The following strategies are ways to find the time to achieve your educational goals and yes, find more time to be with your family and friends.  They may be very difficult at first, however, the reward is worth it.

1. Cut the cable. Television is an incredible waste of time with little emotional return.  Cut your cable and stop watching television.
2. Perhaps worse than cable, social media is one of the biggest wastes of time in modern society. For far too many, it is an extremely bad addiction. Ask yourself, “What do I get as a result of using social media?”  I personally like connecting to friends and I use it to promote my businesses.  So while I don’t cut it, I certainly have greatly limited my time on various platforms.
3. Own your mornings! Getting up early is a way to add hours to your day. However, if you get up and spend 2 hours on Facebook, it defeats the purpose.  If you get up, spend 30 minutes with coffee and the news, then work out or get ready, that’s a healthy way to start your day.
4. Work out in the morning! Let’s be honest, this can really suck! However, after about 2 weeks, you will actually look forward to your morning workouts.  After 4 consecutive weeks of  working out in the morning, it will become a very healthy habit!
5. Limit your alcohol. How can this save you time? Easy, it will provide you with a better night sleep.
6. Use a calendar to plan your professional and personal life.  If you use a paper calendar, switch it for a calendar you can access on your phone. This way, you can set alarms and notifications as well as set appointments in real time.  For example, instead of taking a card at the doctors and then putting your appointment in later, you just put it in. Saves you a few minutes but those minutes adds up!
7. Clean your house/apartment before you go to bed.  Saves you time in the morning.
8. Stop shopping! It takes time to look, purchase items, open packages, get rid of packages, stow away new items, and get rid of other items.  Of course you will need to shop from time to time, but always ask yourself, “Do I really need this?”
9. Buy paper products and other household items in bulk.  It cuts down on your time shopping, unpackaging, and stowing things away.
10. Use “to do” lists.  Check them off and keep them reasonable.  They do a great job of keeping you on task.

Bottom line, there are a lot of ways to save time and even add hours to your day. When I cut cable and started working out in the morning, I added about 6 hours to my day.  How? I didn’t watch TV in the morning and evening (~3 hours) and by working out in the morning, I cut my showers per day to one, I spent less time at the gym with less competition for equipment, and I was ready for my day before most people woke up.  It was a bear to do both but after about a month, it was second nature.  Give some or all of these a try and you will find the time to ace your classes and do more fun stuff with family and friends!

Steven J. Harvey, Ph.D.

CEO, My Campus Max (MyCollegeMax.com) LLC

How do you plan to succeed when you have never done it before and you are entering an uncertain experience? Well there are many ways to do that but the best way is to be purposeful. College success is no accident.  Students who graduate in 4 years, which is less than 40%, do so because they ask questions, they look for guidance, they go beyond their comfort zones, and they put in 100% effort.

For students who are not sure and for parents like me who have been out of college for 20+ years, college is very different. The Return on Investment is lower for students who do exactly what they are asked to do. This means, beyond course work and required internships, students need to do so much more. There are many ways to determine what are the best activities to participate in during college. Her are a few recommendations:

• As a freshmen, meet with each of your professors in the first two weeks of each semester. Instead of asking, “How do I get an ‘A'” ask, “How can I learn the most in this class?”
• As a freshmen, go to Career Services and register. Then set an appointment with a career counselor and take their advice on things you should do.
• Get a college coach like www.mcmforchoaches.com who will help you to make smart decisions with the greatest return on your investment, time, energy, and resources.

Be proactive, focus on asking questions, and go above and beyond.  It will have a huge impact on your success, during college, in the job market, and as you apply to graduate or professional schools.

Best of luck!

Steven J. Harvey, Ph.D. 

CEO | College Coaching |  Credentials/Resume

There are a lot of books written on finding your purpose in life.  The one thing they all have in common is that when you do find your purpose, your life will be awesome!  So how do you do it if you have no idea?  It all starts with understanding who you are and what about you, influences your happiness. When assessing high school students to develop a profile that they use to choose a major, MyCollegeMax looks at five variables: Values, Desired Work Environment, Interests, Learning Styles, and Personality Traits.

