#240 College Majors, Admissions, and Career Direction: Your Questions Answered Transcript

THIS IS AN AUTOMATED TRANSCRIPT… PLEASE FORGIVE THE TYPOS & GRAMMAR! xo-Lisa.

Lisa Marker-Robbins  00:00

Is your young person heading into a new school year still unsure about a college major, wondering whether applying undecided is a smart move or not, or looking at colleges without knowing how easy it will be to change direction once they get on campus? Those might sound like separate questions, but they’re all pointing to a bigger issue. Families are being asked to make some very expensive decisions, often before their young person has enough evidence to feel confident about the direction in which they are heading. On August 5th, I hosted a live majors and admissions Q&A for families, and the questions were so good and so representative of what I hear from you guys every single day that I just had to share part of the conversation with my podcast listeners. We talked about what undecided really means, how colleges treat and support exploratory students differently, why changing your mind can actually be a good thing, what evidence colleges want to see behind a potential major choice, how to evaluate whether changing majors will be possible once your students on campus, and even some of the application logistics that seniors are navigating right now. But as you listen, I want you to pay attention to a bigger theme underneath all of those questions. Your young person does not need to know what they are going to do for the next 40 years, but they do need to become an intentional explorer who knows how to make thoughtful decisions about what comes next. I’m Lisa Marker Robbins, and I want to welcome you to College and Career Clarity, a flourish coaching production. Let’s dive right into a great event. You guys are going to love this. Theme number one that surfaced across your questions. I’m gonna call it exploring and deciding, and I’ve got my color-coded spreadsheet that came in from our Google form right over there. So if you see me looking, that’s what I’m going to be doing. And there were questions about my kid is undecided. There was a lot about undecided here, right? How should I declare undecided? Whether the implications of undecided were making some pivots and things like that. And so, here’s what I feel like happens underneath this pocket, this group of questions. I think I believe, and I know Vicky and Kayla believe with me that society that we have created what is I would say a false choice. Right, the choices are not know exactly all for all you know 40 years that you might work or be undecided. Okay, there is a much greater area in between that, right? And that is become an intentional explorer. That’s what I want you guys to think about. Is I go through the questions that were submitted in what I color coded as green, and so the green is really it’s it’s where the undecided questions go. But it’s between exploring and deciding. It is not knowing for 40 years. I’m going to tell you. I’ve talked to these colleges over and over and over and over and over for 30 years. They do not expect your kid to know what they want to do for the rest of their life. And when I see that question, it drives me crazy because nobody’s asking or expecting a kid to do that. Not even the the most selective schools with the most competitive programs. Okay, so let’s as we go through these questions, let’s think about how we can become an intentional explorer. This is about career development being lifelong. Like if I stayed stuck of where I was in 1991 when I graduated from college, yes, I’m old. I’m 57, and I never would have continued to develop myself and my career, I’d probably be very unemployed at this point, right? Wouldn’t have all my savings for wouldn’t have all of my savings for retirement or anything like that.

