Help my below average son chose a college major

[Anonymous]

It's ok not to know their major now. Let him find out when he is in college. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

Not everyone belongs in college straightaway. Try a couple of years at a community college and see how it goes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What about law enforcement? You can get a criminal justice degree, which from what I have heard is not that hard, then go to the police academy. I believe you get paid more if you have a degree.

Or a fire fighter? EMT?

Ooooh, I like these, OP!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Regardless of his grades, he doesn't need to know his major yet. Half of those people that "know their major" will change anyway.

+1

[Anonymous]

Being the type of kid that is told to do it and does it without complaint is going to be just fine. He’s got time to figure it out and may just show that initiative when he finds something of interest. Plenty of these types flourish more on the job versus shining in school years.

[Anonymous]

The thing about the military is that it is always there. I enlisted just out of high school and started completely at the bottom. If I had finished even one semester of college, I would have started at a higher rank. Let him do the first term and see how he goes.
I was a terrible student in high school, with very little motivation, but 4 years in the Army gave my brain time to catch up, the Army taught me how to learn and I saw that the people without college degrees were cleaning the toilets while the people who had college degrees were watching us do it.

I got out of the Army, and using credits I'd gotten in the Army, graduated university in 2 years - no more cleaning toilets for me

[Anonymous]

All the kids want to be rich these days.

What is a problem he would like to solve? How to improve inefficiencies in retail? The issue of social media and mental health? How to prevent malware attacks?

In Myers-Briggs terms he sounds like he might be an ISTJ. https://www.16personalities.com/istj-careers

[Anonymous]

Is he good with people? Can he sell ice to eskimos? Walk up to a foyine girl and talk to her like he's known her forever? If so, he should consider a non-math business major, something like marketing. He'll crush it and end up making more money than most of his "academic" classmates.

[Anonymous]

First of all, there is no below average child. Life is beyond narrow math scores, SAT scores, GPA. Children flower at different ages. Your only role as a parent is to encourage whatever his interest is.

Everyone on this thread is playing the % game. If my child gets X GPA and Y SAT, they will get into Ivy, and then they will be successful. Sure some will be more successful than others but a whole lot will not be. Equally some who did not win the GPA/SAT game will be incredibly successful in life

Don't judge your son by others metrics. Life is multi-faceted and your child can succeed in areas beyond the two dimensional metric this forum cares about.

Give him the time and space to flower. I know kids who went to community college after school and then moved to the most prestigious institutions. Support him, that's the only thing that matters.

[Anonymous]

OP, major is important. You are smart to be thinking of this now. I would say you need to choose a university based majors they offer. Weak students usually struggle with math and foreign language. I would highly suggest universities that offer a College of Communications. Look to the Midwest. Become very familiar with The Common Data Set (or similar named), and The Course Catalogue, and The Course of Studies. These documents (or similar named) will spell out what prerequisite are needed for each major. As you probably know universities are arrange into colleges. Each college has different entry requirements.

Others might suggest certain LACs, going in with accommodations, or SN support services at universities. What I like about the Colleges of Communications at large universities is the flexibility. There is room on the schedule to take a wide variety of subjects, to try them out. Perhaps take business classes. There is a wide choice of professors, time of day classes are offered. Easy to drop a class, if the student gets-in over their head, without having to convince a counselor to sign-off. When they find a professor they particularly like, encourage the student to take every class the professor offers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not everyone belongs in college straightaway. Try a couple of years at a community college and see how it goes.

He could get guaranteed admission to UVA

[Anonymous]

Most community college students never make the jump to a 4 yr school.

[Anonymous]

Do not have him do military as enlisted. You are not treated well. I had low sat and struggled in hs but did great in college. Getting away from my parents helped.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son is a below average student. His SAT score was a 900. He was a B/C student all throughout school. His greatest weakness and where he struggled the most was with Math. He is going off to college. I am thrilled that he is going to college. We all thought about the military or college and he landed on college. However, we are having a difficult time figuring out a major. He knows that he wants to be successful (financially). He knows that he does not want to be a teacher. He knows he does not want to take a lot of classes in Math. Could anyone help point us in the right direction with careers/majors? We and he knows where he stands academically and what he is capable of. I fear that he will choose a degree in which he will not be successful in and it will be defeating for him.

One of my best friends had worse grades and barely made it out of HS. His GPA was sub 2.0. SAT score in the high 800s and he had to go to night school classes to graduate on time. His plan was initially to enlist in the Marines.

He graduated magna cum laude from UMD with an Accounting degree after 2 years at PGCC. Got his CPA a year or two later and owns a small business. I used to joke that I always thought he was dumb until undergrad. Your son is probably just a late bloomer and has yet to connect with the material he's learning.

[Anonymous]

He sounds like a great kid -- conscientious, reliable, plays well with others. These are good qualities to have. Not everyone is cut-out to be the high-flying, risk-taking start-up CEO. Someone needs to make sure the day-to-day work actually gets done and the customers get served while the figureheads are off giving interviews and promoting their books.

Have him look at schools where there are a variety of requirements across different departments, and where students don't need to declare a major until the end of their sophomore year. He should also look at schools that have strong advising and tutoring supports, and where its common for those supports to be used.