photo by: University of Kansas

The University of Kansas Campanile, at left, houses a carillon.

Asking a young child “what do you want to be when you grow up,” doesn’t often have much pressure. In fact, you can get some really creative answers — like an astronaut/actor. But for students in college, that question can suddenly feel like looking at the next 40 years of life.

University of Kansas leaders are hoping a test — of all things — can help relieve some of the pressure.

Staff members at the KU University Career Center are working to get more students to begin taking an online aptitude test that will help students better understand their interests as they relate to both a major and a possible career after college. Since 2021 KU has been using a self-directed online assessment survey known as PathwayU that is designed to help students answer key questions about their educational and career interests. About 2,200 students used the tool in 2025, Wendy Shoemaker, the program director for KU’s University Career Center, said. KU, which has more than 25,000 students across all of its campuses, is making a new push to promote the program.

“It’s been growing every year,” Shoemaker said.

Working with students to find the right degree and career path isn’t just about helping students find personal fulfillment, but it also can be a key to a student’s financial future. The stakes of finding the right degree and career fit are particularly high for students who are using student debt to fund their college educations.

The higher education industry is beginning to give more attention to a trend of “debt, no degree” students. Those are students who took out student loan debt but didn’t end up completing their college degree. While recent federal statistics have been limited, statistics from the past decade estimated that about 40% of all students who take on student debt don’t end up with a degree.

A 2025 survey by the Institute for College Access and Success found that 33% of students with some college but no degree were delinquent or in default on their student loans. The survey found that students with some college but no degree were 65% more likely to be delinquent or in default on student loans than general student loan holders.

Failure to find a good degree fit isn’t the only reason students fail to get a degree, but it can be a significant one. That’s where 20 to 30 minutes with PathwayU can make a big different for many students, Shoemaker said. That’s approximately how long the online assessment takes to complete. Shoemaker said it focuses on four key areas: career interests, values, personality and workplace preferences. Using those responses, the program uses an algorithm that suggests certain industry options that could be the right fit for a student and a list of majors that can help students learn skills that would be helpful in that field.

Shoemaker said students focus on choosing a major and don’t think about the career implications of that choice, which could be “very limiting.” Flipping that philosophy with a tool like PathwayU can highlight individual careers that could be strong matches based on the assessment answers.

Kelsey Yadon, lead academic adviser over Jayhawk Exploratory Advising, said she often works with first-year students who have not picked out a major. Yadon said that she thinks the PathwayU program is helpful for helping direct students to “broader areas of interest” that can help color their choices of a major and future career. For example, if a student’s results suggest they would be interested in a career in human services, they can use the PathwayU program to find a major that the student would find interesting and give useful skills that could help in their career.

Both Yadon and Shoemaker said that students often have an idea of what sort of field would be interesting, but aren’t aware of specific jobs in that field. The PathwayU program includes labor market data from the federal government across many career paths, including information about required skills, average salary and the hiring demand for that type of role. Not only is that important for students to think about when choosing a degree, but having access to real job openings can ” really open their eyes to the possibilities (that are) out there,” Shoemaker said.

Yadon said as an adviser, she has seen firsthand how some undecided students can feel like “everybody else knows what to do” and blames themselves. She said exploring results from PathwayU can be a great jumping off point that can help them better understand themselves. The students can find potential majors that fit their personalities, values and interests, and Yadon said it can help students feel more confident about their choices.

“I think it helps students a lot feel more anchored in that decision making,” Yadon said. “They can see there are ways to do the things I’m interested in that I didn’t know were possible.”