Owning the College Visit

A quick tip as you go through your college visits and selection process – Own the process and make sure you get the facts.  Own the process is a recurring theme here on jdhayes.com

 My son had specific requirements on what he wants to Major in and how he wants to get his Masters.

 We were on a college visit, and during the information session, he raised his hand and explicitly asked if he could achieve what he wanted.  The Guidance counselor indicated no. 

 Deflated, he wanted to leave right after the session and not continue the tour.  He has other schools on his list, and this school dropped off based on that answer.

 Undeterred, I wanted to make sure we understand and gained the facts. So, we approached the counselor after the session once again asked her the question.  She offered to get the names of people we could talk to within the engineering college.

We skipped the tour, and off we went to the Engineering buildings. 

 We walked into the admin office for the engineering building and found the newly appointed acting Chairman of the ME program.  Dropping what he was doing, he took us into a larger office.  He sat down and walked through the program.  What my son wanted was available and doable.  The Chair explained it, all while communicating directly with my son, not my wife and me.  He was awesome.  He also shared with us the college visit/selection process his daughter was on and honestly indicated to us that we were looking at all good schools. Finally, he offered some stats on starting salaries and other MBA / combo programs. 

 This school is now neck and neck with another primary Engineering school. 

 Get the facts and own the process.  Make sure you track down the information you need for the source.  Don’t stop until you are satisfied that you have spoken to the person with the facts or final say. 

 What do you think about this?

Own Your Health

It’s easy to say, but for me, harder to do. 

 I’m of the generation that valued credentials, formal education, and degrees.  And with that, I deferred judgment to my healthcare professionals and too much of setting my direction and plans. Yet, intuitively I know that no one cares more about my health than me; it has been more challenging for me to do it. 

Until Now. 

 I just had a health scare that had me in the hospital for five days after feeling poorly for the last eight weeks.  Trips to various doctors, inconsistent messages from the doctors, and no specific doctor quarterbacking my care, approach, and plan to find the root cause of the issue.

I finally took matters into my own hands and essentially self-checked into the hospital, finally getting concrete answers, which gave me an excellent foundation for attacking the project. 

 Own your health plan.