College is a great place for students to learn what they want to
do for the rest of their lives — true or false? "It's a
prevalent mind-set in this country that you go to college to
figure out what you want to do. That's an expensive way to do
it, and it's not very effective," says Rabbi Levi Brackman, an
educator and co-founder of Youth Directions. Some of the most
important decisions in life are made between the ages of 15 and
22, yet most students are ill-equipped to make them, said
Brackman, author of "Jewish Wisdom for Business Success." A
little self-discovery beforehand, he said, is a very good
investment. Brackman established the nonprofit Youth Directions
in 2009 to provide students with in-depth and strategic coaching
on prospective vocations. It has helped more than 300 students
find their callings, he said. Here's a quick math lesson from
Brackman: Parents pay an average of $80,000 for children to go
to college. About 35 percent of students entering college list
their major as "undecided," he said