10 Things Parents Should Know About the Transition From High School to College and Career:

  1. Most high school guidance counselors work with twice as many students as is recommended, and their primary focus is on helping as many of their students as possible get into their first choice of college. In terms of timeline, their focus is on the next 6-18 months of the student’s life (from beginning the application process to college acceptance). Their focus is on getting students into college, not getting them out of college or into a successful career.
  2. College admission offices generally do not make any attempt at matching a student’s abilities or gifts to choice of major. If a student meets the college’s basic admission requirements, and there is space available, they will be admitted. Unless they are applying for a major that requires auditions, there is usually little to no evaluation conducted to determine the probability of whether a student can be successful in the particular major that they have chosen. (Note: And I am not in favor of colleges making this type of decision for my child.)
  3. Most colleges don’t care how long it will take your child to graduate – and some don’t care IF they graduate. The evidence is the fact that 36% of college students graduate in 4 years or less, and 58% graduate in 6 years or less. Most studies point to two major culprits: 1) students are not well prepared for college (either academically or from a maturity standpoint), 2) students change their major – often multiple times, resulting in longer stays at college. The average student now takes 5.5 yrs to graduate from college.
  4. Public state universities now cost about $20K/yr, and private select universities can cost over $55K/yr. Do the math on what an ‘extended’ college stay will cost your family.
  5. Students often end up changing their major in college because they put so little thought into choosing a major prior to completing their college applications. It is highly likely that a student’s initial college major field of study will be determined by what they put on their college application form, which is often filled out between 11 p.m. and 1 a.m. on a random weeknight during the fall semester of their senior year in high school. For students planning to attend a liberal arts college where they don’t have to choose a major until after their first or second year in college, beware that the help students are given at that point is only slightly better than a high school student who is ‘winging it’ on their own.
  6. Colleges will provide little to no valid help to your child in terms of aligning their skills, behaviors and interests to a career choice where they can be successful. So when a student decides to change their major, they will rarely have any better information than they did when they chose the first time (except now they do know one major that they do NOT want to pursue). Of the colleges that do try to help by using assessment tools, almost all use tools that are not intended for that purpose, or are not validated or predictive of future job performance. (Sad, but true!)
  7. Job success depends largely on aligning the work that we do with our God-given gifts, and the closer the alignment the easier it is to become successful. It is not just about getting a degree and then getting a job – it is about starting a career where you can achieve God’s plan for your life!
  8. Making a career choice is not a once-in-a-lifetime decision for most people, it is typically a decision that will be made many times over the course of a lifetime, so you should strive to make the best decision possible based on the best information possible each time you face a fork in the road.
  9. Most college degree programs are targeted toward careers that were popular 5 – 10 years ago, not on what is happening in the working world today. It takes time to turn an aircraft carrier around. Choosing a career or major or your life work is a moving target because all of the variables are constantly changing. It should be viewed as a process, not an event. And in every process (especially those about your life), you want to have the best information possible at each decision point.
  10. The speed of change is increasing. This includes jobs and careers. What is popular today may not exist or may be in a totally different form five years from now. Therefore, the best approach is to know how a person is wired or gifted, and use that information to make the best decision possible each time you reach a fork in the road.

The only ones who will be focused on your child’s long term future are you and your child!