Lisa Marker-Robbins  04:51

Development and discovery can be lifelong, and when we but when we can put an early filter on the. Bad fits. It benefits all of us. So while I’ve continued to discover and develop, I knew what didn’t fit for me. A lot of questions were about, gosh, it’s senior year. Is this too late? If you’ve got a 12th grader, put yes in the chat. Just give me a yes or a yay or a or a why. Got lots of senior families, and I know we’ve got younger ones too. And I know some of you are are giving. You’ve got multiple kids that you’re thinking about, right? I want everybody to hear me. There’s a lot of feelings with the Common App that opened on Saturday. It’s not too late. It actually can be early sometimes. It’s never too late. But if you’ve got a sophomore or a junior, it’s even better to begin this. So let’s talk first, and then I’m going to answer some specific questions. There are four. I’ll call them flavors, sort of. Of I don’t even know if it’s four. There are different flavors of undecided, right? And I want you to think about how the colleges treat undecided as I talk through these. So there are kiddos that are fully undecided. They they just really don’t have a clue. Okay, they they aren’t sure what to think. There are colleges and liberal. There are universities and there are liberal arts colleges that are very welcoming to fully undecided kiddos who are going to come in and they’re going to explore and discover and create a path for themselves. The reality is, 74% of those who go to some kind of college, college or university, we’re going to discern here the difference after 12th grade. Here’s the difference: 74% of you are going to land on a university campus, universities are far more likely to expect more direction or admit by major, and they do things very differently than liberal arts colleges, where 26% of the students go. So, the the schools that really wrap around really well and embrace fully undecided our liberal arts in just a handful of universities. When we did a study, Kayla helped me with this in 2024. We did a study of the 50 state flagships, and there were only four of the 50 that were very welcoming for every path for fully undecided students. So, this is how I want you to begin to think about this. There are some colleges on the Common App that they’ll offer an undeclared, undecided exploratory studies. We’re going to talk about how to how to vet those, right? Then there’s a group that does undecided by college specific, so they might have business undecided, engineering undecided, arts and sciences undecided. That is another option. So see, there are different flavors of what we mean by undecided. Now let me go over and pull up some of your very specific questions as it related to undecided. So you know, here’s oops. Okay, if my student isn’t sure what they there’s two questions that were almost identical. I felt if my student isn’t sure what they want to major in yet, what should they be doing now to avoid wasting time and money later? And I’m gonna couple that with, should my child declare an undecided major? So, I almost never give an immediate need answer of yes or no to this specific question. Okay, because here’s what I really want to know: Why are they undecided? Okay, why are they undecided? And honestly, that’s exactly what the colleges want to know when we’re facing applications, when we’re writing the why this major essay, when you’re declaring the major. They just really want to know the why behind the response. So the first question that I I’m going to turn this around and ask a question for you guys. If you have a child that you’re like they are convinced they’re undecided, why are they undecided? Okay, were they? And we got some questions about this that we’re going to put in the next category, which is the building evidence category, which I’ll get to in just a second. But is it that they began to build evidence? They began to intentionally explore and validate, and they learned something that they just said, “Yeah, that’s not the path for me. That’s normal.

Lisa Marker-Robbins  09:34

We celebrate that in my community and in how we work with students. Even when you get a no. That’s reason to celebrate because it’s leading towards clarity. Okay, and it is perfectly, my friends, perfectly fine. Hear me loud and clear for you to say, and we’ve got some questions about this. I was on a path, and I found out that it. Didn’t fit. Now the other side of that is some of you, and I don’t want to sound judgy this way, but some of you, your your kiddos saying I’m undecided because they haven’t created the space to do intentional. It it really takes intention and attention, intention and attention, to do this right. Like many things in life, right? I didn’t. I haven’t built businesses. I’ve built four businesses in my lifetime and sold two of them, right? I I don’t do that without creating the space to do the work and having an intention behind it. So for some of you, it’s not too late, but it that undecided what under what’s underneath it might be the indicator that it’s time to start having intention and attention along this line. Okay, to support the outcomes, I had a lot of questions about like this could get expensive, right? So, oh, I see. Somebody just put in another question in the form, so I will try to get to that one too. I’ve got the form right in front of me. Okay, I get another question, and this person-it was two questions basically from the same person. There seems to be a push to have my daughter, a rising senior, write her supplemental essays, why Boulder, so CU Boulder, and why Syracuse essays, which both refer to her potential major. The same person also asked a question about Elon and University of Delaware. Okay, so I’m going to kind of talk about these schools, but when I talk about these specific schools, you can apply what I’m teaching and what you’re thinking to the myriad of schools that are out there, right? So when she says why Boulder, why Syracuse, they’re really asking. There’s some wording around the why this why this school or why this major essay that really says tell us how you know right and to put that in the supplemental essays feels like it would lock her in a bit for a school same person we toured Eline University of Delaware and learned about the great support they offer for undecided kids probably every school offers that. We’ll talk about exploratory studies programs, and some might require that students are proactive in seeking that support out. We prefer this family prefers a culture where it’s a given that they will explore undecided. Kids would have the perk of availability automatically. How do we determine if a school offers that level of support and have the com and have comment or let’s see how have comment or how how easy it is is it to access? So three of the four schools. I’m going to move that over to the other screen for a second. Three of the four schools that this family mentioned are university, university research level institutions, and all three of those-Delaware, Boulder, Syracuse-admit to major. And when it comes to competitive majors, yes, you can go in undecided or exploratory studies, but you can’t always switch into the most competitive or the popular majors. And so, what do I mean when I’m talking about those majors? Competitive could be, and there’s there’s one-offs. It could be competitive for that university, like the University of Arkansas has a super competitive to get into architecture program, architecture is not competitive everywhere, right? Computer science, engineering, nursing-they all tend to be competitive, right? So if you go into a university that admits other students senior year to directly to their major. It can be even they could have the best exploratory studies program ever. It can be a hard nut to crack to get into that program. So Elon might be the perfect school for this family who really wants this discovery and design along the way, and to be supported in a different way because they don’t admit to major at Elon. So that’s a question: whether you have a sophomore, a junior, a senior. That’s the question that you want to be asking before your kid ever starts pouring themselves into additional essays for these colleges.

