The College Solutions Blog

February 27, 2009

It’s that time of year when high school seniors are receiving college acceptances. It’s also the season for families worried about how they’re going to pay the tab in the fall. Not surprisingly then, when you look at the top 10 search words on Google today, you’ll find the term “college scholarships”:  Evangeline Lilly  Biba Golic  Trisha Yearwood  Portuguese Water...

February 26, 2009

When you’re in the thick of the college admission process, it sometimes feels that every teenager in America is applying to the same schools as your child. The reality is actually starkly different. The vast majority of Americans never earn a college degree. The Lumina Foundation, which is one of the white knights in the higher ed world, hopes to...

February 24, 2009

Ludwig Maximilian University To cope with scary economic times are American colleges and universities going to deep six some of their amenities? This was the question that I explored in yesterday’s blog. It’s unlikely, however,  that American college students will ever experience the bare-bones, higher-ed experiences that’s prevalent Europe. With the notable exception of Great Britain, tuition is free in...

February 23, 2009

With the economy in unspeakably bad shape, higher ed insiders have begun wondering if the frills that students and parents have been demanding for years are endangered. Do college students really need sushi bars, omelet stations, full vegan menus and lobster nights? For that matter, how many cereal brands is enough? “Is having seven cereals in the dining hall instead...

February 22, 2009

It’s hardly news that the FAFSA is a pain to fill out. There’s been many calls in Washington to dumb down the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, but nothing has worked yet. The New York Times published a front-page story today on the latest calls to simplify the federal financial aid form. Reformers suggest there are a couple of...

February 21, 2009

  When parents start talking to me about college, they often mention that they’ve been haranguing their kids about applying for private scholarships. It happened again on Wednesday night before I gave a talk at High Tech High in San Diego, which is where my son is a junior. A mother expressed frustration that her teenage son wasn’t prowling for...

February 19, 2009

My son Ben, who is a junior in high school, is taking a pre-calculus class at a San Diego community college a couple of nights a week. After the first class, Ben told me that the professor explained quite dramatically that he would not accept any excuses for late assignments. To illustrate how serious he was about this edict, the...

February 17, 2009

Are SAT-optional schools inflating their standardized test scores? That was the question that I explored in my blog yesterday. I promised then that I would share the fascinating findings of a study that touches upon this very issue. The study, conducted by Maguire Associates, a highly respected higher ed consulting firm in Concord, MA, suggests that schools making the SAT...

February 16, 2009

More than 820 colleges and universities no longer require students to submit their SAT or ACT scores to be considered for admission.While that’s wonderful news for anybody who bombs on the SAT or ACT test, there is an ugly side to the test-optional movement that you should know about. I began wondering a few months ago about whether the published...

February 15, 2009

No doubt most teenagers who attend state universities never look beyond their borders. If you’re a kid living in Los Angeles, the cost of going to UCLA or Berkeley is going to be cheaper than attending another flagship like the University of Texas or the University of Michigan. What keeps plenty of kids from wandering too far from home is...