If you are a student who has been asked to write about your future plans, and you do not have any, you are in the normal position and not the shameful one.
Most advice on this subject tells you to set goals and does not show you a single one. This article shows you actual examples, explains how to answer the question when someone asks it out loud, tells you which subject choices genuinely close doors, and addresses what to do when your family wants something different from what you want.
Parents, there is a section for you further down. Read the student sections first..
Table of contents
Key Takeaways
- A plan at sixteen does not need to be correct. It needs to be specific enough to act on this term.
- Subject choices close doors long before university does. Dropping Maths at sixteen closes engineering and economics at eighteen.
- Most people do not end up doing what they planned at sixteen. This is not failure. It is what planning is for.
- Vague ambition is not a plan. “I want to be successful” cannot be acted on. “I will find out if I actually like physics” can.
- If your family expects a different path, the conversation goes better with evidence than with feelings.
Why Future Planning for Students Matters
Research shows that students with clear goals perform better academically. They are more motivated, more resilient, and more focused.
Planning for the future is not about rigid career choices at age twelve. It is about helping students understand themselves and their options.
When students know why they are working hard, effort becomes meaningful, not just a routine.
The Consequences of Poor Planning
Without direction, students often feel overwhelmed by choices later in life. They may pick courses or universities based on peer pressure alone.
Late planning can limit access to competitive programmes. Certain opportunities require years of deliberate preparation beforehand.
Early, structured guidance prevents this. It empowers students to make choices that truly reflect their values and ambitions.
Future Plans Examples, by Age
Here is what the difference between a useless plan and a usable one actually looks like. Note that the usable ones are smaller, not bigger.
| Stage | A weak plan | A plan you can actually act on |
|---|---|---|
| Years 7 to 9(ages 11-14) | “I want to be successful.” | “This year I will find out whether I actually like physics or just like my physics teacher. I will join one club I would not normally choose.” |
| Years 10 to 11(IGCSE) | “I will get good grades.” | “I will keep Maths and a science at IGCSE so that I do not close engineering or medicine before I have decided. I will do two weeks of work experience in something I think I want.” |
| Year 12(Lower Sixth) | “I want to go to a good university.” | “I will identify five courses at three universities, read their actual entry requirements, and check my A Level subjects against them by December.” |
| Year 13(Upper Sixth) | “I will apply to university.” | “I will draft my personal statement around the two things I have genuinely done, not the ten I wish I had. I will have a plan for the grades I might not get.” |
The pattern is the same at every age. A weak plan describes a destination. A usable plan describes the next thing you will find out.
How to Answer “What Are Your Future Plans?”
You will be asked this in interviews, in university applications, and by every relative you meet at Tet. The good news is that the same answer works for all three, and it is not the answer most students give.
The instinct is to name a job. “I want to be a doctor.” It sounds decisive and it is usually the weakest possible answer, because the follow-up question destroys it: why? A student who cannot answer that has revealed they picked the job, not the work.
A better structure
- Start with what you are drawn to, not what it is called. “I am most interested in how things are designed to fail safely.”
- Give evidence you have actually pursued it. “I took apart the school’s broken 3D printer and read the fault reports.” This sentence is worth more than any ambition.
- Name a direction, not a destination. “So I am looking at engineering, probably mechanical, and I am keeping Maths and Physics to A Level to stay open.”
- Be honest about the uncertainty. “I might change my mind. I would rather change it after finding something out than before.” Interviewers respect this. Nobody believes a sixteen-year-old is certain.
Never say “I want to be successful” or “I want to help people”. Both are true of almost everyone and therefore tell the listener nothing.
Personal Goal Examples You Can Use
Adapt these. A goal works when someone else could tell whether you had achieved it. If nobody can check it, it is a wish. This is the core of SMART goal setting.
Academic
- Move from a grade 5 to a grade 7 in Maths by the end of the year, by doing past-paper questions on the two topics I keep losing marks on rather than the ones I enjoy.
- Read one book a month that is not set reading, and write three sentences on each.
- Ask one question in class per week. For a quiet student this is harder and more valuable than it sounds.
Personal
- Learn to cook five meals properly before I leave home.
- Sleep before midnight on school nights for one month, and notice whether it changes anything.
- Say yes to one thing this term that frightens me slightly.
