The College Solutions Blog

September 25, 2013

Do the schools that your children are interested in attending know that they exist? Or will they be stealth college applicants? As you’ll learn momentarily, stealth applicants can unwittingly hurt their admission chances at some colleges and universities. Growing Stealth Applications The number of teenagers who are applying as stealth applicants has been growing at both public and private colleges...

September 23, 2013

I was in Toronto for the past several days attending the annual monster conference of the National Association for College Admission Counselors. I was a presenter with a couple of my friends – Paula Bishop and Cyndy McDonald – at a pre-conference, which I hope was beneficial for those who attended. I can’t recall ever sharing the microphone with anybody...

September 19, 2013

My last post focused on whether families should indicate on a college application whether they will seek financial aid. Here’s my position: if you need financial aid to attend college, you should apply for aid. In case you missed it, here is the post: Should You Apply for Financial Aid? My post prompted a mom to make this observation: Good...

September 17, 2013

Should I Apply for Financial Aid? Here’s a variation of a question that I always get during admission season: Someone told me yesterday that it’s better to answer “No” to the “Do you intend to apply for need based financial aid” question on the Common Application. My son has already submitted his applications and he answered “yes” to that question...

September 13, 2013

I am holding one of my rare workshops at University of California, San Diego on Oct. 5 that will focus on how to find and pay for colleges. This will probably be the last workshop that I do at UCSD because I truly hate doing the marketing for it. If you enroll in this 3.5-hour workshop, I promise you that...

September 11, 2013

Today I wanted to share what you can find by visiting CollegeMeasures.org. I discussed the important work that College Measures is doing in my last post: Measuring College Grads’ Salaries As I mentioned earlier, thanks to College Measures you can look at the actual first-year salaries that students are making at colleges and universities in these five states: Arkansas Colorado...

September 9, 2013

With out-of-control college costs a reality, it’s not surprising that parents and their children are especially interested in colleges that are springboards to good-paying jobs. Unfortunately, it’s hard to know what the schools are. Meaningless Grad Salary Data As I’ve mentioned before, the job statistics that colleges and universities share with prospective students are laughably misleading. Low percentages of graduates...

September 6, 2013

I received an email yesterday from a friend of mine whose son is a brilliant high school senior. She wanted to know what they should think about invitations her son has received to apply to colleges through VIP or priority applications. Here is her question: My son has received approximately 10+ email/print invitations from schools to complete their priority applications....

September 5, 2013

Next week, U.S. News  & World Report will receive millions of hits on its website when it unveils its new 2014 college rankings for nearly 1,800 schools. U.S. News will release its latest batch of controversial college rankings on Sept. 10. Robert Morse, who oversees the rankings, announced on his blog that the rankings system has received an overhaul. He...

September 3, 2013

I received an email over the Labor Day weekend from a father named Mike, whose daughter is unsure about how to handle a typical questions on her college applications. Here is the common question: Why do you want to attend this college? After visiting 10 schools this summer the schools are beginning to blur to her.  At a few she...