wrongchoices

High School students often make bad career choices when they get to college. A young woman we know, influenced by the dramatic and exciting roles on TV, was determined to study forensic medicine. She thought it would be ideal to work in a forensic lab and help solve crimes. She didn’t realize the extent to which forensics depended on a broad curriculum in the sciences, including biology, chemistry and, especially, anatomy.

She enrolled in a large state university with a special course in forensics. By the end of the second year, she knew that she had made a mistake. But she plodded along, hoping it would turn out OK in the end.

But it never got better, and she struggled on her way to graduation. She made a feeble effort to find work in the local Sheriff’s office. When they assigned her to filing documents, she knew it had all been a terrible mistake. She realized that what really excited her was working with small children. She is determined to become an elementary school teacher and is back in school. She is on her way to a life she will love.

What led her to spend four full years on the wrong target? What would have enabled her to see that she had no aptitude for the sciences but an exceptional talent for, and interest in, young children?

Or take the young man who was determined to prepare for a career in music. He studied hard to master the piano in high school, and he became adept at entertaining his friends and family. When the time came to select a college, he looked only at colleges that had a professional music school. Admission to these schools is restricted to students with proven ability who submit to a grueling audition.

The young man has done well in his first year and is intent on becoming the conductor of a big-city orchestra. He knows that paid conductors are among the rarest of workers, but he is determined to persevere until he is called to conduct a major orchestra. His results on the Highlands Ability Battery confirm his musical abilities. They show that he made the right choice of career. At the end of his first year, he was selected to participate in the Aspen Music Festival and was named the school’s most promising pianist.