The College Solutions Blog

September 15, 2009

What are the best colleges in America? Not so fast with your answer. The best colleges aren’t always the ones that enjoy the biggest, shiniest name brands and monopolize the rankings. So how do you find the colleges and universities that do a fantastic — if unheralded — job of educating students? You’re going to have to dig a little...

September 14, 2009

My son Ben’s best friend just returned from a tour of some liberal arts colleges that I suggested he visit in the Midwest. Nathan visited Carleton, Grinnell and Macalester colleges and I’m sure that any one of these schools would be thrilled to welcome him as a freshman next fall. Nathan is slated to be his high school’s valadictorian, his...

September 13, 2009

The biggest buzz last week in the higher-ed world was the release of a serious tome entitled, Crossing the Line: Completing College at America’s Public Universities. The book, which was co-authored by William G. Bowen, a former Princeton president, and two other academics is chock-a-block full of stats and astute observations about why many students manage to graduate from college,...

August 31, 2009

Despite all the hype about Ivy League schools and other elite private colleges, most teenagers end up attending public universities in their own states. Too many teenagers, however, pick state schools on a whim. I rarely find teens who ask meaningful questions and instead they select schools for these sorts of lame reasons: I love the football team. It’s my...

August 11, 2009

Are colleges picking on students who hope to earn an art degree. It sure looks like it, if you believe an article in The New York Times that suggests that schools of fines arts, theater and dance are under siege. During this recession, I doubt that any university is considering closing down its engineering or business school, but departments that...

July 30, 2009

How do you get the most out of a college tour? Here’s how:  talk with professors. As I mentioned in my last post, this is what my son has been doing this week as we tour liberal arts colleges in the Pacific Northwest. Since Ben is interested in physics and a possible 3-2 engineering program, he made appointments to talk...

July 28, 2009

I’m halfway through a scorching college tour with my son Ben. I love visiting colleges, but the relentless weather in Oregon — the temperature reached 105 in Portland today — is insane. I’m thrilled — and I think everybody else is too — when each tour guide herds us all back to the air-conditioned admissions office. This is my second-go-round...

July 25, 2009

I was surprised this week to see such heavy traffic on the college blog post that I wrote for CBSMoneyWatch.com on the the college degrees that generate that highest paying and lowest paying jobs for new college graduates. I guess it’s only natural that people are curious about what college degrees are the most lucrative. Engineering degrees dominate the list. New...

July 21, 2009

What colleges and universities produce graduates who go on to earn the highest paychecks? It’s easy to answer that question if you consult the annual college salary survey that Pay Scale Inc., just released.  The list of schools that produce the graduates with the highest starting salaries is dominated by Ivy League institutions and other elite private schools. Big surprise....

June 22, 2009

I’m lousy at math. As my son and daughter started venturing into analytic trigonomtry, precalculus and then calculus, I was utterly useless as a resource. For parents, whose children need help with math homework, there is now a remarkable resource available that is making math teachers across the country both excited and nervous. It’s called WolframAlpha. WolframAlpha, which was released...