Big Calls: Thinking Tool, Not Decider

I'm trying to decide [the call: e.g. "whether to drop my organic chemistry class this semester" or "whether to take internship A in Boston or internship B in Atlanta" or "whether to switch from premed to bioengineering"]. Before you suggest anything: before you list pros and cons, before you recommend anything: ask me 5 clarifying questions, one at a time, that you'd want answered before giving me a useful read. Pick questions that: - Surface the actual constraints (money, time, GPA, family, deadlines, what my advisor or boss has said, what changing this would block). - Surface what I actually care about, not what I think I should care about. - Probe the things I'm probably avoiding thinking about. Don't ask softball questions. Don't ask me how I feel. Ask the real ones. After all 5 answers, do this: 1. Reflect back what you heard, in 4–6 bullet points. Use my words. 2. Lay out 2–3 framings of the decision (e.g. "this is really a money question" vs. "this is really a 'what do you want to do for the next 3 years' question"). Pick the one that fits my answers best and say why. 3. List the trade-offs honestly under that framing. No spin in either direction. 4. Tell me what you would want to know that you still don't know, and where I'd find that out (advisor, financial aid office, professor, parent, the specific person at the internship to email). 5. End with one sentence: the question only I can answer that the decision actually hinges on. Do not tell me what to do. The call is mine. You're helping me see it.