The College Solutions Blog

March 7, 2011

I’m the kind of person who sadly has a hard time relaxing. I can’t, for instance, just walk my Golden Retriever. It’s too boring watching her sniff the same bushes and tree trunks every day. I used to try to read a newspaper or magazine on these walks, but turning pages when the wind is blowing or the dog is...

February 23, 2011

I have parents ask me variations of this question all the time: What are the best colleges and universities to attend that will ultimately generate jobs for my child? I think it’s rare that going to any particular school, by itself, will result in an automatic job for a new college graduate. I am willing to concede, however, that there...

February 21, 2011

Last month, I wrote a couple of posts about this reality:  many students are graduating from college without absorbing much of an education. From a parent’s perspective that’s a lot of wasted money. And, of course, there are serious ramifications for students who have spent their college years living in a Bud Lite commercial. Here are the two posts: Do...

February 14, 2011

In one of my college blog posts last week, I was raving about a new book, The Thinking Student’s Guide to College by Andrew Roberts, who is an assistant professor of political science at Northwestern University.  If you missed the post, here it is: The Thinking Student’s Guide to College Today I wanted to share just a few of the...

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 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...

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...