How to Help Your Child Choose the Right College for Their Career Goals

March 03, 2025 – When it comes to choosing a career path, selecting the right college that aligns with your child’s career interests is an important first step. Here are some key things to consider — from understanding the financial basics, like answering that all-important question, “How much does college cost?” to evaluating the specific programs and concentrations a school offers — to help you and your student make this life-changing decision.

Talk About What Sparks Their Interest

Before choosing a college, one of the first steps is to talk with your child about what interests them. To avoid overwhelming them and getting too specific, consider asking about broad interests they like that can later on evolve into certain careers like:

• Science and technology: Web design, botany, or chemistry
• Visual arts: Graphic design, drawing, painting, illustration
• Performing arts: Singing or songwriting, acting, dance, or other performance techniques
• Engineering: Electrical, mechanical, or audio engineering or even architecture and urban planning or design

By discussing their interests and what kinds of jobs could grow from the things that excite them, you can start strategizing together about future careers and how choosing the right college can help them achieve their goals.

Explore College Concentrations

After discussing what interests them, you can start exploring different college specializations, including degrees or programs that certain colleges are known for. For example, a school with a robust design program focus with notable alums in that field could be an excellent choice for a budding graphic design major.

By homing in on specific things that a school offers, you and your child can automatically start to sort through and focus on the schools they are most interested in.

Discuss How to Pay for College

Alongside searching for well-fitting schools, you should also talk through how to pay for college when the time comes. There are so many options out there, but consider checking out the best college savings plans and what each school offers in terms of scholarships, financial aid, and other packages to help cover the costs.

Consider Tours or Virtual Visits

Once you and your child have a shortlist, think about traveling to take tours or, if you can’t make long distance trips, consider virtual tours and video interviews with faculty or students involved in the same programs your child is considering enrolling in.

These tours or virtual visits will give them the chance to ask more profound questions and explore how they might flourish at a particular school or within a specific program or course of study.

Make the Decision

The application process is the last step—often the most exciting and a little nerve-wracking. Having done your homework, you and your child should be well-informed about your chosen schools. All that’s left to do is apply, await the responses, and then (in good time), send your child off on their thrilling new path of exploration.