Author Archives: Steven Harvey, Ph.D.

About Steven Harvey, Ph.D.

Dr. Steven Harvey is the Executive Director of the WNY Higher Education Consortium which seeks to enhance economic development in the WNY region, increase collaboration between area colleges and universities, as well as attract, engage, and retain students to the WNY area. Formerly the Vice President of Research and Program Funding for EPIC and a Senior Career Development Associate at the University at Buffalo, Dr. Harvey holds a Ph.D. in Social Foundations of Education, Master’s degree in Higher Education Administration, and B.S. in Business. In past positions, Dr. Harvey oversaw evaluation, research, and program funding efforts and has raised over $20,931,404 for Western New York agencies. Dr. Harvey has conducted research in the areas of parenting, emotional intelligence, character education, masculinity development, college readiness, and career readiness and is published in a variety of educational, peer-review journals. In addition, Dr. Harvey is an adjunct faculty member in the Executive Leadership and Change graduate program at Daemen College and the Social and Psychological Foundations of Education Department at Buffalo State College. He has taught in higher education for over 20 years from college freshmen to doctoral candidates. Dr. Harvey is the founder and CEO of the Center for Educational and Career Advancement, Inc. and founder and CEO of MyCollegeMax.com, set to launch in the June of 2015. Dr. Harvey is actively involved in several WNY not-for-profits and has been a member of several not-for-profit boards. In 2008, Dr. Harvey was named to Business First’s 40 Under 40, in 2007 he received the Buffalo State College’s Outstanding Teacher Award, and he is a member of the Leadership Buffalo Class of 2007. A native of Western New York, he and his wife and their three children reside in the Town of Clarence.

Kids are stressed and it’s ALL our fault!

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Let’s put life into perspective here. Every kid should try to apply themselves to their school work.  Of course that’s important.  But we need to stop explicitly and implicitly communicating to our kids that what they do now will someone determine the rest of their life. We all know it won’t! To prove it, answer these questions:

  1. If you ever did something stupid, how does that impact you today?
  2. If you failed a class or a test, what impact does that have on your work day?
  3. If you didn’t make it the way everyone else did, how was your life been affected?

We all screw up and fail to perform to our very best. In fact, I would say that we often fail to perform to our very best because that’s exhausting. So the next time you have a talk with your child, say to them, “Yes this stuff is important but it’s not going to impact the rest of your life. Trying hard is way more important.” Why say that? Because it’s true. What we learn rarely is used in our adult lives. For example, when was the last time you recited the 50 states?  What’s important is how we learn and building habits of success.  If you’re a lifelong learner, you will always be building on that.  Once we get the “this will affect you the rest of you life fallacy” out of the way, teach your kids how to balance school, work, and fun.  That’s the greatest gift we can give them.

Steven J. Harvey, Ph.D. 

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

What if you think, “My kid isn’t ready for college.”

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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

The Dark Secret of Colleges…And It’s NOT Rising Tuition Costs

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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

Schooling vs. Educating: The key is 100% on you!

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The easiest way to understand schooling is to go back and reflect on something you learned in class that you never used, like the dates of wars, the states in alphabetical order, or for many, trigonometry.  Education is what happens when what you learn informs additional learning and experiences, like using a hammer, building a dog house, roofing, to building a home.  Education is cumulative.  The HUGE difference is one is based on brain work only and the other is based on brain work AND authentic experiences.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Don’t get schooled in college! Wrap your learning with authentic experiences.

Steven J. Harvey, Ph.D. 

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

There’s a Reason Why Employers Feel College Grads Aren’t Ready.

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

ATTRIBUTE % OF RESPONDENTS
Communication skills (written) 82.0%
Problem-solving skills 80.9%
Ability to work in a team 78.7%
Initiative 74.2%
Analytical/quantitative skills 71.9%
Strong work ethic 70.8%
Communication skills (verbal) 67.4%
Leadership 67.4%
Detail-oriented 59.6%
Technical skills 59.6%
Flexibility/adaptability 58.4%
Computer skills 55.1%
Interpersonal skills (relates well to others) 52.8%
Organizational ability 43.8%
Strategic planning skills 38.2%
Tactfulness 25.8%
Creativity 23.6%
Friendly/outgoing personality 22.5%
Entrepreneurial skills/risk-taker 16.9%
Fluency in a foreign language 11.2%

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

“New Study on College Rankings: It’s Not Where You Go To School It’s What You Do When You Get There”

