Don't "Wing It" When It Comes To College
Planning for College Starts Early in High School
During the school year, September-May, I am on the road recruiting every week except for 2 weeks at Christmas. I’m able to interact with thousands of high school students every year about their plans after graduation. There are times (too many to count) when I talk with seniors and I ask them what program they want to study in college and I get a blank stare or an “I’m not sure” answer. Then they proceed to give me a list of 2-3 or sometimes 5-6 programs of study that they are contemplating. Now there’s nothing wrong with thinking about several majors while you are in high school. The problem comes when you can’t decide on one before you go to college.
Choosing a Major is a Hard Decision
Statistics vary depending on what study you look at but the percentage of college students who change their major at least once in college is somewhere between 30%-40%. In an InsideHighered.com article dated December 2017, Doug Lederman writes, “Almost a third of first-time college students choose a major and then change it at least once within three years…About one in 10 had changed majors twice.” What happens when a student can’t decide on a major? They stay in college longer or they never finish college. And the longer a college student stays in college the more debt they accumulate which leads many to quit college altogether.
Jeff Selingo, in his best-selling book There Is Life After College (I’ll have my review of Jeff’s book in a later blog) writes, “How young adults start their careers is largely a result of their choices during their undergraduate studies, according to the survey. Based on the results of the survey, your best bet is to choose a major early on in school and then line up the appropriate internships and work experiences throughout your undergraduate career. Students who switch majors often or took a long time to settle on a major and then didn’t have any internships in college struggled in settling into a career.”
Tips on Choosing a Major
This is why I believe it is important for high school students to choose a major while they are in high school. And the earlier in high school that you can make this decision and stick to it the better off you are going to be. Here are some tips that I give to high school students on choosing a program of study for college.
First of all, think about the subjects you really enjoy in high school. Most, if not all, of your subjects in high school can translate into programs of study in college. If you enjoy those studies in high school, most likely you will enjoy them in college as well. And if you enjoy a subject you are going to get good grades in that subject.
Second, think about hobbies or extra-curricular activities that you enjoy. If you are a student-athlete in high school and you love sports, there are many programs of study in college that have to do with sports (Sports Management is one of many). If you love photography, that’s a great program of study in college. If you love cooking and baking, think about Culinary Arts or Restaurant Management.
Thirdly (and this is very important), if you have two, three, or even more majors that you are thinking about while you are in high school and you can’t decide which one to choose, it might help to “shadow” someone in that industry. If you are thinking about Premed as a program, ask a physician if you can “shadow” him/her for a few days. This will show you what a typical day is like in the life of a doctor and will give you some idea as to whether you are going to enjoy that profession or not. If you’re thinking of Nursing, “shadow” a nurse. Agriculture? “Shadow” a farmer for a few days. Architecture or Engineering? You get the picture. There are many professionals who would welcome high school students to follow them around and see what they do on a daily basis. Don’t waste your summers lounging at the pool from sun up to sundown. Do something productive for your future!
If you are a freshman in high school this year, start thinking about and planning for college right now. Determine that you are going to study hard and make good grades. A high GPA is going to help you qualify for top money in scholarships. Make good decisions while you’re in high school. Those good decisions will certainly set you on a path to making good decisions about college.
Formulate a plan for college while you are in high school. And one of the goals of that plan should be to finish in four years or less. You will save yourself a lot of student loan debt if that is your plan. But it all starts with a plan.
Don’t “wing it” when it comes to college.