The College Solutions Blog

November 21, 2010

I’ve often wondered why colleges and universities are so fixated on admitting students with extremely high SAT or ACT scores. Some of these teenagers only excel at taking tests and earning top grades, which can lead to awfully uninspiring young adults. I’ve heard admission folks privately lament that kids with high test scores can be duds.  If I was an...

November 19, 2010

When I talk to California teenagers who are interested in attending college outside of the state, their preferred destination is usually the East Coast. As a native Midwesterner it is disheartening that so many Californian teenagers dismiss so much of the country as simply real estate that makes flights from California to New York or Boston way too long. While...

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 15, 2010

If you’ve been a regular visitor to my college blog, you know that college price tags are meaningless. A $50,000 college, for example, could cost some families less than a $25,000 school. More families in my state of California are beginning to realize this. I bet that’s why expensive private schools such as Whitman College, Colgate University and Swarthmore College...

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...

November 11, 2010

I had lunch today with a dear friend whose son hopes to be attending the University of Chicago in the fall. This is a kid from Southern California who fell in love with the institution when he visited. Taylor, I changed his name, applied early action to the University of Chicago and he remains optimistic that he will beat the...

November 10, 2010

Is your family going to qualify for financial aid? Many families that I talk to assume that they won’t qualify for financial aid. Many believe that the money that they’ve stashed in their college savings accounts will kill their chances. Stressed Out Dads It’s been my experience that it’s usually dads who get stressed out about how colleges will treat...

November 7, 2010

Nearly one out of every three students who attends a flagship  state university is affluent. Thirty percent of students at these top universities have parents with incomes in the top 20% of all American households. This is just one of the findings of a study from the Education Trust, which is a nonprofit that promotes education opportunities for all. The...

November 5, 2010

Studying for the SAT or ACT isn’t fun. But Grockit is trying hard to make it entertaining. Grockit, whose motto on its homepage is “Get addicted to studying,” bills itself as a social networking site for learning. With Grockit, teenagers can improve their test skills, in part, by learning from and competing against thousands of other students. They can earn...

November 4, 2010

I’m not surprised by much that I read about the higher-ed world, but even I was amazed at how quickly private colleges are blowing by the $50,000 price tag. After crunching College Board data, The Chronicle of Higher Education has published a list of the nation’s 100 top colleges by price, which all cost at least $50,000. Two years ago,...