Helping Your Student Choose a Major or Career

Choosing a major and a career path can be a daunting decision. Nationwide, 80 percent of college-bound students still haven't fully decided on a major, and half of those that have will change majors at least once, according to MyMajors.com.

How You Can Help
As family, your role is to help your student understand themselves and provide support, but the career choice must be their own. Families are the primary influence on their children's interests, beliefs, values, knowledge and self-concept.

To be a good partner in your student's career search, you should support interests – even if they are different from your own – and help encourage your student to explore occupations and learn more about areas they might be interested in through informational interviews, job shadowing and research.

Lastly, you should encourage your student to schedule a career appointment with our Career & Professional Development office.

How We Help

• We provide individual career counseling and use assessments to help students explore their interests, values, skills and personality as they relate to choosing a major and career. We also assist students interested in graduate school and post-graduate service by helping them research and apply to programs.
• We help students seeking professional experiences during college. Experience can be gained via volunteer work, part-time jobs, summer jobs, undergraduate research, leadership positions and internships. 
• Searching for a job can be a full-time job and we support students throughout the process. We teach students job search skills and expectations of employers and help to build their confidence throughout their search.