The College Solutions Blog

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

Academics

Funny Stories from Studying Abroad

I’m a big believer in students studying abroad for a semester in college. My daughter Caitlin is one of the rare students who studied overseas for an entire school year. If I’m remembering correctly, only 5% of college students who study overseas stay for a year. Caitlin studied at the University of Barcelona. I think living in Barcelona was a...

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...

Check Out College, Inc., Tonight on PBS

I’m going to veg out on my couch tonight and watch College, Inc., on my PBS station. College, Inc., is a FRONTLINE production that explores the explosive and controversial growth of the for-profit higher education industry. One of the universities profiled in this investigation is the University of Phoenix, which is a darling of Wall Street. University of Phoenix is...

College Applications: What If You're Not a Leader?

Colleges love applicants who are leaders. This collegiate desire to find leaders doesn’t jive with the fact that most teenagers — or Americans in any other age group — just aren’t leaders. But here’s the good news: A teen doesn’t have to be the president or v.p. of his or her class to be considered a leader. In fact, teenagers...

Graduate School Programs? Shopping for the Right One

How do you shop for graduate school programs? With the economy still floundering, more Americans are considering attending graduate school. But how do you find the best ones? Writing in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Thomas A. Benton, an English professor at Hope College made a stab at answering that question. He observed that the universities receiving the highest graduate...

Waiting List Cry Babies: Stop the Tears

I have been reading the annual sob stories from students who are stuck on waiting lists at the nation’s snobbiest schools. These are the colleges and universities that reject almost everyone. The students on these waiting lists, which can contain 1,000 or more names, complain mightily about being stuck in limbo. They can’t psychologically get on with their lives until...

College Visit: 8 Things You Must Do

It’s college visit season. Juniors are fanning out to visit schools and seniors are on the go too as they visit colleges for the last time before making their final decisions. Too many teenagers and their families zip through college tours. It seems to become a contest of seeing how many colleges they can tour in the shortest period of...

European Universities vs. American Universities: We Win

European universities are nothing like American colleges and universities. That’s the conclusion that I drew during our family’s two-week vacation in Spain and France. We were visiting my daughter Caitlin, who has been attending the University of Barcelona for two semesters. During the vacation, I kept getting into conversations with Europeans about their universities. I had some knowledge about European...

College Visit: 31 Questions You Need to Ask

College visit. Yes, it’s that time of year when high school seniors and juniors are planning college visits during spring break. You can learn a lot during a college visit so you need to make the most of the opportunity. During a campus visit, here are 31 questions that you should ask: College Graduation Track Record What is your four-year...

March Madness Basketball Brackets: Who Shouldn't Get an Invite?

With March Madness in full swing, I want to pose this question: Should schools be allowed a spot in the NCAA basketball brackets if they can’t manage to graduate their basketball players? I think it’s only fair to bar these basketball teams from participating in March Madness and, more importantly, so does Arne Duncan, a former Harvard basketball player, who...