Most students choose a major based on what their parents expect, what sounds impressive, or what they think they're supposed to want. This sprint is for figuring out what your teen actually wants to study, and why.
"If you come to College Torch open-minded, Robert will extract the very best from you. He asks questions that force you to be extremely introspective."
Vincent C. · Class of 2022, admitted to Georgetown
In my experience, students who are "undecided" usually aren't actually undecided. They have interests, they just haven't had the right conversation yet. That conversation is what the North Star Sprint is built around. I ask questions. Your teen talks. We figure out what's actually there.
The Challenge
Families spend months on the college list and years worrying about the GPA, and then treat the major question as something to fill in quickly before hitting "submit." That is backwards. The major shapes which schools to apply to, which essays to write, and four years of your teen's daily life.
Most students choose a major based on what sounds good, what their parents studied, or what they've heard leads to jobs. A smaller number choose based on what they've actually thought about carefully. The students in that second group tend to have better experiences in college, and apply more coherently to get there.
The goal of this sprint isn't to pressure your teen into certainty. It's to give them a clear, honest sense of direction they can actually use.
The College Torch Process
Before Robert looks at any program or school, he spends real time getting to know your teen: what they find genuinely interesting, what bores them, what problems they want to solve, and what they do when no one is asking them to do anything. That conversation, done well, produces more clarity than any online assessment. From there, Robert translates what he hears into academic directions and programs worth exploring, and delivers a written document your family can actually use.
One live session with Robert and your teen, students only. Robert asks questions: about what they find interesting, what they've done voluntarily, what kinds of problems they're drawn to, what subjects have surprised them, and what they think they want but aren't sure about. Most students leave this session with more clarity than they expected, and occasionally with a completely different picture of themselves than they walked in with.
Robert takes what he learned in the session and translates it into academic directions. He identifies programs and fields that fit the student's interests and profile, flags impacted majors where the admission strategy needs to account for the major, looks at how program quality varies across school types, and notes where interests connect to real career and graduate school paths. He does this in writing.
A second live session to walk through the Major Direction Plan together. Robert explains every recommendation, answers questions, and helps your teen and family decide how the major direction will shape the college list and the application. At the end of this session, your teen has a clear academic identity they can write about, talk about, and build a list around.
"Robert asks questions that force you to be extremely introspective, helping you understand who you are and what you want to convey."
Vincent C. · Class of 2022, admitted to Georgetown
What Robert Looks At
There's a difference between what a student says they want to study and what they actually spend time on when no one is asking. Robert is specifically listening for the second thing. The student who says "business" but lights up talking about behavioral psychology is telling you something. The major question gets answered more honestly when someone is asking the right questions.
What they actually care aboutStudents don't always know that their interests have names in a college catalog. A student obsessed with how cities work might be looking at urban planning, public policy, sociology, or architecture, depending on where their interests actually live. Robert maps interests to the academic field landscape, including programs that families often don't think of and disciplines that are genuinely underrated.
Naming the directionThe relationship between major and career is more flexible than most families believe, and more important than students often think. Robert gives an honest picture of where different academic paths go, where the flexibility is real, and where the constraints actually bite. He also helps students think about graduate school as a factor before it's time to think about graduate school.
Where it leadsSome of the most popular majors, including computer science, nursing, business, film, and architecture at certain schools, are impacted: the school admits students to the major separately, often with higher standards than general admission. Families who don't account for this build lists that don't work. Robert identifies where impacted major status creates real risk and where it doesn't, and adjusts the college search accordingly.
Admission implicationsThe same major can feel completely different at a large research university versus a small liberal arts college. Robert looks at how program strength, mentorship access, research opportunities, and professional network vary by school type for your teen's specific area of interest. A neuroscience student at a liberal arts college and a neuroscience student at a major research university are getting different educations, and families should understand that before the list gets built.
Fit across school typesA note on "undecided": Choosing "undecided" as a major strategy is often a fine choice. Many schools admit undecided students and expect them to declare later. Robert will tell you plainly when that's the right call for your teen, and when it's not. The goal of this sprint isn't to force a decision. It's to get to clarity, even if that clarity is "your teen genuinely has multiple directions worth exploring, and here's how to think about each."
What You Receive
At the end of the sprint, your teen receives a written document with Robert's assessment of their academic direction. Not a list of majors to pick from. A clear, specific description of where their interests live, what programs match them, how the major affects the college list, and what your teen can say in any "Why This Major" essay that will actually be honest and specific.
The full report includes Robert's written reasoning for each direction, program fit notes, career path context, and draft language for supplement essays about the major.
Your Guide Through This
The reason students end up with majors that don't fit is usually not that they chose wrong. It's that nobody asked the right questions before they chose. Robert has spent over a decade doing exactly that kind of deep listening with students, and he is good at distinguishing the interests that are genuine from the ones that are inherited or assumed.
He holds two degrees from Johns Hopkins, where he watched his own roommates make major changes mid-stream, which taught him early that academic direction matters and that it's harder to course-correct once you're already in. His work on the North Star Sprint is grounded in the same conviction: a student who knows what they want to study, and can say why, has an application that reads completely differently from one that doesn't.
He is also the person your LGBTQ+ teen should talk to if they're trying to figure out how their identity intersects with their academic and career interests. That conversation, in Robert's experience, goes better when someone is asking the questions rather than leaving the student to figure it out alone.
From the Luminaries
"If you come to College Torch open-minded, Robert will extract the very best from you. He asks questions that force you to be extremely introspective, helping you write an essay that shows, not tells, who you are. Even at 11pm, Robert has always answered my questions thoroughly."
"Brainstorming with Robert is truly one of my favorite things because he allows you to naturally think creatively. He truly cares about every single one of his students and notices when you are experiencing a block and actually does something about it."
"Robert's greatest strength is his knowledge of the process as a whole. He helped me craft an application that highlighted my strengths, and under his guidance I was admitted to my first-choice college."
The Sprint
The North Star Sprint is a single, focused service: two live sessions with Robert and a written Major Direction Plan. No tiers to figure out.
Questions about fit? Email Robert and Robert will tell you whether this is the right starting point.
When to Start
Unlike essays, there's no hard deadline pressure on the major question. The right time is whenever your teen is old enough to reflect honestly on what they care about, and whenever that answer will be useful for the next decision they need to make.
Completing the North Star Sprint in sophomore or junior year gives your teen time to act on what they learn: taking relevant classes, building activities that align with their direction, and entering the college list conversation with a clear academic identity. This is when the sprint produces the most downstream value.
Many families complete the North Star Sprint in junior spring or early summer, just before building the college list. At this point, the direction directly shapes which schools to target, which programs to look for, and how to approach any impacted major situation. This is the most practical timing if the college list comes next.
A student entering senior year with no clear major direction will struggle with any supplement asking "Why This Major?" or "Why This Program?" Completing the sprint in August or September gives them an honest answer to those questions before applications are due. It's late for the list, but it's not too late for the essays.
Freshman and even eighth-grade students can benefit from a version of this conversation. Robert keeps the stakes appropriately light with younger students: this is exploration, not commitment. But students who start thinking about what they find interesting early have a genuine advantage when it matters. If your teen is asking the question, it's not too early.
Common Questions
Enroll
Complete your enrollment below. Questions before purchasing? Email Robert and he will tell you whether this is the right starting point.
The right direction makes every other part of this process easier. Let's find it.
Questions? robert@collegetorch.com