• Values: The most important part of being happy with life is your ability to prioritize your values.  While many students know what they value, it’s the specific values that link to jobs that are important to identify and prioritize.
• Desired Work Environment (DWE): Every job has an element of DWE variables called work temperaments.  For example, every job has a “people” component.  You either work with people 100% of the time, 0% of the time, or between 0% and 100% of the time.  When you combine the 13 work temperaments you have your “ideal work environment.”
• Interests: Interests help come up with a list of job possibilities.  But without the other four variables, interests are not very useful in determining the best career path.
• Learning Styles (LS): Learning styles help students understand how they approach learning. Every job involves learning to prepare and learning to stay up-to-date in your field.  That’s why learning styles are so important!  In today’s job market, we are ALL life-long learners.
• Personality Styles (PS): Personality styles help students understand preferences.  For example, if a student is extroverted versus introverted, they would prefer a job that involved working with people or which has a strong team environment.  It does not mean a person cannot work alone.  It just means they “prefer” working with people more often than not.

The goal of having high school students assessing their values, DWE, Interests, LS, and PS is so they select the BEST college major for them. The long-term benefits in doing so are HUGE!  If you want to learn more, you can email me at steveharveyphd@gmail.com.

Steven J. Harvey, Ph.D. 

CEO, www.MyCollegeMax.com  |  Credentials/Resume

On of the most important things you can do as a young person is volunteer with an organization you believe in.  What are the benefits?

• It’s a “feel good” activity where you expand your horizons,
• you meet others who share your values and outlooks,
• you meet professionals and community leaders because they volunteer in high numbers,
• you develop skills that are valuable regardless of your career, and
• you demonstrate character to future employers, a value they rate very high in job candidates.

So if you are home and not quite ready to go out and volunteer due to classes or social isolation, then begin your research to identify nonprofit agencies you would like to help. Reach out to them and develop a plan of action.  You will benefit in so many more ways than are listed above!

Steven J. Harvey, Ph.D. 

CEO, www.MyCollegeMax.com  |  CEO, www.steveharveyphd.com

From the time we have our kids, we are thinking about their futures. College is one of those things most parents begin thinking about very early on in their children’s lives.  However, what if you’re not sure your kid is ready. What do you do next?

1. A CEO of a very large organization once said, “No CEO is ever ‘ready’ to become a CEO. There’s a lot of on-the-job learning.” That’s the same with college.
2. You look at your kid and think, he didn’t do great in high school. My response is, “So what!” High school learning, grading, and all around expectations are nothing like the learning environment, grading, and expectations of college. That’s why measures of success in high school like good grades and high SAT scores are NOT very good predictors of college success.
3. If grades and SATs aren’t great predictors of college success, then what is?
   • Having a career vision.  That doesn’t mean knowing exactly what job you want to do when you graduate.  It means understanding what career you are interested in so you pick the major that is best for your.
   • Learning that the very best way to succeed is to experience your learning. This means you have to do stuff in college.  The more you do, the better you do academically and the more prepared you are for job success.
   • Investing in a college coach is an investment in your kid’s future. Why? Because you don’t know what you don’t know. A college coach will help you make the best choices, in the most efficient manner, which have the greatest return on your kid’s time and energy.

The small investment in a college coach can save you tens-of-thousands of dollars. More importantly, a college coach can keep you from going through college and ending up only slightly better than you were when you graduated from high school.  If you are looking for a coach, go to steveharveyphd.com and click on College Coaching.  Competitively priced, with a program that is unmatched by other coaches, this college coaching program is well worth the investment.

Steven J. Harvey, Ph.D. 

