Women students expect to balance career and family.

Diaper changes, sick kids, presentations, deadlines. Despite several decades of media attention to the challenges of having a career and a family, most of today's students have no clue about the balancing act involved for working women.

After the first shift at the office, working women may come home to a second shift involving kids, housework and meals with little help from their partners. Throwing coursework into the mix--like training for a new job or getting another degree--means women add a third shift.

While helping women students choose a career, campus career counselors need to steer the conversation toward the reality of that career when it's combined with a family life. At the NASPA/ACPA conference held in Orlando in April, Dr. Marybeth Walpole, in the educational leadership department and Kim Joyce, in the service …