ISSN 1913-8997 Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education 1 A Decision Support System for Undecided and Exploratory Students Sobitha Samaranayake 1 , Athula D. A. Gunawardena 1 , & Robert Meyer 2 1 Department of Computer Science, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, Whitewater, USA 2 Department of Computer Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, USA Correspondence: Sobitha Samaranayake, Department of Computer Science, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, Whitewater, WI 53190, USA. Received: October 14, 2021 Accepted: November 10, 2021 Online Published: November 30, 2021 doi:10.5539/cis.v15n1p1 URL: https://doi.org/10.5539/cis.v15n1p1 Abstract Choosing a major can be a difficult choice for undeclared students, depending on personal interests, job markets, program costs, and the complexity of graduation requirements. The current procedure for exploring possible majors/minors involves a tedious and time-consuming exploration of static data presented in a convoluted format. This work considers the complexity of degree requirements and presents the design and implementation of an efficient decision support system (DSS) for exploring majors and/or minors. The DSS presents a tool that enables college students to map their already completed courses to degree requirements and then view the majors/minors that yield the shortest path for graduation. Secondly, the DSS system provides data visualization tools to assist students in selecting courses that satisfy the remaining requirements of a selected major/minor. Keywords: decision support system, undecided major, data visualization, college degree planning 1. Introduction It is estimated that 20 to 50 percent of students enter college in the U.S. as undecided or undeclared, without having decided on a focus for their studies, and more than 50 percent of students change their major at least once before graduation (Gordan & Steel, 2015). There are many reasons for the indecision of college students, including decision-making difficulties, gender differences, cultural differences, indecisive students, and types of career indecision (Soria & Stebletin, 2013). Many undecided students are skeptical about how their personal strengths and limitations relate to coursework required in particular majors. Furthermore, choosing a major may depend on personal interests, job market, program cost, or the complexity of graduation requirements (Pozzebon, Ashton, & Visser, 2014). Many students make initial choices based on their interests but change their majors because of changing career interests or academic interests (Bullock-yowell, McConnell, & Schedin, 2014). The key to graduating in four years is choosing a major early and sticking with it. If undeclared students take too long to declare a major, then it may affect their intended graduation date. In addition, changing majors may keep students in college past their intended graduation date and drive up their debt. Hence, higher education institutions have prioritized supporting undecided students with their major and career decisions. Wang and Orr (2019) used data analytics to inform decision-making in academic advising and support undecided students’ academic success. Halasz and Bloom (2019) examined the resources students identified as most valuable and the factors most influential in their decision to transition out of selective majors. Streufert (2019) investigated the effects of alternative advising, such as coping with loss, managing anxiety, and restoring self-efficacy, on renewing focus of undeclared students so that they stay focused and graduate on time. Marade and Brinthaupt (2018) examined reasons for students to change a college major. Iyer and Variawa (2019) used supervised Machine Learning classification algorithms to analyze the potential inclination of the undecided/undeclared first-year engineering students at the University of Toronto. Glaessgen, MacGregor, Cornelius-White, Hornberger, and Baumann (2018) examined the challenges and experiences of first-generation undecided students transitioning to a new and unfamiliar academic environment. The relationship between academic major change and ten personality traits (the five broad and five narrow traits) was investigated in Foster (2017). Ongoing research explores different strategies that support undecided students in their major and career decisions. However, there is a dearth of degree planning for comparing different major/minor combinations. Undeclared students may wish to find, depending on their completed and transferred courses, possible major(s) that better align with their interests and career opportunities. From an algorithmic perspective, choosing such a