Lisa Marker-Robbins  14:47

Okay, a great question was asked, and it reminded me of a conversation I had with the University of Virginia on our podcast last Tuesday. Did anybody listen to that? Just give me a yes in the chat if you did. If not, it was really. Fantastic! It was for the person who’s head of career discovery and design at the University of Virginia Arts and Sciences, and we had a really fantastic conversation. And she was talking about even thank you, Denise. She was a great guest. I don’t know about your host, but it was a great conversation. She was talking about even at the University of Virginia. It’s an awesome, awesome school, you guys. Right? Could we all agree with that? They, if every student came to them to their career services, they can only service about 1/3 of their student body. Now, the person that asked the question about Elon and University of Delaware and opting in. When these kiddos get out of our homes and onto campus, they do have to opt in. If your student was on an IEP or a 504 and they’re entitled to any accommodations once they get to college, they have to opt in and go seek it out. They no longer come to them. If they get into an exploratory studies or, you know they’re going to take classes, but you’ve got to opt in. One of the things that I’m super passionate about that I believe that we need to do a better job with with our students with before they leave our houses is building agency, because whether it’s let’s say University of Cincinnati here, right down the road. Founder of the co-op, fantastic program, but students have to seek it out, and they got to secure their co-ops. Even though lots of employers are coming to their campus, okay, they’ve got to have agency. They’ve got we’ve got to teach them how to be courageous. Courage, go Paragats is right. My daughter graduated from there in 24, and my husband did, and my and my father did as well. So, courage comes before confidence, and we’ve got to teach them how to be courageous and how to navigate email and all the things, so that we’ve got kids who can go out and they can opt in, they can be at the front of the line, because the reality is, at the colleges, for internships, for employers, they expect the kids to take action. And what I am going to tell you is, when I see kids intentionally become explorers and validators on careers, they learn the executive functioning skills that serve a greater piece of their journey into adulthood. It’s super important. Okay, let me look if I got all the green questions. I think I did. Okay, if you have further, more specific, undecided questions, put them in the chat. I’ll get to them in just a little bit. The next theme that came up is I named it the building evidence theme. Okay, when I talk a lot, I gotta get some water. This is my blue category for tonight. I have everything beautifully color coded here. So I had questions about extracurriculars. We had a lot of you submit questions about engineering, and business was secondary, so I had a lot about like what are the right extracurriculars? What about switching from STEM to business? We’re gonna get into your specific questions that were submitted. How to write the why this major essay? Because if you listen to this week’s podcast on my show, we talked about the why this major is not about the major. It’s about the evidence, the intentional evidence that supports the choice. Okay, evidence is exploration and validation exercises. So it’s not about like, did I do this club? Am I a founder? Am I a leader? It’s not about checking boxes. It’s really answering the question when we when we get underneath what’s underneath this evidence block. Why do you believe this is your next step? It can be a lot of things. It can lean into the coursework you’ve taken, job shadows, informational interviews, internships. Yes, they do exist for high school students. They really do. Research, hobbies, business, volunteering, and you know what? I’m gonna I’m gonna probably go here next. I think a very specific question for a student that changed their mind from STEM to business.

