Background Data
K is a seventeen-year-old, Japanese-Chinese-American male. He
graduated from high school five months ago and will be enrolling
in college at the beginning of the spring semester. He did not en-
roll in the fall because he had applied too late to be admitted.
When asked why he decided to go to college, he replied, “A friend
of mine thought it would be a good idea.” K is bright, with SAT
scores of 700 (verbal) and 710 (quantitative), but he is an under-
achiever in the sense that his grades vary considerably. K’s primary
hobbies are playing the drums and skateboarding.
K currently works as a librarian’s assistant—a job he character-
izes as “his best job so far,” and the pay is, according to him, “pretty
good.” He has held other part-time jobs, including that of paperboy,
which he liked because he was making money, receptionist, which
he liked because it was easy, and book-shelver at the library. He dis-
liked that intensely because it was boring.
K was asked to estimate his chances of finishing college on a
0 to 100 percent scale. He estimated that there is a 60 percent
probability that he will complete a college education, not be-
cause he cannot do the work but because of his work habits. He
admits to being a procrastinator; he gets behind in his school-
work and then becomes discouraged and discontinues his efforts.
However, he is going to college at this time on his own volition
because he thinks he will be sorry later in his life if he does not
go now. Although K ranks “independence” as one of his most
important values, he believes he does better when others set the
agenda for him.
K’s father is a research scientist, and his mother is a typist. Both
have expressed an interest in K attending college, but they are leav-
ing the matter of K’s occupational choice strictly up to him. He has
one sibling—a brother who is ten years younger.
K admits that he has very little information about careers at this
time and expresses an interest in knowing more about technology
careers and architecture. He also indicates that he has ruled out all
CASE STUDIES 25