Educational institutions have a responsibility to dissuade students from pursuing fields of study in which they are unlikely to succeed.
Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the claim. In developing and supporting your position, be sure to address the most compelling reasons and/or examples that could be used to challenge your position.



As the world becomes increasingly developed, more and more fields of study arise. It is thus more difficult for students nowadays to choose an appropriate field of study for himself or herself; which also means that it is easier for a student to choose a wrong one. Therefore, the idea that educational institutions should be responsible for discouraging students to pursue fields of study that they are unlikely to succeed arises. To support this idea, one should consider three questions: Does educational institutions have the right to dissuade students from choosing a field of study? Is it beneficial for the students for not choosing a wrong field of study? And is it possible for the educational institutions recognize students’ abilities and the field that they are unlikely to succeed better than the students themselves?


First of all, though many think that dissuasion interfere one’s freedom of choice, it is not the case. Dissuasion does not mean to coerce someone to do a certain action. It is giving a person good and solid reasons not to perform an action. The person being dissuaded still has the freedom of choice. Those students who are dissuaded by the educational institutions still have their freedom to choose their preferred fields of study. They are just provided more information for their choices.

Secondly, students that are dissuaded from pursuing a career in which they are unlikely to succeed gain benefits from the dissuasion. If students do not choose an appropriate career for themselves, they waste a lot of time and money. As human society develops, more and more professionals are being created. People, including students, face a new problem in the modern world: the tyranny of choice. It is arduous and time consuming to make a good choice. Many fields nowadays require complicated skills and knowledge, which leads to the fact that to determine whether one’s abilities is compatible for a job position is an arduous task. Career advisor is likely to become more and more professionalized, and it faces the same fate with other professionals: division of labor. Career advisor gradually becomes a professional job. If students have to decide their career by themselves, it would cost them time and effort. And since students’ professional is not career advisor, they are easier to make mistakes. Many students nowaday, after one or two years studying in one field, have to switch their major. A report of Rutgers University showed that the number of junior students switching a major increases 0.5% each year. This not only costs the students time and money, but also may discourage the students from pursuing their career.

Given that educational institutions have the right to dissuade students from choosing a career that the students are not likely to succeed, and given that the students in fact gain benefits from not pursuing an incompatible career, the only question remains here is that whether it is better to let the educational institutions decide what fields of study students are unlikely to succeed than the students themselves? As mentioned above, career advisor becomes more and more professionalized, and it also follows the path of division of labor. The educational institutions have professional career advisors, who spend most of their time and effort figuring out which skills and abilities are compatible with a certain field of study. A student himself or herself, is not able to spend the same amount of effort like those professionals. It is thus better to let the educational institute determine which fields are inappropriate for a student.


As the world becomes more complicated, people face more difficult choices, especially in choosing a career. It is thus beneficial for students to have assist. Avoiding choosing inappropriate fields of study save students time and money. It does not a violation of the freedom of choice for educational institutions to dissuade students from choosing certain fields of study. And those educational institutions are more efficient in career advisor and the students themselves.