Lisa Marker-Robbins  19:12

I personally actually like it when students change their mind because it means that a they’re exploring, and b they learn something maybe about themselves that they didn’t know. You know, self awareness is the number one predictor of future success, and that is a study done by about Fortune 100 CEOs. It wasn’t where they went to college, it wasn’t their socio economic background, it was the level of self awareness that they have, and that’s what I support is let’s get self aware enough, and then go out there and connect it to real world career opportunities. Let’s do it that way. Explore and validate. So when they change their mind, they’ve done something, whether they’ve. Learned something about themselves, or they’ve learned something about the world of work, and now they have a story to tell. So the question that came in, let me drag it over here, so I’m not like looking sideways the whole time. Let me get to the right question here. You guys were great with your questions. Okay, I have a student who has switched their major preference after realizing one wasn’t for them. They are a senior with many activities that supported their past to focus on their path to focus on STEM. How can we pivot this to the new major without looking on applications, like we’re trying to trick our way into an easier admission slot or major. The new focus is business. Okay, couple things here. What go back to what I just said. I love it when we change our mind because we’ve learned something. And I would write the new focus of you know you’ve got an additional information section on the Common App that you could use for this. I don’t normally advise. I know we have some IECs in the room, and you can pop in your opinions if you want. I don’t normally tell people to use the additional additional information section on the main part of the Common App unless they have a really compelling reason why. So if it’s not express, you don’t want to ever repeat yourself in the comment app. But unless you, if you haven’t expressed it through an essay or somewhere else, you could put it there. As long as you can say, give the why behind the change and say it might look like it might be confusing to you to see business. You know what? I got confused second semester junior year or summer before senior year. Here’s what I discovered, and you know what? At first, it was discouraging, but then I decided to count it as a win because I learned something about myself and I know more about work, and now I really feel like this is the right direction for me to head in, and I can’t wait to further discover, design, and explore and validate this path when I get on your campus, and that’s where I want to do it. So that is how I would answer that question when you’ve got the pivot. This is not uncommon at all because a lot of times, teachers, well-meaning adults in their lives, are telling them, “You’re really good at math. You should go to engineering. Well, I’ll tell you what. I’m master certified in the Berkman Personality Assessment. I’ve given it to over 4000 people, 4000 young people to date since 2010, and guess what? A desire, a aptitude for math, a like of math, a passion for math, is not the strongest predictor of who will be a happy engineer. And parents, here’s what I know: you, like me, all we really want is well-adjusted, happy, thriving, independent kids. That’s all we really want, and so if they got to know, that’s okay, right? I also because engineering and then engineering number one and business number two were the questions, the career or the majors that you guys asked me the most about. I gotta say something about this. The three most common, and some of you have heard me say this before, the three most common majors that are often, not always, often code for, I don’t know, or maybe I’m undecided, are engineering, nursing, and business. And why is that? They’re known. We know what they are, right? Or we think we know what engineering is. I think a lot, most people don’t really know what engineering is on the daily, right?

