One of the most important aspects of planning is to know why you’re planning, toward what end result:
- to advance in a profession
- for personal fulfillment
- to the next level academically, some time in the future (associate → bachelor’s degree, bachelor’s → master’s degree), so that the current degree is one step toward a larger goal
- to learn more about history/computers/literature/management/art/you-name-it
- to finish something you started 20 years ago
- to set an example for your younger children, or share the collegiate experience with your older children
- to prepare for a different career in retirement
- or more…
Identifying goals is an important learning activity in planning a degree, and it’s one of the first ones you may complete. As you work more fully with goals, you’ll apply your insights to your own situation and link your goals with degree content.
Some Goals Questions to Consider
Context
- Why do you want to pursue a degree?
- What type of degree (associate, bachelor’s) do you want to pursue?
Personal Goals
- How do you intend to use your degree?
- What knowledge, qualities, or characteristics do you hope to develop through your studies?
Academic Goals
- Do you want to strengthen any academic skills? (e.g., writing, math, research)
- What do you want to learn about in your degree?
Professional Goals
- Where would you like to be professionally in five or ten years?
- Are there studies that you can include in your degree to help you to reach your professional goals?
Tools for Writing Goals
This short video describes how to use a goal-setting worksheet to identify a goal and develop a strategy for accomplishing it.
- Iowa State University’s pages on Goal Setting
- Writing Great Specific Goals – provides tips on how to write goals in a way that can help you implement them
- Personal Goal Setting – a business-oriented web page that contains useful information on setting SMART goals
Note that there’s also fuller information on the Goal Setting page of this text in the Learning Engagement competency section.