Future-facing
- Interview one adult who does the job I think I want, and ask them what they dislike about it. The answer to that question is more informative than anything else you will hear.
- Read the actual entry requirements for three courses I am interested in, on the university’s own website, not a summary of them.
- Do one piece of work experience, even a bad one. Discovering you hate something is a successful outcome.
The Subject Choices That Actually Close Doors
Most advice about planning is vague. This part is not, and it matters more than everything else on this page.
Options narrow at two moments: when you choose IGCSE subjects at around fourteen, and when you choose A Levels at around sixteen. Both decisions are made before most students have any idea what they want, and both are difficult to undo.
- No Maths at A Level closes engineering, physics, economics, and most computer science courses. It is the single most consequential subject in this respect.
- No Chemistry at A Level closes medicine, dentistry, veterinary science, and pharmacy almost everywhere.
- No modern language narrows options at some universities and closes very few. Less consequential than students fear.
- A very narrow combination can close more than it opens. Three subjects that are all essentially the same subject leave you nowhere to turn.
The rule that follows is simple. Until you know, keep the doors open. Keeping Maths costs you two years of effort. Not keeping it can cost you an entire field.
Check the requirements yourself, on each university’s own page, for the specific courses you care about. Do not rely on general advice, including this. Requirements differ by institution and they change
When Your Family Wants Something Different
This is the part most articles avoid, and it is the situation many students in Vietnam are actually in.
Your family wants medicine, or engineering, or law. You want something they regard as unserious. You are not going to resolve this by announcing it at dinner, and you should not pretend the disagreement is not real.
What tends not to work
- Declaring the decision as a fait accompli. It reads as rejection rather than as a plan.
- Arguing about it in terms of feelings and passion, which are exactly the terms your family already distrusts.
- Waiting silently until university applications, at which point the conversation is worse and the options are fewer.
What tends to work
- Bring evidence, not desire. Not “I love design”, but “here are three graduates from this course, here is what they earn, here is where they work, and here is a portfolio I built without being asked.”
- Address the real worry, which is usually security. Most parental resistance is not about the subject. It is fear that the path does not lead anywhere. Answer that fear with facts and it often subsides.
- Propose a test rather than a decision. “Let me do this for a year and show you what I produce” is easier to accept than “I have decided.”
- Use the school. A university counsellor talking to your parents carries weight that you cannot carry yourself. This is what they are for. Ask.
Your parents are not your opponents. They are usually frightened on your behalf, and fear responds to evidence better than it responds to argument.
Your Plan Will Change, and That Is Not Failure
Most adults are not doing what they planned to do at sixteen. This is not a failure of planning. It is the ordinary result of finding things out.
The purpose of a plan at sixteen is not to be correct. It is to point you at something specific enough that you learn whether you were right. A student who plans to study medicine, does work experience in a hospital, and discovers they cannot bear it has not wasted two years. They have succeeded, far more cheaply than the student who discovers it in their third year of medical school.
Change the plan when the evidence changes. Do not change it because it became difficult. Learning to tell those two apart is most of what long-term goal setting is really teaching you.
Short-Term and Long-Term Goals
Long-term goals give direction. Short-term goals give evidence that you are moving. Neither works without the other.
A long-term goal without short-term ones is a daydream, because nothing happens on Tuesday. Short-term goals without a long-term one are busywork, because you cannot tell which effort matters. Set both, review them each term, and expect the long one to change.
Specificity is what makes the difference. “Work harder at Maths” cannot be checked. “Do ten past-paper questions on quadratics before Friday” can, and only one of those two will actually happen.
For Parents: Listen More Than You Advise
Your involvement matters enormously, and the most common way it goes wrong is well intentioned.
- Ask what they are curious about, not what they want to be. The second question demands a job title and closes the conversation. The first opens it.
- Take the unglamorous interest seriously. The child who fixes things, organises things, or argues about things is telling you something real about how they think.
- Protect the subject choices. This is the one place where parental intervention is genuinely decisive. Make sure the doors stay open until your child is old enough to choose which to walk through.
- Separate your fear from their plan. It is legitimate to want security for your child. It is worth being honest, with yourself, about which of your objections are about their future and which are about your anxiety.