Lisa Marker-Robbins  23:50

But you certainly know nursing, and you’ve got examples of business. They look to have good employment probability. They look to have stability in them, right? And people know what they are, so they gravitate over there, right? And so, anybody that has a kiddo that you’re, if you’re sitting here going like, as Lisa talks about intention and exploration and validation and all of those things, as she talks about that, and I sit here and go, “Uh, I’m not sure if we’ve done enough of that. Here’s what I want to encourage you to do: if no matter what their major is, but really specifically, if it’s a competitive major, if it’s one of those, because those three are hard to get into, and they’re competitive at most schools, say, “What have you done in your past to know that this might be your first step into work, not your forever step. First step. And what do you think you might do with it? That’s really based about. And somebody said they were from Urbana, Champaign, I think, in the chat. Earlier, that is what the UIUC essay basically says, and I had their admissions director on a number of years ago. So yes, UIUC. So dig into that with your kiddo. Okay, another specific question in this area. My, I’m going to pull it back over. My rising high school senior recently decided to focus on engineering, which is great, but has no science extra science extracurriculars, clubs, volunteer activities. What suggestions do you have? One of the things, so I would go back to that question I asked, like, how did you arrive at engineering? You guys maybe have already talked about this, but somebody else might need to hear this as well. So, how have we arrived at that? If it’s just because I like math, can you really describe what a whatever does? Here’s what I do. I reverse engineer coursework, courses that we take, classes that we take in high school and college, do not tell the whole story about what the career or the work feels like. Okay, real validation happens in the workplace. Not that you have to go be an engineer, but go talk to them. Go do a half day job shadow on your next day off school, right? See what it really means in the workplace. That’s real validation, because I’m going to give you Vicky and I. We had at noon today. We had a Q and A for all of the families could come in if they wanted to to our launch career clarity open call where they could ask questions about their Berkman, about advice that we have, confusion, ideas for validating things like that. And Vicky and I were talking with the families today about there are jobs like nursing where you have to have good science grades. You’ve got had to have taken biology and chemistry to get into a nursing program is competitive to get in, but on the daily, nurses aren’t sitting there working on science. They’re caring for people, but that is the bar. That is the threshold to get admitted. Right? It’s usually like calculus for engineering. Okay, calculus, doing well in calculus does not tell you what it means to be an engineer, so really start with what does the daily work look like, and if that’s a fit, then figure out the major or majors that can go there. You know, another question that we had that was sort of like this as well. Is let me find it real quick. Does it hurt your chances? This kind of goes into two. I we do have a logistics category that’s going to come last. It’s about test scores and Common App and when to submit and things like that. I will get there. So this one has a foot in two categories, I would say. But oh no, it’s the second part of this question. This person has two questions. Number two of their questions was: Is hospitality management major with a minor? You guys, whoever it was, you didn’t tell me what minor. So if you want to put it in the chat, please do. If you are here alive? Is it a good degree for the future? So let me start with hospitality. Hospitality management is poised to grow if they’re predicted right at an above average rate.

Lisa Marker-Robbins  28:36

Okay, not exceptionally high growth, but at an above average rate, so that’s the the first thing that we want to do. My answer to your question of is it a good major is a good degree starts with career. So we validate careers, then we work backwards to majors. We reverse engineer. So my encouragement for you all is don’t evaluate the majors, the classes that our kids are sitting in schools studying. Evaluate the jobs, okay? Evaluate the jobs. A a good career is only one that is aligned to who you are, that you will enjoy and thrive in in life. You can be. We we talked about this today at noon. Also, you might be suited academically, aptitude wise, talent wise, to do something well, but can do. Everybody, hang on to this. Can do does not mean should do. Can do does not mean should do. Okay, so ability does not mean that you will be satisfied, and I know that from supporting people doing this work for 26 years. I’ve seen it over and over again, and here’s a pat. There are patterns that emerge. With families that have kids your guys’ age, and there are patterns that emerge with the 20-somethings that were not intentional early on, and I know that’s not going to be the people that are here, but I meet 20-somethings and early 30-somethings, and some of them are in my one-on-one elite track working with me, and it’s hard to unring the bell or unspend the money. You can’t, right? And when I see the patterns, it’s they were focused on degree, they were focused on prestige, they were focused maybe on fun and not being intentional with their attention, right? And so, I always take like those 20 somethings that are floundering a little bit right now. I met with a young lady today, first call. She’s put in 200 job applications. She graduated in 2025 from college. She barely has a LinkedIn. She doesn’t have proof of skills. She hasn’t validated, so it hasn’t built that validation builds a resume, and that’s why I’m so passionate about getting our kiddos to do this when they’re on in high school in college. Okay, so hospitality management is suited to grow. Is it the right fit for your child? I don’t know. Okay, theme number three: choosing schools. Okay, I had questions around exploration. We’re going to go back to this idea about schools that do really well with discovery programs, exploration programs, undecided programs. We I’ve already given you some of the names of the schools that we’ve had here. So here’s what I want don’t want you to do. I don’t want you to say if your kid’s on the fence or you’re unsure or you’re wondering, are we able to switch around here once we get here, don’t say does the school have fill in the blank engineering. The question we should be asking is how easy is it to explore at this school? How welcoming and and how are we set up for success? So as I look at the questions that came in here, we already hit the the Elon and the University of Delaware and things like that. Okay, I’m going to give you guys five questions, and I’ll put them in the chat too in case anybody wants to like copy them. But let me go back to my color codes. I’m on orange this time. Okay, what colleges allow students a period of exploration that still provides a pathway to engineering? This is where I want to go deep on this. So some schools, when you’re in their school part answering the questions on the majors and the Common App, will say, you know, mechanical engineering, chemistry engineering, chemical engineering-you know, any of the engine, computer engineering, mechanical, biomedical-all the engineerings. Others will just say engineering. If it just says engineering and they’ve got all the separate disciplines, then that means you’re coming in as an engineering major, and they are going to go ahead and support you figuring it out from there. I want you to ask them, how do they support? Do they have to opt in? How are you going to help them validate if it’s mechanical versus chemical versus electrical, right? And I want you to ask them, for any college, any major, how easy is it to change the major? How restrictive is changing?