CEO, www.MyCollegeMax.com  |  CEO, www.steveharveyphd.com

Do colleges thing they are “very effective” at preparing college students for success?  Apparently not. Inside Higher Ed surveyed 597 Provosts (the people in charge of your kid’s learning in college) and asked them how effective they were at preparing your kids for the real world.  Apparently, their confidence is less than what one would expect when you are paying tens-of-thousands of dollars in tuition.

The chart below highlights the lack of confidence college provosts have in achieving their institutions mission of preparing students for their futures.

The above chart should concern parents as they invest incredible resources in their kids’ college education. The statistics in the chart speak for themselves and emphasize the importance of college students taking charge of their own education.  While there are a lot of things that colleges and universities do well, the fact that the top academic officers evaluate their institutions as low as the above stats indicate should be cause for concern.

Steven J. Harvey, Ph.D. 

CEO, www.MyCollegeMax.com  |  CEO, www.steveharveyphd.com

According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers 2020, the following skills are what employers are looking for.

So why do employers feel like college doesn’t prepare students for work?  That’s because it doesn’t.  Take a look at the top five skills above.  The following list will show you how these skills are developed. You can do the exact same exercise for every skill on the above list.

1. Written Communication: Writing is expected to be at a certain level in college.  There is no “built in” way in which writing is improved, only graded. Professors don’t have the time to help students to improve their writing skills. So if you want to improve your writing, you have to do it outside of your classes.
2. Problem Solving: Problem solving cannot be taught nor can there be a “realistic” exercise in class where problem solving is developed. You can only truly develop problem solving skills by real-life activities where there are risks involved. Most students will not find this in their classes.
3. Team Work: Team projects are the worst!  Why? Because no one wants to do them.  So right there, they are not a realistic exercise. The best team project is one where everyone wants to be involved and is passionate about the outcome.  You won’t find that in a class exercise.
4. Initiative: You simply cannot teach initiative.  Other terms would be intrinsic motivation, grit, perseverance, and drive.  This can only be developed through authentic experiences which are never found in a college classroom.
5. Analytical Skills: The skill most likely developed in a classroom is analytical skills.  However, because the classroom and most class exercises/homework/exams are extremely controlled with expected outcomes, the ability of a college classroom to develop analytical skills falls short.

The common tie between the development of these abilities, and all the abilities on the list, is “authentic experience.”  You have to have authentic experiences to develop your skills which means, your student MUST do that on their own. Not an easy transition but the most important one of their life.  Bottom line, and the reason why employers are more concerned about what you did outside of the classroom versus  inside the classroom, students MUST be proactive to be successful.  No exceptions.

Steven J. Harvey, Ph.D. 

CEO, www.MyCollegeMax.com  |  CEO, www.steveharveyphd.com

Parents have the unenviable duty to ensure that their kids do not make a decision that will burden them for years after college graduation.  That means, the dream college they always wanted to go to may be a “no.” See what this parent said!  This doesn’t mean you are denying your child.  It means you are protecting them from a debt they couldn’t possibly understand.  Here are the basic principles for selecting a college.

1. Does it have the major your child wants?
2. Does it have evidence of strong placement rates for college graduates, including starting salaries?
3. Does it have a guarantee for students to graduate in 4 years? If not, what is its 4-year graduation rate?  HINT: 4-year graduation rate should be over 60%.
4. General Rule: Of the ~4,700 colleges and universities in the US, 4,600 have the exact same value in the eyes of employers.  So don’t pay more because you think the college name carries more weight because it likely doesn’t.
5. There is no research that demonstrates that living on campus enhances the college experience, grades, graduation rates, student resilience, student development, or any other benefit sold to families by colleges and universities. Save money and after a year or two, find a reasonable apartment which will cost thousands less than living on campus.

Additional blog posts related to this topic:

• When can a $395 investment turn into $136,000 in 4 years?
• Would you pay $50,000 for a $20,000 car?

For more information on choosing a major, go to Why hire a college coach?

Steven J. Harvey, Ph.D. 

CEO, www.MyCollegeMax.com  |  CEO, www.steveharveyphd.com