The College Solutions Blog

December 22, 2011

Does a winning college football team make it’s students stupid? Maybe. At least the men. That’s the conclusion you could reach after reading a study released right at the beginning of the college bowl season by economists at the University of Oregon. The researchers examined the grade point averages of the student body at the University of Oregon and compared...

December 9, 2011

Below you’ll find a guest blog written by Bob Bessette, the father of a junior at Bowdoin College in Maine, who is finishing up her semester of studies in Ireland.  I was particularly interested in his post because my son Ben, who is a sophomore at Beloit College, plans to attend school  in Ireland for a semester during his junior...

September 9, 2011

What is the best way to support your college students when they head off to college? Today I’m going to share some examples of what parents can do for their children besides writing those big tuition checks.  These ideas come from the authors of The iConnected Parent: Staying Close to Your Kids in College (and Beyond) While Letting them Grow...

September 2, 2011

What happens when religious teenagers head off to college? It’s a issue that Alex Chediak, an associate professor of engineering and physics at California Baptist University. has given a lot of thought. In his new book, Thriving At College, he offers suggestions on how student can keep and build their faith while in college, as well as succeed in college. I’ll...

August 10, 2011

It’s hard keeping up with the changes sweeping the textbook industry, which is why I asked Colin Barceloux, the founder of BookRenter, about a hot trend –  renting textbooks. Here is a Q&A with Barceloux, who created his company as a student at Santa Clara University after he began collecting discarded textbooks on his campus. Can you speak about some of...

August 9, 2011

Today I’m sharing a YouTube video that I made when one of my son’s good friends from Beloit College came to visit this summer. I asked Ben and Max, who are sophomores, to give incoming freshmen advice about how to survive their first year at college. I’d love to hear other advice that freshmen could use. If you have any...

August 4, 2011

My son is counting down the days until he arrives back at college. He’s got 23 days to go. Ben will be a sophomore so getting ready for college isn’t going to be as big a deal as it was last year. He was lucky that his school — Beloit College — provides storage for students so he left most...

July 7, 2011

Could you be too good of a parent? It’s not a strange question. A fascinating cover piece in The Atlantic suggests that perfect parenting is prompting young adults to seek therapy. I wrote a post about this for my college blog over at CBS MoneyWatch. Here’s an excerpt from that post: According to  The Atlantic article, perfect parenting is driving...

June 17, 2011

I read something crazy this week about how young Americans feel about all their credit card balances and the student debt they’ve racked up. Apparently, the majority of them feel “empowered” by all that money they owe lenders. The average student loan borrower, who graduates from college, owes $23,000 or $24,000. And the typical graduating senior with one credit card...

June 7, 2011

I am answering a question from a mom from Southern California today. Here is what she wrote: Could you comment on choosing colleges that are in different weather areas? After reading your blogs and talking to other parents, a student can get more more merit aid if she applies out of state. My daughter plans on applying to Gonzaga University,...