Lisa Marker-Robbins  33:52

I was talking to one school recently, and it was their engineering school, and they said, you know what? Once you’re in the engineering school, and they do admit directly to specific engineering disciplines in this school. But once you’re in, we allow you to switch in among all the engineering majors. Okay. However, they said if when you’re admitted to our school, you are not admitted to the engineering school, it can be difficult to get in, I love Purdue University. is very Do we have any Indiana people here? Purdue University is very, very friendly to exploratory studies. They have a great program, but do you know that Purdue is called the cradle of astronauts because their aerospace is amazing, and they have produced more astronauts for NASA than any other university. Okay, and you know I live in the in the home of Neil Armstrong here in Cincinnati, so even if you go exploratory studies and. Even if Purdue does the best job ever at supporting that, and I’m not saying that they do, they do a great job. You still will have a very difficult time getting into aerospace, and it’s probably not going to be possible. Okay, so Purdue actually on their website, and you got to dig, dig, dig, dig, dig to find it. So we’ve got to be taking the time to dig around and find the information and be wise consumers. So when you dig around to find the information, it says on their website it’s very hard to change. It gives you like a percentage, I think, or it says very challenging to switch into aerospace, other engineering fields at Purdue. If you start in exploratory studies, are not as difficult. So I’m going to copy and paste into the chat five questions for you all that I have that will help you in engaging. Whoops! There you go. Feel free to copy that with engaging with the universities. Okay, how are students admitted? Is it direct to major? Is it to the university, and you choose your major later? Are there any majors that it’s hard to change into, or colleges like I used that engineering example a minute ago. Here’s what you might not know: there are some universities that have some majors that, if you don’t apply to it as a first-time freshman, then you will not be permitted to switch over to that major later. Okay, so you want to ask that: Are there any restrict majors restricted to first year freshmen? It’s common that that happens in nursing, engineering, business. Again, the popular ones: computer science. Is exploratory is exploratory studies automatic for undecided students. Do they all go there if they’re undecided? At some schools, if you’re not admitted to your desired major, you’ll be put simply over into either arts and sciences or over into an exploratory studies program. Where do non-admitted to major students land if they’re admitted to the university but not the major, are there any majors off the table when you go exploratory studies? What percentage of students are using your career services? Because if UVA, a school that’s great, can only accommodate a third, we have got to equip these kids to be intentional explorers and validators who are courageous and brave and have excellent communication and executive functioning skills to create their own opportunity. We have to. I’ve got you know there is a 20 there are 20% fewer jobs right now for students who are graduating from college. There’s an AI impact. There’s an economy impact. It’s the truth of what’s going on. Okay, the kids who are moving forward have skills. They’re able to prove they have their skills. The way you create a resume and a LinkedIn profile that gets attention and gets jobs and internships. Now is not how we did it when we were growing up. We led with our experiences. This GPA, this university, right? This certification. Now it’s what did you do? What impact did you have? Oh yeah, and where did you do it? That becomes secondary, okay. So the kids that are landing the jobs show that, and it really creates intentionally doing this, okay. Theme four, logistics is what I’m calling it. So this had to do with submission times and ACT and all of those things.

