How to Help Your Kids Pick a College Major

As your children grow up and reach the end of their high school years, they begin to ask themselves what they should do with their lives. Naturally, they will turn to you as a parent to help them decide what they should do. Your answer could help your child become a great success, or crush their dreams. So how do you do it? Each of these steps will require you to spend a considerable amount of time with your teenagers. So be prepared to hear some grumbling, but remind your kids that this is an important task - it will decide the course of their life! (But make sure they know they can change their mind, if they don't like the outcome.) Find Out Their Values Sit down with your kids and draft a list of their personal values. This exercise is very simple and should take no more than 10 minutes. Prioritize their values from most important to least important. The following are examples of personal values you can suggest: -Wealth -Family -Fitness -Environment -Freedom -Challenge -Creativity Look At Their Hobbies Now make a separate list of their hobbies. If your kids don't have a lot of "different hobbies" that they could turn into a career, don't despair. You can't count television as a hobby, but there might be a hidden piece of advice there: they could go into advertising, screenwriting, or photography. Talk to your teenager and find out what they enjoy doing. Most teenagers will have at least a favorite sport, a favorite creative outlet, and a favorite pastime. If your teenager can say that they love their hobby enough to turn it into a career, then it's time to investigate this major as a future career path. Talk It Out Now, whether you've found the right major or not, it is time to talk out your teenager's options. Compare their list of values with the different majors that are readily available at the local colleges, and those you are considering. Do not let the requirements scare you away from any of the choices. If you teenager wants to be a doctor because he or she values community service and health, don't let the numbers scare you. Write down all of their options, and then call it a night. After sleeping on it, meet again a few days later. Your teenager might have had a change of heart or discovered that some of their values or hobbies were not as important as they thought, or that some were more important. Congratulations, you've just given your children the help they needed to make their own decisions about which college major to choose!