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Help in Determining Career and College Choices
1. Determining Career Interest Based on One’s Personality – The Career Interests Game · Enter the URL: http://www.career.missouri.edu/holland . · Read the Welcome and choose which personality type best describes you. · Click on the link of your personality. · Read through the “Are You:”, “Can You:”, “Like To:”, and “Hobbies” sections. If this describes you, go to the box labeled “Career Possibilities”. If this does not describe you click on the back arrow and choose another personality profile that you would consider to be like you. · Choose three careers from the “Career Possibilities” list to further explore. · Click on a career of interest. This will take you to the U.S. Dept. of Labor Occupational Outlook Handbook. Review the various aspects of the career from “Nature of the Work” to “Related Occupations”.
2. Researching a College to Match Your Career Choice(s) · Now that you have read up on three career interests. Choose one that you will further research. Once you have chosen the career, type in the URL: http://www.collegeboard.com. · On the home page, locate the blue box “College Quickfinder” on the left side of the page and click on “Advanced Search”. · Again choose the “Advanced Search” option on this page and click on GO. · On the Advanced Search page, choose the Majors and Academics link. This will take you to a list of majors. Choose the one that most closely fits your career of interest. (e.g. If your career choice is school counselor, find education and click on the “more detail” button on the right. This will take you to the page where you will find Counselor Education. Click in the box on the left of the major.) · Scroll down the page and identify the Academic Programs that interest you. If you have no preference, leave the last box labeled “No Preference” checked. Also look at the ‘Wiredness” section and choose your specifications. · N.B. – On the left side of the page you will notice a blue tabbed index card that will identify the number of matches based on the criteria you have established thus far. · You will now have narrowed down the list of colleges that offer your intended major. (e.g. For Counselor Education, the list has been narrowed to 16 schools.) You have the option of viewing the schools or continuing through the process to narrow your search further. · Continue watching the index card on the left side of the page. When you have narrowed your college search to a manageable number click on see results. Here schools that have met your profile will be listed. You can click on the link to get more information about the school. You also have the opportunity to compare this school to others, find other schools like this one, apply to the school, or add it to your list of potential schools of interest.
3. Researching the Colleges and Universities of Choice · http://www.campustours.com/ is the site that I like for campus information. Here you have the opportunity, in many cases, to go beyond the text and pictures of a traditional website. You can take a virtual tour of many colleges and universities across the United States. The interactive nature of the site will hold your interest as you explore the schools of your choice. Once at the site, just type in the name of the school for which you would like a tour. If available, you will be escorted through various aspects of the campus by a virtual tour guide. Other sites that also offer tours and are recommended by the College Board include the following: http://wwwcollegeview.com and http://collegeexpress.com . Have fun.
Final Assessment · Now that you have researched the colleges and have taken tours, develop a rating scale for the colleges you are looking at. Some factors to pay attention to when choosing a college include but are not limited to: Location Type of college Size Extracurricular activities and organizations Academics Peer groups Financial aid Develop a rating scale for the colleges you are looking at. I suggest a scale of 1-5 with five showing that which most likely will meet your needs. Rate the colleges on the same criteria and total your score. Do your overall ratings reflect what you thought? If not, you may need to further tailor your rating chart to meet your needs.
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 Making an Educated Decision |
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