The College Solutions Blog

February 9, 2011

I’ve always felt that parents and teenagers spend too much time worrying about getting into colleges. It’s too bad that teenagers, in particular, don’t divert some of this energy into making sure that their college years will be successful. For everybody who agrees with me that the latter goal is vastly more important, I want to recommend a new book,...

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...

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 21, 2011

When I ask teenagers what they want to major in, I’m never surprised when many of them respond this way: I want to be a business major. The most popular college major in America is business. According to federal statistics,  21% of undergrads leave college with a business degree. That statistic drives me nuts. Contrary to conventional wisdom, students don’t...

January 18, 2011

Do undergrads learn much in college? Many students don’t. That’s the conclusion of a new book that’s got the higher-ed world buzzing today. The book is Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses, which was published by the University of Chicago Press. A pair of professors at New York University and the University of Virginia wrote the book based on...

January 17, 2011

I wanted to share an email that I got recently from Mark Couch, an assistant professor of philosophy and director of the Liberal Studies Program at Seton Hall University. He was reacting to a post that I wrote for my CBS MoneyWatch college blog. I thought what the philosophy professor had to say was worth sharing because too many parents...

January 8, 2011

If you want to get into the movie industry, do you need to go to film school? That’s what I was wondering after two stressed dads, within the space a few days, emailed me about how they are going to pay for their teenagers’ dreams to attend a film school. Film schools tend to be located in extremely expensive universities...

December 17, 2010

I’m giving the commencement speech today for the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism. I graduated from the J School back in 1978 and I was stunned when the dean asked me to be the commencement speaker for the December graduating class. I thought I’d share the speech here. It’s going to be most relevant for students who are contemplating...

November 18, 2010

I flew up to the Bay Area yesterday to give a college talk to a group of affluent families. I was told that some of the parents in the audience worked for Google, Facebook and other high-tech goliaths. Not all of their children, however, are necessarily as smart as they are. I expect that having high-achieving parents  can put even...

November 14, 2010

In my college blog post last week for US News & World Report, I wrote about students who want to major in the performing and visual arts. Here it is…. If your child wants to major in musical theater or some other performing art, go ahead and blame it on Glee, American Idol or America’s Got Talent. Television shows make...