<p>Given the tough job market for graduating college kids, can you help me guide my daughter who is a good student (3.8 GPA & 31 ACT) with plenty of extra curricula's (Varsity Sports, Leadership, Community Service, etc). She loves to read and write, but does not really enjoy hard core analytical side of school. THANKS in advance for your ideas and suggestions. College will be an expensive journey so I hope to help her pursue the best path and major</p>
<p>Ask her what she wants to do? Also know, for better or worse, she will change her mind about what she wants to do several times during college and beyond.</p>
<p>My niece went through an interest assessment when she was in high school. It was very comprehensive, taking the better part of a weekend, with the aim of identifying areas in which she had both an interest and an aptitude. She ended up following one of the recommended paths and has been a pharmacist for several years. She really enjoys her work, the good pay and flexibility (which allows her to balance work and family life). Perhaps you could find a similar program.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/15975553-post63.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/15975553-post63.html</a> can help with job and career prospects. (Note also that some common assumptions about what majors have better or worse job and career prospects do not match with the survey results.)</p>
<p>However, job and career prospects should not be the only factor in choosing a major; someone has to actually be interested in and good in a subject to do well in it in school and in any job where it is relevant. Choosing a major with relatively weak job and career prospects is often fine, as long as the student knows going in. Knowing beforehand can allow the student to choose courses of action that mitigate that issue (e.g. avoiding debt, living frugally, being more aggressive with internship and job search, etc.).</p>
<p>You are leaving out her personality, work style and interests…her grades and test scores don’t give any information about what careers she will be successful in.</p>
<p>A fun and interesting book that will help her explore options based on her interests and personality type - “10 Best College Majors for Your Personality”
[10</a> Best College Majors for Your Personality: Laurence Shatkin: 9781593578633: Amazon.com: Books](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Best-College-Majors-Your-Personality/dp/1593578636]10”>http://www.amazon.com/Best-College-Majors-Your-Personality/dp/1593578636)</p>
<p>She is a kind hearted kid with an interest in the sciences (biology preferably over chem), teaching, and an occasional interest in law. While she is a very strong and independent individual, she is not the light hearted gregarious social leader. Please don’t get me wrong, she is a leader but more genuine and straightforward than many of her peers and some friends. She is tremendous athlete, has been a captain, and is being recruited by a few top liberal arts D III colleges. Her priority is academics so she may very well not play in college. I would prefer to share information, other’s experiences, etc to help make the best informed decisions. Thank you!</p>
<p>If she is looking at liberal arts schools, just let her go explore the first year - the gen Ed’s will give her a little taste of lots of subjects.</p>
<p>Both of the universities my kids attended had core course requirements in many areas of study. It gave students a chance to try different things…and usually something piqued their interest. Core courses along with what your daughter enjoys doing will guide her. </p>
<p>To be honest, her GPA and ACT scores are not all that relevant, in my opinion, when choosing a college major.</p>
<p>What does the “hard core analytical side” mean? Different disciplines have very different analytical demands. I found out after college that while being an analytical chemist or computational mathematician probably wouldn’t have been good for me - I really like statistics, especially social science and biostatistics. Also, many majors that are heavy on reading and writing require strong analytical skills (literature, philosophy, economics, political science, sociology). These two are not easily separable.</p>
<p>Why doesn’t she take a few classes that seem interesting in her first year to help her make a decision? If she’s interested in the sciences, she could take a biology class her first semester and maybe a different science class in the spring. Maybe her intended college has environmental sciences or public health (with a natural science concentration) as a major.</p>
<p>All her gpa and test scores suggest to me is that it’s likely that she could do pretty much anything that interests her. I agree with taking some kind of structured assessment and/or starting out as general studies, undeclared, or her best guess with the knowledge that she may get more clarity later.</p>