One of the better things we did as parents concerning our children's college path was to find a couple of college students in the field our children wished to go into of Jr. or Sr. status, take them out for lunch, and have a discussion with them about and our children about their major, what the challenges are, what they'd do differently in HS to prepare for it, what some of the misconceptions they had about the major are, what they've done right / wrong as colleges students in general, and many other questions.
Our children can seldom envision themselves becoming us so they often tune our advise out, however, it was quite apparent that my children listened with great interest and paid close attention as the college students much closer to their own age frankly discussed their thoughts, concerns, and gave real world advise to them that was directly applicable. We had our children prepare questions ahead of time of course but also let the conversation be lead a great deal by the college students who seamed more than willing to speak truthfully despite being embarrassed at times about their own shortcomings and less than optimal decisions.
