Dr. Kenneth Gray, Pennsylvania State University

• Postsecondary success requires two ingredients: academic skills and commitment that comes from career focus.

• Going to college without the commitment that stems from a clearly laid-out plan will invariably lead to failure.

• Success comes from effective postsecondary planning that is based on reality.

The Quiet Dilemma

1. Two thirds of all college students now withdraw at least once before finishing, and 91% of these never earn a degree.

2. Although teens say the main reason they are going to college is to get a good job very few seem to have thought much about the details.

3. While increasing numbers of college graduates are ending up in low-wage service jobs, the nation’s economy is generating record numbers of unfilled positions for technicians in high-skill/high-wage technical jobs. The problem is not an undersupply of college graduates, but rather an undersupply of technically skilled graduates.

4. On discovering they had made a mistake, many young adults become “reverse transfers,” enrolling in 1 and 2 year technical programs at community and technical colleges even though many already have 4-year degrees and even graduate degrees.

For this generation, the number one predictor of postsecondary success, particularly in college, is not grades, but rather having a goal or the commitment that comes from career maturity and career direction.