Peter Pitts (aka Small College Guy) is a retired admission officer who loves small colleges. This is excerpted from a Facebook post with permission.

Your son or daughter is totally undecided about a college major. You don’t want to spend a fortune to have them attend a college without “a plan.”

What do you do?

Undecided students in college need three things: guidance — available, coherent, cohesive and consistent advising; education — knowledgeable and patient professors, and professional career mentors; and experience — internships and meaningful projects, both on and off campus.

Small colleges offer all three in abundance.

If you want your son or daughter to have daily access to advisors and career experts without having to stand in long lines or pay extra fees, attend a small college.

I worked for many years in admissions for a college of 800 students. My favorite recruits were the undecided students (I prefer the term open-minded.)

The faculty at small colleges also enjoy working with these students. Sure, they have posted office hours, but these professors are available outside of office hours, too. They bend over backward to help.

The career and counseling center staff also have appointment times available, but they welcome walk-ins as well. Everyone is there to help.

If a student is thinking they might want to be a lawyer, there are alumni lawyers who volunteer to advise. If they are thinking about becoming a doctor, there are alumni physicians who volunteer to advise. There is help and assistance at every turn.

Most small colleges have over 90% placement (jobs or graduate school) within six months of graduation, and provide lifetime career services.

Most small liberal arts colleges offer the main areas of interest: STEM, Business, Computer Science, Nursing, Communications, etc.

Many small liberal arts colleges even have ABET-accredited engineering programs or AACSB-accredited business programs.

Most offer a wide enough array of majors to satisfy the needs of the majority of students.

As you research colleges, as long as a college has “something” in all or most of their interest areas (and at least a pathway to all of them), it would be a good college to leave on your list.

Financially, there are more than 600 small private colleges that are relatively inexpensive after merit and financial aid.

Some are “meets-need” colleges (like Grinnell or Haverford, for example). Others just give a lot of merit aid and keep their out-of-pocket costs low (like Monmouth in Illinois or Beloit in Wisconsin).

The median cost of small private colleges (after merit, without loans) is $28,885 (which is significantly less than their median sticker price of $49,805). The median acceptance rate at these schools is around 75%.(ranging from 3% to 99%)

In the end, visit the colleges on your list and ask their admissions representatives lots of questions. If you live too far away, Zoom with them.

If you visit in person, ask if you can have an appointment with their career center staff during your visit. Make sure to also complete the Net Price Calculators.

When the admissions representatives ask about your potential major, just be upfront with them and say “I might study X, Y, or Z. I am undecided.”

Some colleges even have formal programs designed solely for undecided first-year students. Small colleges love working with undecided students.