Long term care administrators need a broad base of knowledge, skills, and interests to provide leadership and be successful in managing a fiscally responsible, quality long term care organization. Researchers developed a tool to help students assess whether a long term care administration major is a compatible fit. With input from professionals in the field and in context with the literature, a multi-phase research process, utilizing undergraduates as research assistants, led to development of the Long Term Care Administrator (LTCA) Self-Assessment Tool which focuses on assessing interest, ability, and experience of prospective students across the following 10 characteristics deemed necessary for effective leadership of long term care communities: organization, critical thinking, people skills, attitude, confidence, communication, visionary leadership, sense of caring, change agent, and business sense. Internal consistency measures and factor analysis suggest the LTCA Tool is reasonably reliable and valid for assisting prospective students in selecting a long term care administration major and they can also serve as a foundation for building an individualized academic and experiential professional development plan to progress them toward career goals.