Lisa Marker-Robbins  39:03

So if you and if you have questions for me, go ahead and put them in the chat because we’re going to get to live questions here in just a minute. So, do we have to declare the number of times my student has taken the ACT in the Common App? You do not. Okay, your ACT and your SAT scores are protected, just like your medical records are protected. You have to agree to put them out there, and it’s up to you. Now, it used to be pre-COVID that there were a handful of schools that were insistent that you did disclose all of your scores, but I think there’s only like one or two schools now that actually ask for that, and it just doesn’t happen, my friends. So, no, you do not. I want to say something about testing. When I see a question, and this may not be what we. Underneath your question, but when I see a question that says, “Do we have to declare our ACT? I get another question a lot: Should we apply test optional or should we not? Here’s the career implication and the college major implication. If your student has to apply to college is test optional, or they’re not a good test taker. And there are many kids that aren’t. You can do test prep. It absolutely helps. I believe that it does. I’ve seen that it does. I used to own a test prep company for 25 years. I sold it two years ago. But if you still struggle testing, for whatever reason. You really need to be careful about pursuing any path that requires licensing or testing for your career. There’s a young lady in our Launch Career Clarity group right now. She struggled. She went to one of the service academies. She was amazing. She served our country for eight years, and she just transitioned out of her service june 1. She’s always dreamt of going to law school, but when she started doing the discovery work that we were doing, and she started talking to law schools, and she started talking to attorneys. Here’s what she realized: she had to take the ACT a lot of times to get into her service academy. Number one, probably helped her that she was a female. Just saying. Number two, she’d have to work even harder to pass the bar to get into the type of law school that she feels would be a good fit for her, that’s her call, right? And if you have to study that hard to get in, it’s going to be very difficult to pass the bar. So, nursing, actuarial science, becoming a CPA, becoming a doctor, anything that get becoming a teacher, anything that gets licensed. Pause and think deeply and validate even deeper if that is something that you is in your mind about testing. Okay, next logistics question. Common app opens today, august 1. But when is the time? So obviously they submitted this on Saturday. But when is the time to submit the application? It’s a little confusing. I agree, it can be, especially if it’s your first time at it. It can be a little confusing because this because this first time, this is the first time we’ll be filling this out. Do we submit it when the college slash university opens up their application, or do we submit when my daughter is done completing the Common App? Thank you. Okay, so there are schools that are ruling admission, which means you apply, they start looking at their applicant pool, and they’re making decisions. And there are schools that hold all the applicants into a pool up to the deadline, and then they begin reviewing applications so that they can compare students to each other. So at a rolling school, just know that for the most part, they’re just looking at you on your own merits. At the other schools that are very deadline driven, then they’re comparing you not only your own merit but comparing you to the pool of applicants. Right, if it’s a rolling admission school, and particularly if it is a competitive program, the one-off I mentioned earlier was University of Arkansas, and their architecture program is very competitive. They’re a rolling admission school, and they fill quickly. You want to be at the front of the line.

Lisa Marker-Robbins  43:49

If it’s a school that is holding the applications, they’ve got a date, not rolling, a date, a deadline for application, and a date that they notify students, then you can wait all the way. I wouldn’t do it the day of because technology is not always our friend. Sometimes it collapses, and so you can wait all the way up until the deadline, though. So, hopefully, that question is helpful. As you heard throughout these questions, there is rarely one perfect answer about a major or a college, or even whether your young person should apply undecided. But there is a better process for getting to the answer. And if you finish this episode thinking we have some of these same questions, and I’m not sure we’ve actually created the space to figure them out. I would not let another school year, another semester, simply get busy and hope that clarity somehow shows up along the way. Get ready for fall by putting a process in place now. That does not mean that your young. Person needs to figure out the next 40 years. It means helping them gain enough self-awareness, explore intentionally, validate possibilities in the real world, and build evidence so their next decision, well, it can be an informed one. That is exactly what I teach families to do inside Launch Career Clarity. If you want this fall to be the season when your family finally gains some real momentum instead of continuing to circle the same questions about majors and careers. Check out Launch Career Clarity at flourishcoachingco.com/course. I’ve also linked to it in the show notes. You don’t need more random information. You need a process that helps your young person move forward.