My D22 is like your D, a terrific writer who’s also great in math and science—an all around terrific student. She went through a variety of phases with her areas of interest, thinking about everything from being a surgeon to being a lawyer. Her ECs were mostly in theater, music, journalism and some political/government service. She veered toward the humanities later in high school and into her first year of college, first choosing political science, then switching to history. But later she found she missed math, and so is now an Economics double major. And she now thinks she’ll be switching to Communications instead of History, as a sophomore in college. She no longer wishes to be a lawyer or a surgeon, has done more research into careers and sees a variety of possibilities in strategy, marketing, advertising, journalism and more.
This is all to say—encourage your daughter to celebrate being a well rounded student who excels in a lot of areas. It’s a terrific thing to be. The future will take so many twists and turns and it’s all part of life.
This is fairly extensive prelaw planning guide, offered by Hamilton College: Law - Law School Planning Guide - Hamilton College. Interestingly, the site recommends specific tools for self-evaluation, such as Myers–Briggs. With respect to major selection, the general suggestion is to “study what you love.” Nonetheless, several courses and categories of courses oriented toward preparation for law school are recommended.
It is way too early to be concerned about this. Anyone can study anything and apply to law school. Virtually no high school activities will have an impact on an eventual law school application, other than her doing things that interest her.
Let’s look at the more important issue, which in my opinion is this:
It’s concerning because you say this:
Can I suggest that your daughter focus on contributing to her community or causes she believes in? Those are going to be far more impactful to her eventual college app, and will benefit her throughout her life. She should be doing things she cares about right now. That’s how she will have a stand out application.
Yes she is very much into environmental issues and animals rights etc. She created a campaign for a recycling project for her middle school and had a huge success, which led the school make some changes in recycling practices. She told me she wants to do more of these things in high school.
This is a great idea! My son volunteered in a nature center working to preserve the Forrest (something he continued throughout all 4 years of high school including today), he ended up joining the action club, taking a college course at Notre Dame on sustainability and building a sustainability garden for an elementary school because of it. I know that at the nature center they also have roles with the animals (feeding, caring for them, etc).
She isn’t the only 9th grade who doesn’t know what she wants to major in once she gets to college. She just needs to do her best, enjoy her ECs, enjoy a great social life, eat, sleep, and probably get a summer part time job.