Motivation that comes from a parent’s ambition runs out. Motivation that comes from a student’s own curiosity does not
How We Support Future Planning at the ABCIS
At The ABC International School (ABCIS), we teach the British curriculum, leading to IGCSE and A Level, and we are accredited by Cambridge International and AQA.
- University counselling that starts before it is urgent. Subject choices at fourteen and sixteen are where futures are actually shaped. We work with students at those moments, not only in Year 13 when the options have already narrowed.
- Assessment that tells students something true. CAT4 and GL Assessment give a picture of aptitude that is independent of how much a student happens to like their teacher this year.
- Model United Nations. Students research a position, argue it in public, and find out whether they enjoy the work of persuasion. Many discover a direction here.
- The International Award. Adapted from the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award and run from Years 9 to 13, with Bronze, Silver and Gold from age fourteen. It requires sustained commitment to something outside the classroom, which is exactly what a personal statement needs and cannot be manufactured in Year 13.
- House Teams and FOBISIA events. Dalat Dragons, Hanoi Hornets, Mekong Monsters and Saigon Serpents, plus competition with other British international schools across Asia.
We hold four consecutive BSO Outstanding inspection grades, most recently in January 2024. Every year, over 95% of our graduates go on to study at universities across the world, and we are happy to discuss where they actually go.
- Trung Son Campus: #152-158, Street No. 1, Trung Son, Binh Hung Commune, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
- Nha Be Campus: #2, Street No. 9, Tan An Huy, Nha Be Commune, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
- Phone: +84 (0)28 7308 1828
- Email: office@theabcis.com
Frequently Asked Questions
Useful plans are smaller than students expect. At fourteen: keep Maths and a science so that engineering and medicine stay open, and find out whether you actually like physics or merely like your physics teacher. At sixteen: identify five courses at three universities and check their real entry requirements against your subjects. At eighteen: build a personal statement around the two things you have genuinely done rather than the ten you wish you had. A weak plan names a destination. A usable one names the next thing you will find out.
Do not name a job title, because the follow-up question will expose it. Instead, describe what you are drawn to, give evidence that you have actually pursued it, name a direction rather than a destination, and be honest that you may change your mind. “I am interested in how things are designed to fail safely, I took apart the school’s broken 3D printer, so I am looking at mechanical engineering and keeping Maths and Physics to stay open” beats “I want to be an engineer” every time. Avoid “I want to be successful” and “I want to help people”, which are true of everyone and therefore say nothing.
The test is whether someone else could tell you had achieved it. “Work harder at Maths” fails that test; “do ten past-paper questions on quadratics before Friday” passes it. Good examples include reading one book a month that is not set reading, asking one question in class each week, interviewing an adult who does the job you think you want and asking what they dislike about it, and completing one piece of work experience even if it turns out badly. Discovering you hate something is a successful outcome.
Earlier than most families think, but not in the way they imagine. Nobody needs to choose a career at twelve. What matters is that by fourteen, when IGCSE subjects are chosen, and by sixteen, when A Levels are chosen, the student has enough self-knowledge to avoid closing doors accidentally. Those two moments do more to shape a future than any amount of ambition expressed at ten.
Dropping Maths at A Level is the most consequential single decision, since it closes engineering, physics, economics and most computer science. Dropping Chemistry closes medicine, dentistry, veterinary science and pharmacy at almost every university. A very narrow combination of three similar subjects can also close more than it opens. Requirements vary by institution and change over time, so check the specific courses on each university’s own website rather than relying on general advice.
This is common and it is not resolved by announcement. Most parental resistance is not really about the subject; it is fear that the path leads nowhere. Answer that fear with evidence rather than with feeling: graduates from the course, what they earn, where they work, and something you have built without being asked. Propose a test rather than a decision, since “let me do this for a year and show you” is easier to accept than “I have decided”. And use the school. A university counsellor speaking to your parents carries weight that you cannot carry yourself.
No. Most adults are not doing what they planned at sixteen, and a plan’s purpose is not to be correct. It is to point you somewhere specific enough that you find out whether you were right. A student who plans on medicine, does hospital work experience, and discovers they cannot bear it has succeeded, and far more cheaply than one who discovers it in their third year of medical school. Change the plan when the evidence changes; do not change it merely because it became difficult.
