The College Solutions Blog

September 26, 2010

How do you choose a college major? This is my second blog post that explores this question. If you missed the first one, here is the link: Choosing a College Major Today I want to share some more tips on majors: 1. Rethink a business major. Business is the most popular major in the country, but don’t assume that you...

September 24, 2010

Last spring I bumped into a dad I know whose daughter had attended the same middle school as my son. I asked him where his daughter would be attending college in the fall and he said: She’s going to a community college. I was surprised because Rachel is a very bright girl. The dad explained, however, that his daughter didn’t...

September 22, 2010

It’s old news that college graduates make more money than Americans who bailed on their education after high school. You don’t need a study to figure this out, but that hasn’t discouraged researchers from crunching the numbers anyway. This week the College Board released a study, Education Pays 2010, that documents what advantages that a bachelor’s degree conveys.  Here are...

September 22, 2010

I’ve been cranking out college blog posts for the past two years. (It makes me tired just thinking about it.) During this time, I’ve been pretty much picking college topics to write about that interest me as a mom and journalist. I hope that the topics that I’ve chosen, including scholarships, college costs,  financial aid, SAT and ACT tests, college...

September 21, 2010

Should your child take the SAT or the ACT? I tried to tackle this question with my last post: SAT or ACT: Which Test Should You Take? Here’s another way to determine whether a child will get high ACT test scores or SAT scores: Take a practice SAT and ACT test. A student can take a sample SAT test anytime...

September 19, 2010

When deciding whether to take the SAT or ACT test keep this in mind: the ACT AND SAT require different kinds of skills. Some teens can significantly increase their scores just by picking the right standardized test to take.  Here are reasons why the ACT or SAT might be better than the other: Teens who do well on the ACT...

September 16, 2010

When I visit college campuses, I can’t help but notice that an alarming number of students are overweight. In fact, I just read a story in The Chronicle of Higher Education, that stated that a third of college students are overweight. If your jeans don’t fit at age 20, I hate think how much your waist band will stretch by...

September 15, 2010

I knew I was in a foreign country today when I looked outside my hotel window and saw a billboard that contained this message: Be health conscience. Eat a coconut every day. I’m in Jamaica, where I’ll be the featured (and apparently heavily promoted) speaker at a first annual college conference in Kingston. What could I possibly tell these Jamaican...

September 14, 2010

As many of you know, I’m not a fan of college rankings. I think most rankings are lame and their methodology is creaky. When a mom emailed me yesterday complaining about the rankings, I decided to use this as an opportunity to share one of my biggest pet peeves about the college rankings of U.S. News & World Report, which...

September 13, 2010

In my last blog, I talked about why it’s important to know what your EFC or Expected Family Contribution is. Here is the post: What Is Your EFC? Today, I’m going to show you how you can get a preliminary EFC, which is not as hard as you might think. You just need to use an online EFC calculator. Here...