If You Are A High School Student. . .

Many students who go to college declare a degree as they apply. Do yourself a favor, though, and CONFIRM YOUR DECISION before you start college. Think for a moment about what you have done to lead you to your degree decision.

Here are some ways to confirm your choice of a degree. How many of these have you done? Have you. . .

• Based your decision on information you have gathered from good career information sources (The Michigan Career Pathway System can give you a great start, as can the Occupational Outlook Handbook.)
  
  
• Talked to a couple of people in the career you'd like to pursue to find out if there's more than one degree that will lead to that career.
  
  
• Experienced shadowing of some kind; observing professionals in the career path you have chosen for long enough to get an idea of what a typical day would be like in that career.
  
  
• Learned enough about the career that you know what kinds of classes are required to earn the degree you are seeking.
  
  
• Learned what courses and grade point averages you'll need in order to qualify if you want to enter a selective program. All colleges have some programs that are competitive -- you just can't show up and enter them without the qualifications. Some have waiting lists, even if you do qualify.
  
  
• Asked professionals in the field what college or university and what degree they would recommend in order to enter the career in which you have an interest.
  
  
• Visited the campus you'd like to attend and spent some time in classes and around the campus.

If you've done some of these things, you can feel good about starting college with a direction in mind. You still might change your mind, but you probably won't make a drastic change…in other words, you'll probably stay in the same or a related Career Pathway (as Health Sciences and Human Resources are both helping-related areas).

• Your next step will be to decide where you can get good preparation for your career. Looking up the colleges and universities you are considering on the Web, as you are doing now, will help you to see if you can attend that institution and degree in an area that will help you pursue your career goal. To see Ferris' degrees, arranged in several different ways:
  
  
  • By Interests and by Degree Level
  • By Michigan Career Pathways
  • By Alphabetical Listing
  
  
• Then visit the campuses that have the degree you are considering, and see whether the campus feels like a good fit for you in all the areas. To see the various options for visiting Ferris State University, CLICK HERE.

If you haven't done any of these things, now's the time to start confirming.

• Go back through the above bulleted items and do a few of the activities. If you're feeling really energetic, do as many as you can squeeze into your busy life.
  
  
• Have some fun with this!