A Step In The Right Direction
One step in the right direction.... What directions? What kind of step? Where will it lead?
We ask ourselves this everyday. Beginning life in college naturally generates both excitement and anxiety for many reasons including the move, academic responsibilities, and meeting new people. For some, this apprehension is quickly overcome as they adapt to a new environment; for others the transition takes longer and in some cases comes with unexpected surprises.
This takes me back four months ago as I was sitting on the plane, quietly reading my book, when I overheard two ladies behind me discussing what seemed to be the future of their children. One of the women was proudly telling her friend that she was overjoyed that her son decided to follow in the steps of his father towards a degree in medicine. She then expressed that it only made sense as his father had established a good network and had built the perfect practice for his son to take over. I could not help but wonder when she continued to say that he always excelled in school when it came to his biology classes. I wanted so badly to turn around and ask the woman whether anyone asked her son if a future in medicine was something he really hoped to achieve?" I will never know the answer to this but I can pretty much tell you that it is heartbreaking how many college bound young people are making uninformed decisions about their future.
Let me give you some facts; according to The NCES (National Center for Education Statistics), 80 percent of students end up changing their major at least once and on average students change their major at least three times over the course of their college career. This huge percentage leads us to ask ourselves a few questions; What is the reason for change? How much does this cost financially? How much does this cost emotionally? How much time does the student waste? How can this be avoided?
On Many occasions I have seen first year college students come into my office and sit in front of me speechless and unable to voice their concerns and face their fears. It takes me several sessions before we can in most cases come to the conclusion that they are unhappy with the path they have chosen and are afraid to change. Most frequent reasons I hear are that the student is worried about humiliation and complete confusion of what the future might hold. There are times that students are so worked up in their negative thoughts that they miss to see that a small change will steer the direction and in most cases not cost them any loss of time or credits.
So this brings us to the most frequently asked questions; How do we avoid this? How can I help my child make the right decision? How can I, the student, make the most informed decision about my future? Where do I begin to find answers? How early should a person start figuring out their future? We can never completely eliminate the possibility of a student changing majors, but we hope to minimize the probability of this through ongoing research and in most cases through hands on experience. We advise a student to utilize self-assesment tools to drill down into what majors may be a good fit for them based upon aptitude, interest, knowledge and values. It is never too early to start making use of these tools as they can be administered as early as the student's first year in high school. The best advise I usually give parents is to expose the student to as many internships and information as too much is never enough. Meanwhile hiring a career coach or a counselor will help to keep the student on the right track. Figuring out their future is one of the most challenging decisions a person will ever have to make, however the key is to make sure what majors may be a good fit based on each individual student. Bottom line - we should all want to be successful and learn more about ourselves - what we like and what we don't like. What captures our attention and keeps it? What does not? Picking a major should provide a student with balance, interest and abilities to be successful and enthusiastic about their future.
