The College Solutions Blog

Valuable insights from Lynn O’Shaughnessy
a nationally recognized college expert.

Academic majors

Is Getting a Double Major a Dumb Idea?

A double major in college seems like a no brainer to many students today, who want to capture a competitive advantage in the work world. Some academics, however, argue that a double major doesn’t necessarily provide that edge. Even worse, double majoring keeps many students from graduating on time. The double major issue came up when I was talking to...

Choosing Colleges: 5 Things You Must Do

Need help in choosing colleges? It so, you’ll be interested in this college blog post by David Montesano. David is an admission strategist with College Match, an educational consulting firm that aims to help families find great colleges at discount prices. Here are 5 things that David suggests that you keep in mind when when are looking for college matches:...

My Kids Are Growing Up

Saturday was a bittersweet day. My son Benjamin graduated from High Tech High. Ben received his diploma along with about 150 other seniors on the school’s lawn on a beautiful (naturally) morning in San Diego. High Tech High has never ranked students – that’s one of the things that I love about the school – so we didn’t have to...

Top 50 Colleges That Produce Science PhD's

I got an email this week from a California mother who was happy that her child would be a attending St. Mary’s College of Maryland, a wonderful public liberal arts college, in the fall. Her husband, however, remained skeptical. He worried that his daughter would be jeopardizing her chances of going to graduate school if she went to an obscure...

Avoiding Part-Time Professors

When you are researching colleges, be sure to ask this question: What percentage of professors are part time? At many schools, the percentage is going to be high. I’ll explain why you should care in a minute, but first here are some startling statistics from the Association of American Colleges and Universities about tenured professors: Tenured college professors now represent...

College Vacancies: 240 Colleges Where You Can Still Apply

Don’t like where you’re heading to college in the fall? Take heart: There are still at least 240 schools with college vacancies. Most of the schools with college vacancies have room for both incoming freshmen and transfer students. All but one school on the list still has financial aid available and 236 still have dorm space. You can find the...

Top 10 Best and Worst College Degrees in 2010

What are the best and worst college majors for students who want to make the highest starting salaries? Engineering students dominate the best college majors by salary. Engineering majors represent eight out of 10 highest-paying bachelor’s degrees. The other two disciplines in the top 10 best college degrees are computer science and information sciences and systems. The best-paying college major...

UC And Cal State Crisis Prompts Students to Look Elsewhere

The University of California and the Cal State universities are in serious financial trouble. This reality is finally resonating with teenagers, which is why more of them have applied outside the state instead of assuming that their Cal State or UC admission applications will be successful. With the UC And Cal State schools experiencing their biggest financial crisis ever, the...

What's Happening to the Average GPA?

Are college students getting smarter? If you looked at the grades they are “earning,” you might assume the answer is yes. The average GPA in college is 3.1. At private schools, the norm is a 3.3 GPA. In contrast, the typical college student had an average GPA of 2.52 in the 1950s. In nearly every decade, the GPA has inched...

What You Don't Know About Liberal Arts Colleges

Yesterday I wrote this post about liberal arts colleges: Which is Better: A Liberal Arts College or a University? At the time, I promised that I’d summarize a thoughtful op-ed piece that Sanford J. Ungar, the president of Goucher College, wrote for the special liberal arts report that ran in The Chronicle of Higher Education. Unfortunately, only Chronicle subscribers can...