I wanted to suggest a resource that I've been playing around with, and found helpful.
The College Board site has a product called "My Road" that is kinda cool - its components include:
- Personality testing
- Career exploration
- Majors
- College search
- More!
https://myroad.collegeboard.com/
My idea is that it's a heckuva lot easier to pick a suitable college if you spend time on what the "H-E double hockey-sticks" you're going to do with the
NEXT 40, not just four, years.
The concept is that it's easier to "backward plan" after you spend time thinking about what you want things to look like in five years, when you get out of college.
No, I don't expect anyone to answer the 100-odd questions and walk away with the rest of their life etched in stone, but it's a good starting point!
It's reasonable to have three-four (hopefully overlapping) majors in mind when you head to college.
It's also helpful to use process of elimination to rule out majors and careers that you are not interested in.
An exercise like My Road is a starting point that should get your wheels turning.
Let me know what you think!
- Andy Lockwood
P.S. The cost is only about 20 bucks, which I like too!
P.P.S. Many, not all, high schools use "Naviance" college planning software. Naviance has a similar exercise, which I don't think is as good, but will certainly suffice. In other words, I don't think you need to do both. Check with your high school guidance counselor to see if you can access the personality and career inventories in Naviance.
About Andrew Lockwood, J.D. - Andy is an attorney-turned-"late stage" college finance and admissions consultant. Because of his own horrible experiences with student debt ($100,000 plus between Wesleyan University and St. John's University Law School, where he was trained to write disclaimers like these!), he dedicated his career to helping other children - and parents, avoid needlessly relying on loans and otherwise overpaying for college. See his websites for more information, including his upcoming college planning "secrets" workshop in Syosset.
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