The College Solutions Blog

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

Academics
Featured image for “25 Colleges with the Best Professors”
February 26, 2013

25 Colleges with the Best Professors

Where do the best college professors teach? This is an important question, particularly when you consider that traditional college professors are disappearing. Less than one out of three teachers on college campuses today are tenured or on the tenured track. Most college students today are being taught primarily by graduate students and part-time faculty. (See my post below about why...
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February 5, 2013

Questions to Ask a Career Services Office

Today I’m sharing a guest post from Stuart Nachbar, a former executive at a major education software company, who is the creator of a valuable website called EducatedQuest.com. On this website, you’ll find a growing number of in-depth profiles of state universities that Nachbar writes after campus visits that includes lengthy interviews. I have never seen anyone squeeze so much...
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December 13, 2012

A Secret to Acing Final Exams

What is the best way to ace your final exams? This is a timely question as millions of high school and college students are taking their final exams. You might assume that reading textbooks and notes over and over again is the best way to study, but researchers from Purdue and Washington University insist that it’s not the best approach....
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Featured image for “Chasing After the Money in College”
December 11, 2012

Chasing After the Money in College

Is your child interested in picking a college major based on lists of the country’s highest-paying college degrees? Plenty of students are pursuing degrees that they perceive will generate the biggest salaries. I assume that’s why business is the most popular major – more than one out of every five students select it. I can’t resist mentioning that the blockbuster...
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Featured image for “A Look at America’s Newest PhD’s”
December 7, 2012

A Look at America’s Newest PhD’s

I hear from a lot of parents who assume that their children will eventually go on to graduate school. And that’s hardly surprising since Americans who earn a master’s degree or a doctorate typically earn more in their lifetimes than the rest of us. For those who dream that their children will someday earn a PhD, I want to direct...
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Featured image for “What is the Difference Between Colleges and Universities?”
December 3, 2012

What is the Difference Between Colleges and Universities?

Today’s post comes courtesy of a new website, LiberalArtsColleges.com, which was created by David Kochanek after he realized that there wasn’t a single online source dedicated to all liberal arts colleges. As some of you know, I’m a huge admirer of liberal arts colleges and both of my children ended up at one.  I believe liberal arts colleges represent the...
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Featured image for “Resources to Research College Professors”
November 28, 2012

Resources to Research College Professors

In my last college blog post I wrote about how some colleges and universities are exploiting their nontenured professors. If you missed it, here it is: The Dangers of Being Taught by Part-Time Professors This is such an important subject for families with college-bound teenagers that I’m sharing more information courtesy of Josh Boldt, an adjunct professor and the creator...
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Featured image for “The Dangers of Being Taught by Part Timers”
November 26, 2012

The Dangers of Being Taught by Part Timers

When your teenagers reach college, who will be teaching them? Chances are excellent that many of your children’s professors will be part-timers or full-time professors without any chance of getting tenured. The number of adjunct professors on college campuses has soared in the past decade. Today only thirty percent of college professors have tenure or are on the tenure track....
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November 21, 2012

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone

With Thanksgiving just one day away, I want to express my deep gratitude for all of you who spend time on my college blog. I appreciate each of you and especially the loyal visitors who stop by regularly. I want to give a special shout out to all of you! The number of visitors to my blog continues to climb...
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Featured image for “10 Questions to Ask a School about Career Services and Jobs”
November 19, 2012

10 Questions to Ask a School about Career Services and Jobs

Parents and teenagers are understandably interested in colleges and universities that prepare students for eventual jobs. What schools, they wonder, will give their grads an advantage in the job world? It’s a tough question to answer because the statistics that schools share about their graduates’ success in finding jobs are often wrong. To learn more about this sad reality, read...
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