The College Solutions Blog

November 15, 2011

I want to welcome all my new visitors to my college blog. Spend time at  The College Solution and you’ll find lots of tips on finding great colleges and making them more affordable. What college majors pay the most money? What college majors are the ones most likely to lead to a job in this lousy economy? Which college majors...

November 7, 2011

When you’re looking at colleges and universities wouldn’t you like to know if their students found jobs after graduating? Wouldn’t you like to know what kind of success students at a particular school enjoyed in getting into graduate school? Duh. Of course, you would. Believe it or not, federal law requires colleges and universities to disclose job and graduate school...

November 4, 2011

I got an email this week from a California mother who was happy that her child would be a attending St. Mary’s College of Maryland, a wonderful public liberal arts college, in the fall. Her husband, however, remained skeptical. He worried that his daughter would be jeopardizing her chances of going to graduate school if she went to an obscure...

October 20, 2011

The college degree is the only game in town. At least that’s the way it’s been for a very long time. Most Americans believe they need a college degree to succeed professionally and the statistics certainly bear this out. College graduates earn considerably more during their careers. Among Americans ages 25 to 32, for instance, women and men with college...

September 19, 2011

Parents always seem relieved when their children decide to major in something practical like business, which is the most popular major in America. While students can succeed in life regardless of their major, families often don’t take that argument seriously. I was thinking about this over the weekend when my husband and I were visiting our son, a sophomore at...

August 31, 2011

Before my son Ben left to start his sophomore year at Beloit College, we talked about the advice in a chapter of The Thinking Student’s Guide to College: 75 Tips for Getting a Better Education. I’ve mentioned before how much I love this book and I think every college-bound student should read it. Andrew Roberts, an assistant professor of political...

August 8, 2011

I got an email yesterday from a mom whose teenage daughter wants to become a registered nurse. The mother wanted to know how her daughter could find a list of colleges and universities that offer nursing degrees. This is a great question and the answer is relevant to anybody who wants to cast a wider net when looking for colleges....

July 25, 2011

Is it worth it to get a graduate degree? A lot of young college grads are asking that question as they face lousy job prospects. Telling people that you work as a barista doesn’t seem nearly as satisfying as mentioning that you are heading off to graduate school. I wrote a post about the grad school decision earlier this month:...

July 12, 2011

How do you choose a college major? I explored that question yesterday. If you missed it, here’s the link: Stressing About College Majors Today I want to share some five tips on selecting a college major: 1. Rethink a business major. Business is the most popular major in the country, but don’t assume that you have to major in business...

June 21, 2011

Today I’m sharing a piece written by Scott Coltrane, the dean of Arts and Sciences at the University of Oregon, on the beauty and practicality of a liberal arts degree. The popularity of liberal arts degrees is clearly declining. According to a thought-provoking article I read this month in The New Yorker, only 40% of college students graduate with a...