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This blog is simple to understand with plenty of research to back up it’s title: It’s not the college you go to, it’s what you do when you get there! So how do you know what the balance is between student engagement and classes/curriculum.  I always say this.  Your grades matter for sure.  But employers are not as concerned about grades as they are about what demonstrates your ability to thrive in their organization or company. Most employers will say, “It’s not the school, it’s the major AND it’s not the major, it’s what else you did outside of the major.”  The stuff outside of your major is called “student engagement.” From 25 years of working with employers, I would estimate that they value 30% classes and grades and 70% student engagement.  So what does student engagement look like?  Here are 10 things:

  1. Join a professional association,
  2. Volunteer on campus,
  3. Get an internship or two or three,
  4. Start a club,
  5. Join a professional club,
  6. Go to a conference,
  7. Go to career services’ seminars,
  8. Attend job fairs,
  9. Volunteer with a professor, and
  10. Start a company.

There are over 15 times more things you can do that employers want to see; often with little cost to you as a student but your time.  MyCollegeMax.com has a list of over 150 things employers are looking for from students that go beyond their classes. Morevoer, MyCollegeMax.com shows students exactly what to do to be engaged (i.e. Where do you begin when you want to start a student club?). It’s an investment in your future that will build your passion, future success, and life satisfaction.

Steven J. Harvey, Ph.D. 

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

Just say “NO” to fancy and expensive colleges!

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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:

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

Winter BREAK!!!! Why a student should focus on strategic experiences.

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Winter break is an important time for students to re-energize, focus on taking care of themselves, and hopefully enjoying time with family.  However, it’s also a time to engage in strategic experiences that support their career goals.  Students should consider:

  • volunteering at a non-profit;
  • doing a project for a business that is short-term but aligned with their career goals;
  • exploring opportunities to get involved in during the Spring semester and summer; and
  • learning skills that they aren’t being taught at school but which employers are looking for.

The goal is to take the break to build your skill sets and add depth to your resume. Simple, short-term experiences can go a long way. Finally, by staying active, you are likely to have a smoother transition back to school for your spring semester. For more information on what students can do to improve their skills and build their resume, go to MyCollegeMax.com and use the coupon code “HOLIDAY2019” for a 50% off discount.  Good luck!

Steven J. Harvey, Ph.D. 

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

When can a $395 investment turn into $136,000 in 4 years?

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Sometimes a small investment can turn into a huge return.  Take for example college. Did you know that approximately 45% of college freshmen won’t graduate or that most students take 6 years to earn a 4 year degree? Probably not. In the U.S., college graduation rates are actually calculated on 6 years to earn a 4 year degree.  How many actually graduate in 4 years?  Typically, approximately 15% of college freshmen will graduate in 4 years. So how much does it cost a student to take two additional years to graduate? Approximately $136,000 in tuition and lost income.

So what can you do to increase your child’s likelihood of graduating in 4 years, ready for a successful career?

  • Hire a My College Max Coach to help your high school student choose the best possible major for their values, desired work environment, interests, and abilities;
  • prepare her or him for college by engaging in 50 recommended activities on the College Readiness Scale; and
  • while he or she is in college, use the My College Max Career Readiness Scale to learn about 150 things they can do to attract the attention of the world’s best employers.

While there are no guarantees in life, imagine having a road map that will tell you everything you need to know in order to be successful. That’s what My College Max does and what an MCM Coach can do for your student.  A small investment with a potentially huge return!

Steven J. Harvey, Ph.D.   |   CEO, www.MyCollegeMax.com  |  CEO, www.steveharveyphd.com

Would you pay $50,000 for a $20,000 car?

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The answer to the question, “Would you pay $50,000 for a $20,000 car?” is “NO!” every single time!!!  It’s what you would call a “no-brainer.” Yet families are doing just that for a college education, spending way too much for a degree that is the exact same quality at a less expensive college. According to the article, “Wealthy Students’ Borrowing Spikes,” across the board all students are borrowing more for their college education.  The problem is, an undergraduate degree is in most cases, no more valuable for a $50,000 tuition than it is for a $20,000 tuition.  The only instances where paying the higher tuition is worth is if you attend a “Harvard, Princeton, or Yale” level institution.  Top 25.  Otherwise, you will not get the return on your tuition investment that you expect.

The key to increasing the value to your education is actually doing things that aren’t expected of you while in college.  To learn more about that, check out My College Max, an online tool to help high school and college students succeed. For readers of this blog, use the coupon code “HOLIDAY2019” and get 50% off the cost of the program! (HOLIDAY2019 coupon code expires midnight December 31, 2019)

Happy holidays!

Steven J. Harvey, Ph.D.   |   CEO, www.MyCollegeMax.com  |  CEO, www.steveharveyphd.com