The College Solutions Blog

October 22, 2009

For many families, college will be the second biggest expense they will ever face — right behind buying a house. Choosing colleges and figuring out how to pay for them is complicated, which is why students and parents often seek college advice from high school counselors. It’s typically difficult, however, for families who want meaningful college information to get much...

October 11, 2009

Last week I was talking to the college counselor at my son’s high school about research findings that suggest that Asian students face much greater odds in getting into Ivy League and other elite institutions. During our conversation, the counselor took a hardback from his book-lined room and suggested I read it. School of Dreams: Making the Grade at a...

October 4, 2009

For all my faithful visitors, I want to let you know that I’m trying to eliminate all the kinks on my newly remodeled blog. So please be patient! As always, here is my latest weekend round up of my college blog posts that I wrote for CBSMoneyWatch.com. Guess Who the Dumbest Generation Is Are teenagers dumber because they spend so...

September 29, 2009

When it comes to checking out colleges, I’m a big believer in casting a wide net. Look at big, small, public and private institutions. And check out schools that aren’t in your time zone. Most families don’t do this. The vast majority of students never look beyond the public universities in their own state and most don’t wander more than...

September 28, 2009

For those of you who have been visiting my college blog for awhile, you know that every weekend I link to college posts that I wrote during the week for CBSMoneyWatch.com. I never got to do that this weekend because while I was in Baltimore covering an education convention my net book broke. Exquisitely bad timing. I’m now back in...

September 21, 2009

Yesterday I promised to share a great resource to help your teenager during a college interview. Before I share it, I want to stress that there aren’t necessarily right or wrong answers in a college interview. My own daughter, who is now a college junior, certainly experienced this during an interview at Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA. The admission dean...

September 15, 2009

What are the best colleges in America? Not so fast with your answer. The best colleges aren’t always the ones that enjoy the biggest, shiniest name brands and monopolize the rankings. So how do you find the colleges and universities that do a fantastic — if unheralded — job of educating students? You’re going to have to dig a little...

September 13, 2009

The biggest buzz last week in the higher-ed world was the release of a serious tome entitled, Crossing the Line: Completing College at America’s Public Universities. The book, which was co-authored by William G. Bowen, a former Princeton president, and two other academics is chock-a-block full of stats and astute observations about why many students manage to graduate from college,...

September 10, 2009

My son is a senior at a high school that loathes Advanced Placement classes. The school administrators believe that AP classes provide students with knowledge that’s a mile wide and an inch deep. Considering that AP classes demand a lot of memorization and must be taught at a breathless pace to get through the material, I’d have to agree. Students...

September 8, 2009

One of my most vivid memories at the University of Missouri was of the strange grade that I received on an honors term paper. The English professor gave me a  “B+ +” for the final paper in my existentialist literature course.  When I saw that grade I was ticked off. What the heck, I wondered, was a B + +?...