“Why do you want to attend Stanford?” This kind of essay question appears over and over again in almost every college application.
Too often students haven't done the hard work to answer these kinds of questions thoughtfully. Yet, they assume that their parents should spend thousands of dollars on a university education for them.
Many high school students are not sure what they want to study in college. Given the high cost of a college education these days, it seems important for high school students to begin the career exploration process before entering university. Unlike the United States, many countries actually require students to choose a career path by the time they finish high school.
Exploring different careers during high school is a lot easier with a good guidebook, and one of the best ones we've seen is called What Color Is Your Parachute? for Teens.
We love what author Carol Christen writes in the preface: “My daughter wasn't surprised when I said that my checkbook was closed until she had a plan for why she was going to college, what she would study, and how that connected her with a career.”
When we work with students, we guide them through a process of exploring different careers so that by the time they apply to universities, they have really strong answers to questions such as “Why do you want to attend Stanford?”