Making Value Decisions Regarding Higher Education
Daily there are articles questioning the value of college. The average tuition sticker price for private college is $42,000 per year while public in-state college runs $11,000 per year. Higher education is an expensive endeavor.
Worse, the average college student changes their major three times. Each change increases the cost of completion.
Having taught at Texas Lutheran University for the last fifteen years, it is interesting to see how kids choose their major. If they are of “above average,” they have probably been told, “you should be a doctor or a lawyer.” Other kids choose their major based upon TV shows. It is amazing the number of kids who think they will be crime scene investigators.
This is such an important decision, and yet, the decision-making process is ill-informed, random and scatter-brained.
College remains worthwhile. It is the best investment I’ve ever made. But it doesn’t have to break the bank.
The sticker price is merely a starting point. Depending upon need and academic ability, there is tremendous help to lower the cost. Based upon the NACUBO Tuition Discounting Study, the average discount from the sticker price is 56%! That is real money that can make private school an affordable option.
Improve your grades and take the SAT or ACT multiple times. I’m not a good test taker. I took the SAT five times to qualify for a higher scholarship.
Get a job. Schools have jobs for students that can lower the cost while offering credit too.
Get aptitude testing. I thought I was going to be a doctor. I took all advanced science courses and entered college as a pre-med biology major. It was a punishing first year.
I lived in the lab, studying seven days a week. Barely pulling a B average, I had zero fun and wasn’t headed for medical school. I was tremendously frustrated and lost.
My mother recommended the Johnson O’Connor Research Foundation—an aptitude testing firm. Although nation-wide, they have testing offices in Autin, Houston and Dallas.
When I tell people about Johnson O’Connor they often remark “Oh, I have done aptitude testing—they’re all the same.”
Simply put, whether you have done the Myers-Briggs test, Strengths Finder or something else, you have never done anything like the Johnson O’Connor program. Set aside preconceived notions that aptitude tests are the same.
Johnson O’Connor was an industrial psychologist who theorized that everyone is born with a unique skillset. This skillset is usually engrained by age 16. O’Connor rationalized that if he could measure a person’s unique skills and match them to jobs requiring those skills, people would be more productive and happier in their careers.
For more than 100 years, O’Connor’s research and theories have been proven correct and immensely useful.
The assessment takes eight hours plus a recommendation session the next day. Unlike preference and personality tests taken in high school I could not “trick” the tests. Many tests were abstract in nature. I had no idea what they were measuring.
The evaluation is not a matter of “pass” or “fail.” The evaluation reveals natural strengths and weaknesses. When I was 19 years old they told me I was really bad at paperwork and clerical organization. Thirty-seven years later, they continue to be quite right.
When completed, they smiled and said my lowest aptitudes lay in the sciences. Ugh! I devoted my young life to the thing I was worst at. Instead, they counseled me to go into business. Although quite hesitant, I changed my major. The results were miraculous.
I studied less, made much better grades and had a great time in college. When I studied business, it came naturally to me. It motivated me and the success came rapidly.
For the past 25 years the Johnson O’Connor Research Foundation assessment has been a constant recommendation for our clients–whether going off to college or facing a career change. Our staff also goes through the testing to ensure I maximize their usefulness in our organization.
At $800 the assessment is about the cost of one semester’s worth of books. However, it will allow students to be more intentional about what major to choose and what type of college to look for. And it will increase the odds of graduating on time.
Dave Sather is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ and the CEO of the Sather Financial Group, a fee-only strategic planning and investment management firm.