The College Solutions Blog

June 3, 2011

Here is something that really irritates me about the whole college process:  too many families view it as a game. Their aim is to get their child into the best school possible. Fair enough, but what’s often overlooked is making sure that teenagers are well prepared for whatever college they end up at. Too many parents assume that their children...

May 29, 2011

For those who have been following my college blog this week, I’ve been answering questions from readers. These questions came from a mom and her homeschooled teenagers. Here is what she had to say: Question No. 1: Homeschooling has been our educational choice. When my son completed various applications, sections were often dedicated to “leadership and offices held.”He had to...

May 18, 2011

What is the best way to ace your final exams? This is a timely question as millions of high school and college students are preparing to take 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...

April 21, 2011

How many times have you read news accounts about American students lagging behind countless other countries in academic achievement? In a recent standardized test of math proficiency, we’re way behind Taiwan (No. 1), Hong Kong (No. 2) and Korea (No. 3), but wait. We can’t even compete with the likes of Slovenia and the Slovak Republic. When I’ve read the...

April 5, 2011

I stopped being able to help my kids with their math homework in middle school. I know there are millions of parents whose children can no longer rely on them to help with math, chemistry, physics or other complex subjects. When this happens, tutors are always an option, but that can be expensive. So what’s an alternative? I’d suggest using...

March 15, 2011

Gosh. Where did the school year go? Summer is approaching which means teenagers must figure out how they are going to fill their summer months. If you’re looking for summer programs for your teenagers, I’d suggest heading over the Enrichment Alley.  This is a great website that contains a directory of summer enrichment experiences around the world. Low-Cost Summer Enrichment...

January 26, 2011

Across the country, high school juniors will be taking the SAT and ACT this semester. Here are seven ways for teenagers to improve their SAT and ACT scores or limit the damage of mediocre results: 1. Don’t pick a test based on where you live. Students on the West and East Coasts typically take the SAT test. In the Midwest...

January 25, 2011

Last month I wrote a blog post about the movie Race to Nowhere that’s being shown at high schools across the country. I pretty much trashed the movie – here is the post: Race to Nowhere Skeptic If you want to get an idea of why I’d like to hurl some overripe tomatoes at a screening of this movie, check...

January 24, 2011

I’ve always thought that parents and teenagers spend way too much time worrying about getting into college and not enough on being prepared for college. I was thinking about that this weekend after I left a birthday party Saturday at a restaurant in downtown San Diego for an old friend. About 200 people attended the mega birthday celebration and I...

January 10, 2011

When you look at the race of undergraduates attending the premiere state schools out here in California – UC Berkeley, UCLA, and UCSD — Asian students dominate. At UCSD, for instance, 50% of undergrads are Asian. At UCLA and UC Berkeley the percentage of Asian undergrads are respectively 40% and 42%.  In contrast, whites represent 23% of the student body...