Choosing a College Program Based on Your Personality

“Choose a college or university program based on your personality and interests.” That is what the research shows over the past many years. Research studies also demonstrate that with a good personality-program match you are likely to,

• Earn higher grades,
• Stay with your program of choice,
• Graduate on time, and
• Be more satisfied and successful in your career.

Obviously you don’t want to ignore those findings and jeopardize your career!

There are different strategies you can adopt to make a good decision and match your personality with the right career. 

1. Take a scientifically valid interest inventory or career test that measures your Holland personality types;
2. Use a valid list of programs/majors organized by Holland personality types to identify those most likely to fit your personality;
3. Learn about the environment for each program that interests you;
4. Use similar strategies to choose a career field; and
5. Make your choice using a 4 step decision-making process.

Recent studies show that a good personality-program match is related to college success.
Generally, the better the match the better students do.

Certainly, there are other factors to consider in choosing a college or university program, but personality-program match is one of the most important.


This blog has been adapted from the article written by Lawrence K. Jones, Ph.D., NCC