Smart but unmotivated HS junior

vwlizard
Sat, 25 Feb 2023 00:37:51 +0000

When S23 was a bit further along in the process and picked some schools that interested him based on his “thought” that he wanted to be a biomedical engineer, I pulled up the statistic that 1 in 3 college students change their major while working on their degree. Some statistics say 50%-70%. The statistics for engineering are that 50% will drop engineering altogether.

I made him pick out 3 other majors at each school that he might want to major in. Not only did this ensure he had options if he wanted to switch majors, but it also made him explore a few majors he hadn’t thought about. Some of the majors were other types of engineering or STEM majors and some were completely different such as public policy or natural resource conservation. Spoiler alert: By the time he applied, he realized that wildlife biology and conservation was a much better fit.

Not only did this exercise steer him toward a major that I feel he will be much happier in, it really made him aware that he was much more interested in larger (state) schools than small liberal arts schools or polytech/pre-professional type schools.