I’ve written several posts (here’s one, and another) on the value of eliminating distractions and doing focused work. And one of the most crucial steps towards distraction-free focus is to stop multi-tasking. For more on that topic, here’s a great guest post on the Harvard Business Review. What I like best is that rather than promising to eliminate multi-tasking altogether, the author simply tried an experiment for one week. Once he saw the benefits, it was much easier to stick to it.
For financial aid research
One of the best sources for information about particular colleges’ financial aid offerings is The College Navigator, which I profiled in a past post. If you’re the type of college researcher who wants to dig into specifics like the average amount of aid for each school, how that aid is distributed (grants, loans, work study), and how aid packages tend to change in subsequent years of college, I’ve yet to find a better resource than The College Navigator.
Don’t hide behind words
In his recent internal announcement of the company’s plans to layoff 18,000 workers, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella began his email:
Last week in my email to you I synthesized our strategic direction as a productivity and platform company.”
It’s possible that sentence is meaningful to someone in the tech industry. But all signs point to business-speak.
Business-speak pretends to say something without saying anything. It lets people hide behind words. And I doubt that anyone has ever been excited, reassured or otherwise moved by business-speak.
Whether you’re writing an announcement to your team, an email to a teacher, or an essay as part of your college application, whatever it is that you want to say, come right out and say it. Write it as if you are talking one-on-one with someone.
You’ll say a lot more when you don’t hide behind your words.
Speaking in Dubai July 19
Take more out of college
If you want to get more out of college, take more out of college.
Back in May, I shared the recent 2014 Gallup Poll, “It’s Not ‘Where’ You Go To College, But ‘How’ You Go To College” which showed no difference in college graduates’ workplace engagement or well-being whether they attended a college that was public, private, highly-selective or less competitive. But it’s worth taking a look at the college factors that were found to affect the quality of your college experience and your well-being later in life, such as:
Graduates who worked closely with a professor who took an interest and mentored them were twice as likely to be engaged at work and thriving in terms of their well-being.
Graduates who had a deep involvement in a job/internship, a long-term school project, and/or an extra-curricular activity were twice as likely to be engaged at work.
Students with no student loan debt are three times more likely to be thriving in terms of their well-being than are those with between $20,000 and $40,000 in loan debt.
The best part: you have influence—and even complete control—over those factors. Don’t sit back and wait for a college to give them to you. Take them for yourself.
Start by working hard in high school. Find colleges that fit you where you can be happy and successful. Apply for financial aid and make sure you have plenty of schools where you are a strong applicant. And once you get there, get busy building a remarkable college career.
The stats don’t lie. The students who take more out of college (and don’t take out more debt than their budget allows) get more out of college.
We’re growing on both coasts
We’ve got three fantastic new counselors starting at Collegewise this week whom I’m excited to introduce:
First, meet Emily Hayden, Collegewise counselor in New York City.
While earning a masters in school counseling from Columbia University, Emily spent a year in the college counseling office at The Beacon School in Manhattan where she not only advised students through the college search and application process, but also conquered that persnickety copy machine that had bested many a formidable counseling colleague before her (why does it say “paper jam” when there is no paper jam?!). That kind of efficiency and mental fortitude was not surprising from Emily—she also earned a B.A in psychology from NYU in just three years. And back in high school, Emily won the Principal’s Award given to the student the principal felt was an all-around good kid who really contributed to the community. Whether you need to get into college or just print 10 sets of double-sided stapled copies, Emily will be there to expertly and patiently guide you. In spite of her near untarnished track record of success and impact with whatever she tries, Emily does admit to being an absolutely atrocious singer. Let’s just say that if she were to audition for American Idol, she’d be discarded like a bad copy machine. When she’s not counseling, conquering, or otherwise achieving, Emily enjoys exploring New York City on foot, avidly following celebrity gossip websites and magazines, and attending New Jersey Devils hockey games with her dad, a season ticket holder.
Now, meet Katie Sprague, who’s joining Emily in the New York City office:
After graduating Magna Cum Laude (that’s Latin for “No B’s on this transcript”) from Penn State University where she studied psychology and worked as a teaching assistant for the course, “Psychology of Adolescence,” Katie earned a 4.0 GPA while completing two masters degrees at Columbia University in psychological counseling and school counseling. During her time in graduate school, Katie spent a year in the counseling office at the High School for Math, Science and Engineering in New York City, where she guided a caseload of students through the college application process and ran a regular stress management support group for seniors. It’s almost hard to believe that such a driven, over-achieving success story also revels in Googling (and goggling) pictures of puppies, babies, and as she puts it, “anything mushy.” A true renaissance woman who helped pay for college and graduate school with side gigs as a bartender, Katie still holds the district and high school records for pole-vaulting back in her hometown. Yes, if pressed, Katie could calmly guide a group of stressed teenagers through the college application process while simultaneously sprinting down a runway and launching herself 11 feet in the air using a very long pole. She is also a former competitive gymnast who can walk on her hands and do a backflip. The secret to her boundless energy and vast array of both physical and psychological skills? Carbohydrates—Katie has also been known to eat an entire loaf of garlic bread for dinner.
And switching coasts, Orange County native Lauren Clifford is joining our Irvine, California office.
