The College Solutions Blog

November 2, 2010

Do you know what a reach school is? I’ve been surprised recently to find out that many parents and teenagers don’t understand what the term means. I discovered just how elusive a concept it is during college talks that I occasionally give at high schools and other settings. When I ask, “Who knows what a reach school is?” I usually...

November 1, 2010

Has your teenager received flattering email or literature from universities or even VIP college applications from schools that are already prefilled? If your child has gotten any of these communications, let me make this quite clear, it doesn’t mean anything. Despite all the collegiate flirting, the schools may not be interested in your child. Flattering College Email I wanted to...

October 28, 2010

I’ve gotten questions lately from parents whose children are being recruited by college coaches. I wanted to share the questions because it might help other families who are or will be navigating the Byzantine world of college athletics. I talked to Karen Weaver, my go-to-expert on college athletics. Weaver is the director of athletics at a Penn State campus and...

October 26, 2010

Yesterday I wrote a post about attending nearby colleges and universities. Here it is: Sticking Close to Home for College For students who are adventurous enough to explore colleges in other states, I wanted to mention a trend that I read about in The Chronicle of Higher Education a couple of days ago. More private colleges and universities are relying...

October 25, 2010

I talked to a mom last week who wanted me to help her son find wonderful colleges that would would award him a scholarship, but her top priority is keeping him as close to home as possible. The San Diego mom wants him to attend a California college. She also seemed to rule out Northern California as too far away....

October 21, 2010

If you want to attend an elite college or university, you can increase your chances if you apply early decision. That’s one of the conclusions that you can draw from a new annual study released by the National Association for College Admission Counseling, The State of College Admission 2010. Highly selective colleges are increasingly relying on early decision applications to...

October 20, 2010

Ever thought about attending a Canadian university? A growing number of Americans are considering earning a college degree from up North. Actually, it’s not as far north as you might think because most Canadian universities are near the US border. There are some hidden academic jewels in Canada, which explains why you might be interested in exploring their Northern options....

October 18, 2010

I am sure that I ticked off a fair number of high school counselors yesterday when I wrote this post: Why High School Counselors Don’t Know Much About College I wanted to follow up with a list of things that the typical high school counselors doesn’t know. This list could have been much longer, but since people are impatient on...

October 18, 2010

I spent yesterday afternoon giving a workshop for some families about how they can increase their chances of finding wonderful schools for their teenagers while shrinking their costs at the same time. The parents, whose teenagers attend both private and public suburban schools in San Diego, were shocked that they hadn’t heard about any of the tools or advice that...

October 11, 2010

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...