Start with Career – Not College – in Mind
By Lisa Mader, LEAP 2Success
Approximately 80% of freshmen have not declared a college major. 50% of those who have declared a major will change their major during college. 70% of college students will change their major.
The numbers evidence students not being dialed into who they are before making MAJOR decisions. This is a costly mistake. Most parents who have saved for college plan on their child graduating in 4 years. What is the possibility of graduating from college in 4 years for a student who changes majors over and over or transfers? Simply put, not possible.
Roadmap
The typical student embarks on the college selection journey by choosing the college they love, then a major and finally finding a career the major will feed to. Going against the grain, LEAP suggests students embark on the journey with the end in mind – Career. Instead of focusing on the FOUR YEARS a student will be in college, turn the attention to the 40+ years the student will work.
The roadmap should be focused on the student’s wiring. Answer first, “What am I wired to do?” While there’s not one simple answer to this question, scientifically dialing into personality with the Birkman Method® allows the student to easily identify what they AREN’T wired to do and begin to create buckets of like careers for exploration. These career possibilities would be satisfying as individual NEEDS are met and INTERESTS embraced. The Birkman® assessment identifies 77 personality scores.
Back-Up
Once careers are established, the student should back up to the majors that feed to these careers. Sometimes it’s one major as is the case with teaching or engineering, but often there are several options that would feed to the career. After the appropriate majors are established, students can do their research on what colleges are well respected for their major.
Career needs to be at the forefront of these MAJOR decisions on the college bound journey. As a College Planning Relief Specialist, I offer LEAP 2College 2Career Birkman® based coaching. LEAP 2College 2Career is an Investment in College Savings.
