For the past three months, I have obsessively scrawled the panicked question “what do I do with my life?” across the margins of my homework, the backs of my binders, and the surfaces of desks. I have asked my friends, my parents, my sister that same question many times, but not enough to quell the spinning wheel of indecision ricocheting inside my seemingly empty head.

With the approach of senior class selection, the pressure to figure out my future has only increased. Senior years brings with it the choice between difficult sides of the spectrum: would it be more useful to take the advanced classes focusing on social sciences and language or science and math? One choice could determine the direction of my future.

While the ultimate resource for tough decisions turned out to be me, there are a multitude of resources available to help you find your path.

BigFuture.CollegeBoard.org

I spend hours each week on college board. They have the best collection of information I’ve seen, by far.

1. They have thorough profiles on over 3,000 colleges and universities, including deadlines, size, majors, programs, demographics, campuses, sports, applications, admittance statistics, financing, and just about anything else needed when considering colleges.
2. There’s a college search option, where you can easily filter results by selectivity, size, location, major, religious affiliation, and many other factors. The only problem I’ve run into is the lack of representation for all majors, as some colleges have more unique majors under different names or slight variation.
3. Also found on College Board are a complete list of majors and career choices, scholarships, dozens of articles and videos to aid application and decision process, and thorough information on the nature of just about every major or career found. It’s worth exploration.

Take some quizzes.

Beware the tests advertising “which college is right for you?” on the website of a school. They will always suggest their own school.

1. CollegeBoard.com: these assessments are very long and very thorough, but can provide valuable suggestions with their personality profiler and interest profiler. The personality profiler tends to spit back the question answers as their revolutionary conclusion, but it also matches these traits with suitable careers.
2. Ask Google. Some may be astoundingly short for their bold answers (avoid taking Buzzfeed quizzes seriously) or frustratingly long. Look around, get exposed to the options and find out what sounds gross and what sounds interesting.

Colleges.Niche.com/rankings

Niche offers rankings for specific factors, from most liberal to best food to the largest number of attractive boys. They also offer college and career search, but it’s not as clear and detailed as College Board’s.

Write Everything Down

Don’t let the good ideas pass by. Record meaningful activities and defining experiences. Not only will these come in handy come college application season, but making lists of talents and interests and pairing them to corresponding career paths can lead you in the right direction. Think about favorite classes and how they could apply to college majors. College Board recommends asking the following questions in order to identify career paths:

1. What’re somethings you feel you do well? Question family and peers to find answers of which you may not have thought.
2. What challenges you?
3. What do you like to do for fun?
4. Who do you admire?
5. What’s something you’ve always wanted to try?
6. Of what accomplishments are you most proud? What are some defining experiences?
7. What’s your favorite class? Think about what makes you lose track of time.
8. What do you read about in your free time?
9. If you could do any job for a day, what would it be?
10. When you were younger, what did you want to be when you grew up?
11. What are your strengths and weaknesses?

Ask around. Asking peers and family members about their personalized opinions on suitable majors can be an insightful way to get a new perspective.

Until this point, most major decisions (see what I did there?) have been determined by your parents. Choosing the right path will probably take several tries before settling on a major or college, so it’s okay to change your mind a few times. The best thing is to just start thinking about where you want to go and having resources such as College Board can be a great help. If not, I hear there’s a psychic on Gravenstein Highway.