College Preparation

The first time that I had really done any research or thought about college was the beginning of my freshman year. It was in a required class called career essentials. We were assigned to take a few quizzes that would give us ideas for careers that we might like based on interests and values. We then had to choose a few of the suggested careers and then pick the college we would go to for that career. After doing all of this work, throughout the rest of high school I felt confused and misguided because I was forced to choose a career and college as a fourteen-year-old. Because of this I personally don’t feel that I should spend my whole high school career stressing about what I’m going to do and where I’m going to go and neither should middle school students. I think it is always good to think of career options growing up, but we should not be forced to decide at a young age. This is especially true since many college students change their major in college anyways. Saying all of this, I think that it is always a good idea to think of options for college and jobs, but it should not be forced upon kids to decide at that young age. I think that an appropriate time to really look into college and majors is junior year of high school. This is also the time students should start applying for scholarships so that they aren’t slumped with college decisions their senior year.

In a leadership institute that I am in, there was a meeting with college students who were also in the same institution in high school. There were about six girls and they were talking about their careers in college. They all told us the major that they picked as a high schooler and the major that they have chosen now as a senior in college. Every single one of them had changed their major. This is why I feel that middle schoolers and young high schoolers should not be asked to pick a college and major that young because it is very likely that throughout high school and college it will change just like it has for me. I feel that there is no need to stress about college multiple years before they will even need to decide. Throughout high school I personally have friends who are older who told me how they stressed about a major for so long and felt like they needed to have it all figured out by their junior year. The odds were that they changed their major in college when they got to college anyways.

Although I say all of this if you look at the opposing side of this topic, it is never a bad thing to look forward to college and adult life. Children grow up always telling people what they want to be when they’re older and most of the time it isn’t what they actually do in the future. It is never a bad thing to be prepared and think about career options before senior year because that will help take some stress off the last year of high school. Something that can help students get ready for college is applying for scholarships their Junior year which can also help take a lot of stress about college off. Overall, it is never a bad idea to be prepared for the future but kids also should not have to spend some of the best years of their life stressing about something that will most likely change in the future anyways.

“Day 3 of back to school/work–early morning empty classroom ” by elasticcamel is marked with CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.