The College Solutions Blog

October 6, 2009

Changes may be coming to  529 college savings plans. I think most parents will like the proposed college savings changes, which could lead to lower costs and more plentiful tax benefits. As a financial journalist, I’ve been writing about 529 plans since states began rolling them out in the late 1990s. During that time I’ve seen too many mediocre 529...

October 5, 2009

A guest commentary that I wrote for the Center for College Affordability and Productivity on college rankings got posted today. In my post, I shared why I think the college ranking system developed by the center for Forbes Magazine is superior to the more popular and older college rankings that US News & World Report generates. Last week on my...

October 4, 2009

For all my faithful visitors, I want to let you know that I’m trying to eliminate all the kinks on my newly remodeled blog. So please be patient! As always, here is my latest weekend round up of my college blog posts that I wrote for CBSMoneyWatch.com. Guess Who the Dumbest Generation Is Are teenagers dumber because they spend so...

October 2, 2009

Where do you find a great college? I hear that question all the time. You can pour through the big fat college guides from folks like the Princeton Review and Fiske, but they ignore most schools. For instance, Princeton Review’s latest guide covers 371 schools, but there are more than 2,200 four-year colleges and universities in this country. What I’m...

September 30, 2009

I  spent some time yesterday afternoon listening to  Peter Johnson, the dean of admissions at Columbia University, talk to a dozen or so attentive students at High Tech High in San Diego.  The visit from an Ivy League admission dean at my son’s school isn’t as unusual as you might think. During the fall, it’s common to see admission officers...

September 29, 2009

When it comes to checking out colleges, I’m a big believer in casting a wide net. Look at big, small, public and private institutions. And check out schools that aren’t in your time zone. Most families don’t do this. The vast majority of students never look beyond the public universities in their own state and most don’t wander more than...

September 28, 2009

For those of you who have been visiting my college blog for awhile, you know that every weekend I link to college posts that I wrote during the week for CBSMoneyWatch.com. I never got to do that this weekend because while I was in Baltimore covering an education convention my net book broke. Exquisitely bad timing. I’m now back in...

September 26, 2009

I want to share an ACT strategy that I was excited to learn about at the education conference that I attended this week in Baltimore. I was fascinated to learn that an increasing number of colleges are cherry picking applicants’ ACT test scores. To understand what this means, here’s some background: Historically, colleges used a student’s composite ACT score that’s...

September 24, 2009

College rankings are sexy and fun to read, but have you ever wondered if they are really legitimate? If you have, I urge you to check out my latest story for CBSMoneyWatch.com that explores a variety of college rankings. In my article, I take a look at the methodology of various college rankings and then rate the rankers. My favorite...

September 24, 2009

I made it to Baltimore for the gigantic convention of the National Association for College Admission Counseling that 5,300 college admissions officers and high school and independent college counselors are attending. I’m not completely awake — I got to my hotel room at 2 a.m. today — but I’m excited about bringing lots of news about college to all my...