The College Solutions Blog

February 4, 2011

Thought I’d share my response to a message that I received from a mom, who was interested in finding private colleges that just use the Free Application for Federal Student or FAFSA. Here is Patrice’s question: Is there a way to determine which private colleges use the FAFSA method for financial aid?  I would like to focus in on those...

February 3, 2011

Not long ago on this blog and over at my college blog at CBS MoneyWatch I explored the prominent trend on campuses across the country – the business degree mania.  I you missed the posts, here they are 8 Reasons not to Get a Business Degree Why You Don’t Need to Major in Business Today I want to share some...

February 2, 2011

Yesterday I wrote a post that explored what types of schools enjoy the best graduation rates. If you missed it, here it is: Who Graduates In 4 Years? Today I’m sharing the 25 public universities where students enjoy the best chances of earning a diploma in four years. I pulled these figures off the federal database that goes by the...

January 31, 2011

Time is money and that is especially true when it comes to college. College students usually don’t graduate in four years and that comes as a shock to most parents. It should be no surprise that students at private non-profit schools graduate sooner than students at state universities, but there is variation within those two broad categories, according to statistics...

January 30, 2011

Ever hear about college taxes? No this isn’t a joke. If you aren’t careful you could owe college taxes on your 529 plan. Nobody tells you that you could ultimately owe taxes on a 529 college plan, but plenty of people discover this nightmare during tax season. Before I get to the bad news, let me review why parents gravitate...

January 28, 2011

The big buzz in the higher-ed world today was the release of UCLA’s annual survey of the nation’s college freshmen. I wrote a post for my college blog at CBS MoneyWatch on the findings of the country’s most comprehensive annual survey of freshmen. Here it is: 25 Facts About Today’s College Freshmen While there were a lot of interesting revelations...

January 27, 2011

Earlier this week I shared some thoughtful comments from Alice Kleeman, a high school counselor in the San Francisco Bay Area, and Kris Hintz, an independent college counselor in New Jersey, who were responding to a post that I wrote on the higher-ed documentary Race to Nowhere. Here is the post that contains Kris and Alice’s comments: Phooey: Race to...

January 26, 2011

Across the country, high school juniors will be taking the SAT and ACT this semester. Here are seven ways for teenagers to improve their SAT and ACT scores or limit the damage of mediocre results: 1. Don’t pick a test based on where you live. Students on the West and East Coasts typically take the SAT test. In the Midwest...

January 25, 2011

Last month I wrote a blog post about the movie Race to Nowhere that’s being shown at high schools across the country. I pretty much trashed the movie – here is the post: Race to Nowhere Skeptic If you want to get an idea of why I’d like to hurl some overripe tomatoes at a screening of this movie, check...

January 24, 2011

I’ve always thought that parents and teenagers spend way too much time worrying about getting into college and not enough on being prepared for college. I was thinking about that this weekend after I left a birthday party Saturday at a restaurant in downtown San Diego for an old friend. About 200 people attended the mega birthday celebration and I...