re: College and Career guidance for son

If you son doesn't know what to do with his life there are worse options than to spend 4-6 years in the military. Other posters have suggested OCS or enlisted and either works.
Give him time to grow up a little, learn some discipline, meet great people, serve his country and have an adventure or three.

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Philosophy and French double major. Then become a high end gigilo.

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This.

This is exactly the path I took.

if he doesn't have a VERY keen idea of what he wants to do post college, he should be in something practical.

there are many benevolent directions you can go with employable STEM degrees, but there are far fewer financially supportive avenues he can take with less rigorous curriculums if he decides later in life that a 501c3 isn't the route he wants to go.

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This. This is exactly the path I took.

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Did you minor in English so you could share your Longfellow with them as part of their experience?

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College visits are happening over the next few months and his only current 'direction' is a list of things he thinks he absolutely doesn't want to do, which is helpful in its own way. Pretty bright kid, but we aren't going to Vanderbilt or Georgia Tech. Should get into any 'regular' school without much problem.

He can't define it yet...but it is pretty obvious that what drives him is service to others. He has no interest in being a doctor, working a trade, being an accountant, or engineer.

My work requires some overlap with folks in commercial insurance brokerage and some employee benefits consultant-types. I think these would be great fits for him being able to scratch his relationship and strategic thinking skills. I'd love to consider any other thoughts or suggestions yall might have.

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May get dragged from some of the dorks on the board, but tell him to look into being a financial advisor, preferably in a training firm at one of the big wires or bank branches (Merrill, Morgan, JP Morgan etc.). NOT northwestern mutual etc.

1) You can do it from any regular school
2) Definitely is a relationship based business
3) You are helping people with their finances, it's call financial services for a reason
3) Average age of a financial advisor is 55+
4) it can be very lucrative

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I’m not dragging it, but would you not be concerned about the longevity of a career like that. It seems regular people have less and less need for these types of services for a multitude of reasons. The only “financial advisor” role I’d be comfortable with is to the truly wealthy who will always need these types of services, but that shite is comparative, a grind, and way less of a service to others feeling.

Just my two cents

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Not at all

1) see my comment about average age of advisor, I understand your point about needing less advisors but the population is shrinking naturally
2) people need financial advice, not just the very wealthy, I think this board leans heavy anit-FA because of "just buy index funds"; however, I think that takes for granted that most people don't even understand that. If you are on a money talk board you probably don't need an FA but again most people aren't/

Lastly, a financial advisor is much more than just an investments, it's taxes, planning, lending relationships etc.

And full disclosure I'm not an FA - I work in IB/Corporate Finance but still see the need for them and based on OP it might makes sense for his son.