Launch Your Career in College: Strategies for Students, Educators, and Parents

by Adele M. Scheele, Alexander W. Astin

Adele Scheele, a widely published career strategist, has created a roadmap designed to inspire students to use their time wisely, to help their parents become better coaches to their children, and to empower college faculty and administrators to become more active mentors.

Only a fraction of students actually know how to use college as a stepping-stone for educational exploration and social connection. Most students are keenly disappointed when the expected transformation from college to career does not automatically happen. They do not know that they have to make it happen through their own engagement. Packed with practical and accessible advice, Scheele's approach provides critical strategies to the burgeoning number of students―whether they are children of advantaged parents or children of immigrants, high school students anticipating their college career, or adult women re-entering college after years of working or childrearing. All students are seeking the American Dream, hoping that the secret to success will be included with their diplomas. Launch Your Career in College provides a guide to maximizing the return on their educational investment.

Offering practical and accessible advice for college students, Launch Your Career in College offers a guide to maximizing the return on students' and their parents' financial and educational investments. College is an experiment in hope. It is an expensive investment of time―often more than four years―and of money―anywhere from $4000 to $40,000 per year. Yet the biggest investment, by far, is that of hope―hope that by simply attending college students will be able to turn their majors into successful careers and rewarding lives. Students and their parents expect that college will be the single transforming agent to make them acceptable, valuable, knowledgeable, professional, and employable. Seldom is this expectation voiced, but it is there, deeply embedded in our views about higher education. It is not just hoped for. It is believed to be true. This books can help students, educators, and parents make that hope a reality.

212 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Ivan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this book. At first it seemed very overrated, yet after reading a few pages I understood that it is a must book for every person who is either planning to go to college, already in college, or is a recent graduate from college. Even though it is written primarily for the college students; however, I share the same point as the author - Adele M. Scheele - that it is never late to start pursuing your dream.



The author goes straight to the point - no useless words and repetitions. All advices are current and valuable. There is no doubt that it is always better to learn from somebody who has already been in one's position and, based on the experience, avoid mistakes of your own. This book is a precise guide on how to avoid making mistakes while being in college and how to squeeze everything possible out of money and time spent during the college/university years.



If possible, I would rate this book as 7 out of 5 because of its practicality. I even dare to claim that this is the most useful book I have ever read!

[Kris Hintz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a standout in a category of books that generally cannot break through to its audience. Most college kids are really not interested in reading a book that tells them the obvious---that it's time to put together a resume, go over to career services, get an internship, and prepare for the real world. But this book is different. Of course, it talks about all those obvious things. However, it also talks about being proactive in every area of a college student's life (i.e., in the classroom, in seeking undergraduate research gigs, in finding entrepreneurial opportunities, in student organizations, in networking with professors, speakers, and even other students). It is a great book for college students to read from freshman year on, or for parents to read to help them drop realistic seeds of helpful ideas in appropriate, natural parent-young adult conversations.

[Jenny (Reading Envy) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is basically a rehashing of KAPLAN GOOD STUDENT TRAP that was published in the 90s, but with some updating. It is also much more balanced - the anecdotal stories are still there, but she has developed some specific goals and ideas for students to try. These practical suggestions were missing in the Good Student Trap, and make this a far stronger book. I think this is a great idea for students entering college, and I might recommend it to my advisees.