<p>I’m in a quandary. D is a HS Junior, and we’re starting the process of college selection.</p>
<p>The challenge is that she doesn’t have a clearly defined passion, so how should she decide what to study?</p>
<p>She’s a good student (PSAT 190, Weighted GPA ~3.9), with consistent scores across the arts and sciences.</p>
<p>Outside of class, she’s very active. He primary passion is dance, but since knee surgery in her sophomore year this has been balanced with debate (she loves to be on a stage, performing for an audience).</p>
<p>Any advice on how to help her try to narrow the search ?</p>
<p>Unless she’s going into a field with difficult and sequential prerequisites, e.g., sciences or engineering, she doesn’t have to decide right away. She’ll probably start out with some distribution requirements which will expose her to several fields and she might discover her interests that way. She doesn’t need to decide right away. She can take some intro courses in several areas that might interest her (and, these courses might also meet some of her gen ed requirements).</p>
<p>I don’t know that you’ve given enough information to make very many suggestions. If she likes debate, what about political science? Or, rhetoric/speech communication? Or, if she likes to perform on stage, what about performance studies/theatre/oral interpretation? If it’s not feasible for her to perform as a dancer due to an injury, she can still study aspects of it—what about anthropology or ethnomusicology, where she might be able to study performance arts in other cultures? If she likes performing arts, what about arts administration? If she likes to perform and she’s also good at public speaking, what about communications or public relations? If she’s likes to perform and she’s a good communicator, I’ll assume she’s outgoing, so any fields that involve public contact might be good, like certain areas of business or broadcast journalism or teaching. Or, if she can handle the science, and since she’s experienced an injury herself, would she have any interest in a field like physical therapy? In part, the answer depends on what majors and minors are available at the particular school she attends.</p>
<p>Agree, the technical/professional degrees like nursing or engineering and some business programs have a pretty prescribed curriculum, but most kids go in undecided and need to declare by sophomore year. Depending on where she goes, her freshman year and into her sophomore year may very well be spent taking required general education courses which gives kids a chance to “sample” various areas of study. I told my #1 and #2 get to college, sample your classes to fill your gen ed requirements and then major in something you like and something you do well at. #3 has an “interest” in engineering but also like economics and more “business-y” classes so I’m helping him find schools were he can have abit of time to settle down and figure it out. Do not fret at all if she “isn’t” decided. High school kids aren’t exposed to the variety of education possibilities that they will have in college.</p>
<p>She has considered political science/international studies, but is concerned about where that would lead post-school. (This concern may be a reflection of my lack of knowledge about career prospects).</p>
<p>Her other stated thoughts are pre-law and pre-med, but I feel she’s saying this because they sound like sensible choices, rather than she’s passionate about them.</p>
<p>I think a liberal arts school which allows her to explore for a bit looks like the best route.</p>
<p>Pre-law and pre-med can be done from any major, although pre-med has some course requirements (pre-law does not). However, both law schools and medical schools are very test (LSAT or MCAT) and GPA oriented in their admissions, which leads to the less-than-complimentary stereotype of pre-law and pre-med students as grade grubbers and students who seek “easy A” courses. A political science major is likely to find a decent number of pre-law students in his/her major, due to that major’s popularity among pre-law students.</p>
<p>Small liberal arts colleges may be more limiting than big universities for exploring, due to a more limited number of departments and course offerings. Their main advantages are usually smaller class sizes and undergraduate focus.</p>
<p>I think junior year is a little early to worry about this. A lot can happen in the next year and a half, and in the first year or two of college as well.</p>
<p>Maybe she could just pick schools based on factors other than a major. Location, size, vibe.</p>
<p>Also, some schools (small LAC’s) allow a lot of flexibility in study, where she could study both dance and theater, or political science, for instance, without the kind of defined major that most schools offer. Hampshire, Bennington, Sarah Lawrence, others.</p>
<p>Is she still dancing? Ballet, or modern or jazz? PM me if you want. One of my kids is a dancer and we ran the gamut of choices for a couple of years. She is very happy where she landed.</p>
Even if she goes that way she doesn’t have to decide right away. She’s a junior in HS, she still has a year and a half before she even gets to college. Even then, if she switches to engineering or say physics, it would just add more time. Nothing is impossible.</p>
<p>
Repeat after me: “It’s not my quandary. It’s D’s quandary. It’s not my quandary. It’s D’s quandary.”</p>
<p>They may be flexible in the areas of study that they offer. Some schools have very limited course offerings in some or many subjects. For example, Sarah Lawrence College has only seven courses in politics (see its [course</a> catalog](<a href=“Disciplines and Programs of Study | Sarah Lawrence College”>Disciplines and Programs of Study | Sarah Lawrence College)), although it has a very large selection of courses for students who want to concentrate in the visual and performing arts.</p>