Find Your "True North"
College is already expensive. Some price tags hit $99,000+ this year. And don't forget most students take 5 years to earn a 4-year college degree. Can you really afford to just go there blindly hoping to figure it all out somehow?
Helping your child understand their "why" is a critical step in the college process. Discovering a deeper understanding of their genuine, authentic self is the foundation to building their personal brand. It also helps them figure out the best academic path moving forward. Time and time again both parents and students say this experience has been one of the most important exercises they've gone through.
Your "True North" assessment is comprised of 3 assessments:
Aptitude Assessment
Career Personality Profiler
Holland Code System
Through the Highlands Ability Battery (HAB) - the gold standard of advanced aptitude assessments- we provide students a career plan they can have confidence in. We help students (and parents) ensure their investment in college is not wasted. Our goal is to help set your child up for success.
Almost 90% of college freshmen listed the primary reason they enrolled in college was to get a good job. Yet what I find when parents hire a different education consultant is they spend a lot of time and money on getting into a school, but not knowing why they're going to school. They have no sense of direction for their career, which supposedly is the whole reason they wanted to attend. With colleges costing most families six-figures nowadays, this isn't something you want to just "wing it."
What an Aptitude Assessment Is vs. What It Is Not
What It Is:
Benefits of an Aptitude Assessment
The Career Personality Profiler
The Big Five trait model of personality is the most widely accepted personality theory in the scientific community. Although it's not as well understood among laypeople as systems like Myers-Briggs personality typing, it is generally believed the Big Five is the most scientific sound way of conceptualizing the differences between people.
The Big Five is different from other popular personality systems because its model is based on traits rather than types. The Big Five categorizes an inventory of related descriptive personality traits into a spectrum of five common dimensions: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism. We each have varying levels of these key personality factors that impact our thoughts, decisions, and behavior.
Holland Code System
The Holland Code system is one of the most widely used frameworks for career assessment in the world. The Holland Code states that individuals find the greatest happiness and success when they work in a career that matches their personality category. There are six broad occupational themes that match our interests and preferences: Realistic/Building, Investigative/Thinking, Artistic/Creating, Social/Helping, Enterprising/Persuading, and Conventional/Organizing.
No one particular career test is intended to be a box to put yourself in. While nothing can predict your future success, we do everything we can by looking at careers that overlap all three assessments. The combination of these three assessments excel in encouraging you to look at good-fit jobs you may not have considered before, but they can only ever recommend broad occupational themes that match your interests and preferences. The final decision is always yours.
Helping your child understand their "why" is a critical step in the college process. Discovering a deeper understanding of their genuine, authentic self is the foundation to building their personal brand. It also helps them figure out the best academic path moving forward. Time and time again both parents and students say this experience has been one of the most important exercises they've gone through.
Your "True North" assessment is comprised of 3 assessments:
Aptitude Assessment
Career Personality Profiler
Holland Code System
Through the Highlands Ability Battery (HAB) - the gold standard of advanced aptitude assessments- we provide students a career plan they can have confidence in. We help students (and parents) ensure their investment in college is not wasted. Our goal is to help set your child up for success.
Almost 90% of college freshmen listed the primary reason they enrolled in college was to get a good job. Yet what I find when parents hire a different education consultant is they spend a lot of time and money on getting into a school, but not knowing why they're going to school. They have no sense of direction for their career, which supposedly is the whole reason they wanted to attend. With colleges costing most families six-figures nowadays, this isn't something you want to just "wing it."
What an Aptitude Assessment Is vs. What It Is Not
What It Is:
- Measurement of Natural Abilities: Aptitude assessments are designed to identify and measure a person’s natural talents or innate capabilities.
- Predictor of Potential: These assessments can predict how well an individual might perform in different areas, helping to identify careers or fields where they might excel.
- Objective and Empirical: Aptitude assessments provide unbiased data, offering a more objective assessment of a person's abilities compared to self-assessments or subjective evaluations.
- Focus on Cognitive Abilities: They often measure cognitive traits such as problem-solving ability, spatial reasoning, and memory.
- Not a Personality Test: Aptitude assessments do not assess personality traits, such as introversion or extraversion, which are evaluated by personality assessments.
- Not an Interest Inventory: These assessments do not measure personal interests or preferences, which can change over time and are assessed by interest inventories.
- Not a Skill Assessment: Skills are developed through learning and experience, whereas aptitudes are natural abilities. Aptitude assessments do not measure learned skills or competencies.
- Not Subjective: Unlike self-assessments, which rely on personal judgment, aptitude assessments provide objective results based on standardized testing procedures.
Benefits of an Aptitude Assessment
- Informed Decision-Making - aptitude assessments provide critical data that can help students make informed decisions about their education and career paths. By understanding their natural strengths, students can choose college majors and careers that align with their innate abilities, increasing their chances of success and satisfaction.
- Efficiency and Cost-Effectiveness - choosing the right college major from the start can save students and their families significant time and money. Avoiding the need to switch majors or career paths means fewer lost credits and reduced tuition costs, leading to a more efficient educational journey.
- Personalized Learning Strategies - by identifying how a student best learns and solves problems, aptitude assessments can help tailor educational approaches to fit their strengths. This personalized strategy can enhance learning efficiency and academic performance.
- Enhanced Career Planning - understanding one's natural talents can guide career planning, helping individuals to select professions where they are more likely to excel and find fulfillment. This can lead to higher job satisfaction and better career outcomes.
- Development of Complementary Skills - when students develop skills that align with their natural aptitudes, they can achieve higher levels of proficiency and even excellence in their chosen fields. Aptitude assessments can highlight areas where skill development will be most beneficial, fostering a more focused and effective growth trajectory.
- Unbiased Assessment - aptitude assessments provide an objective measure of a person's capabilities, free from the biases and inaccuracies that can come from self-assessment or the opinions of others. This objectivity is crucial for making fair and effective educational and career decisions.
The Career Personality Profiler
The Big Five trait model of personality is the most widely accepted personality theory in the scientific community. Although it's not as well understood among laypeople as systems like Myers-Briggs personality typing, it is generally believed the Big Five is the most scientific sound way of conceptualizing the differences between people.
The Big Five is different from other popular personality systems because its model is based on traits rather than types. The Big Five categorizes an inventory of related descriptive personality traits into a spectrum of five common dimensions: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism. We each have varying levels of these key personality factors that impact our thoughts, decisions, and behavior.
Holland Code System
The Holland Code system is one of the most widely used frameworks for career assessment in the world. The Holland Code states that individuals find the greatest happiness and success when they work in a career that matches their personality category. There are six broad occupational themes that match our interests and preferences: Realistic/Building, Investigative/Thinking, Artistic/Creating, Social/Helping, Enterprising/Persuading, and Conventional/Organizing.
No one particular career test is intended to be a box to put yourself in. While nothing can predict your future success, we do everything we can by looking at careers that overlap all three assessments. The combination of these three assessments excel in encouraging you to look at good-fit jobs you may not have considered before, but they can only ever recommend broad occupational themes that match your interests and preferences. The final decision is always yours.