Lauren graduated from UCLA—go Bruins!—where she studied English and developed a healthy appreciation for Victorian literature (she maintains that Wuthering Heights is the greatest novel of all time). It was during those formative college years that Lauren began working first as an essay editor for a local private college counselor, later completing a stint as a private SAT tutor. After earning a masters in English at NYU where she attended on an academic scholarship, Lauren left New York City behind to return home to Orange County where she was warmly welcomed by family, old friends, and her new co-workers at Collegewise. Lauren’s enthusiasm for all things academic and college-related was evident back in her high school days at Mater Dei—go Monarchs!—when she would eagerly anticipate that wonderful day in the fall when she could, once again, go to Staples to buy pens, notebooks, and printer paper for the upcoming school year. A dedicated counselor who can advise, edit, and guide with the best of them, Lauren does admit to having absolutely terrible hand-eye coordination. In fact, Lauren was likely the first youth soccer player in history to win the “Best Smile” award at the team banquet, presumably because her coach could not identify a single athletic contribution for which Lauren deserved recognition. Sure, she may not be our first pick for the office softball team. But she is absolutely a first-team, all-state starter for the office book club.
Welcome, Emily, Katie, and Lauren!
Get to Yes
The concept I come back to over and over here is that where you go to college matters much less than what you do while you are there. And while there’s no one-size-fits-all checklist of things to do in college that will turn you into a successful college grad, I think any student who spent four years trying to answer “yes” to each of these questions would be well-prepared to enter post-college life:
1. Do you care enough about your future to work hard?
2. Can you connect with other people, whether you’re working as part of a team, managing or leading?
3. Have you discovered and developed your natural talents?
4. Can you spot opportunities and go after the ones you want?
5. Do you take initiative?
6. Do you accept a challenge or responsibility even when it scares you?
7. Do you treat people well?
8. Are you able to attract mentors who take an interest in your success?
9. Can you learn from your failures and come back stronger and smarter?
10. Do you make the kind of impact that leaves a noticeable vacancy when you move on to something else?
If you’re in high school, why not start getting to yes now?
Here’s a past post on building a remarkable college career.
Earn trust by taking charge
Many students I’ve met feel frustrated during the college admissions process because their parents don’t seem to trust them to handle it. Parents stand over their students, suggesting colleges, offering ideas for essay topics, and even taking on the role of a project manager to make sure that nothing slips by during this crucial time.
If you’re a student in (or worried you will be in) this scenario, here’s a suggestion—start taking charge.
Instead of disagreeing with your parents’ choices of colleges, do some thorough research on schools that you like.
Instead of ignoring their suggestions for essay topics, find the prompts for the schools that interest you and start working on some drafts.
Instead of rolling your eyes when your parents try to organize the process for you, develop—and use—your own system to track what’s required, what’s due, and when colleges need it.
Sure, your parents may still elect to stay involved. But the fastest way to get them to back off a little might be to earn some trust by taking charge.
What’s your back-up plan?
If you didn’t get into the colleges you most want to attend, what’s your back-up plan?
Do you have a slam-dunk safety school that (a) you know will admit you, and (b) you know you could pay for with limited financial aid?
Would you attend a community college?
Would you take a year off and reapply?
Or maybe you’re one of those fortunate students who’s fallen in love with a school that you know will admit you and that you could pay for even without financial aid. If so, nice work. Your back-up plan is also your first choice.
Identifying a back-up plan ensures that you thoughtfully and preemptively give yourself options. You might find additional schools where your chances of admission are stronger. You might find cheaper colleges. You might decide that you would attend a community college and apply later as a transfer student.
There are no right or wrong back-up plans. Like the colleges on your list, your back-up plan has to fit you. But make sure you have one.
Your back-up plan may not seem that desirable. But in the unlikely event that you have to follow it, you’ll be glad you put that plan in place.
Work like crazy
Ten years ago, after multiple delays and cancellations, my parents were desperately trying to get an airport gate agent to help them and their luggage make a connection so they could get to my brother’s wedding. The first agent clicked her keyboard for 30 seconds and told them there was nothing she could do. A second agent stepped up, and as my father put it, “absolutely worked like crazy to make it happen.” They made their flight and the wedding.
I’ve always remembered that phrase, “work like crazy.” In that moment, it wasn’t about somebody just doing their job well enough not to get fired. It was about a human being throwing herself into the work, putting on an impressive show for someone who needed it. One of the reasons I love working at Collegewise is that I’m surrounded by people who work like crazy every day.
Yesterday, I went to Lowe’s Home Improvement to buy a new barbecue. I found the one I came for in five minutes, but because of system troubles and gross inefficiency up the chain, it took an hour to schedule the time to get it delivered. Still, my experience was a great one because the entire time, the sales associate, George, was absolutely working like crazy to make it happen.
He made calls. He sat on hold. He looked for other solutions, all along repeatedly telling me in the most sincere, non-scripted way how sorry he was that I had to wait this long just to buy something. The worse he felt for me, the more I appreciated him for trying to help.
George isn’t a guy in charge. He doesn’t have authority. But he completely changed my entire experience. There wasn’t one second during the entire interaction that I felt annoyed. George was doing his best and working like crazy to make it happen. On my way out, I asked him for his boss’s name so I could call later and tell him or her how much I appreciated what George had done. If you live in Seattle and need a barbecue, visit Lowe’s on Rainier Ave. and ask for George.
The most impactful, memorable people in every role—counselors, teachers, club advisors, student body presidents, bench warmers, community leaders, grocery baggers—they all do more than just show up. They bring care, energy, enthusiasm, and a willingness to step up to change the experience. You don’t need authority. You don’t need a leadership position. You don’t need a big salary or a high GPA or perfect test scores to do it. You just have to be willing to work like crazy to make it happen.
When you do, people will appreciate and remember you for it.
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