Career Key’s 2014 EBook Shows Students How to Choose a Major that Leads to Success in College
Portland, OR (PRWEB) January 29, 2014 -- Career Key, http://www.careerkey.org, shows students how to choose a major leading to success in college with personality-major match. The new 2014 edition of Career Key’s eBook “Match Up! Your Personality to College Majors” contains the only complete, scientific list of U.S. and Canadian majors by Holland personality type students can use to make this important match.
Written by Dr. Lawrence K. Jones, NCC, this popular eBook is based on research showing that youth and adults going back to college who make a close personality-major match are more likely to (1) get higher grades, (2) stick with their major, and (3) graduate on time. Updated for 2014, Match Up! Your Personality to Majors and Training Programs is an easy to navigate PDF that allows students to match their Career Key career test scores for the six Holland personality types to 1,400+ programs of study. The combination of taking the Career Key test and eBook costs $20.00.
The Career Key test is based on Holland’s Theory of Career Choice, the most respected, widely used career theory used by professional counselors. According to the theory, most people are strongest in one or two of six personality types: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional (RIASEC). They are also referred to as Holland Codes. An article on Career Key’s website summarizes the theory and how it can be used to make confident, science-based career and education decisions.
Students need more help than ever to make good education decisions and successfully complete college on time. According to the U.S. Department of Education, only 38 percent of students entering a 4 year college graduate in 4 years, 59 percent in six. About 40 percent drop out. (National Center for Education Statistics, 2013)
In addition to these sobering statistics, a new ACT College Choice Report finds that nearly one-third of college bound students taking the ACT are not choosing majors that fit their interest or personality. So a significant number of students are taking classes and studying topics that do not fit their interests or skills. They are also working in an environment of students and faculty with different interests, skills and values. This mismatch is likely contributing to poor college completion numbers.
There is a lot of financial and social pressure for students to base their college major decision on estimates of large post-graduation salaries, even if they truly are not interested in the major.
But choosing a major that doesn’t match one’s Holland personality type causing a later switch delaying graduation has its own financial consequences. Studies show that those working toward a bachelor’s degree lose in earnings, on average, $50,000 for each additional year it takes to finish their degree. In addition, many studies support increased salary and job satisfaction for people who choose a career that matches their personality.
Using Career Key’s affordable career and education decision making tools and self-help articles can help students reduce anxiety and avoid the negative outcomes of making a mismatched college major choice.
About the Career Key
Since 1997, Career Key has been the #1 Internet source for helping people choose careers and college majors. Advertising and registration-free, it offers valid career tests and career and education advice articles based on the best practices and science in the field. Career Key’s author is nationally recognized counseling psychologist, Dr. Lawrence K. Jones, NCC, Professor Emeritus at N.C. State University.
Juliet Wehr Jones, The Career Key, http://www.careerkey.org, +1 (206) 850-6195, [email protected]
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