The College Solutions Blog

August 20, 2009

U.S. News & World Report released its 2010 college rankings in the wee hours this morning. For those who couldn’t wait to see the latest results, the magazine had posted a clock on its website that informed rankings enthusiasts of how many days, hours and minutes were left until the unveiling. In the university rankings competition, Harvard and Princeton tied...

August 11, 2009

Are colleges picking on students who hope to earn an art degree. It sure looks like it, if you believe an article in The New York Times that suggests that schools of fines arts, theater and dance are under siege. During this recession, I doubt that any university is considering closing down its engineering or business school, but departments that...

August 7, 2009

If you look at the just-released college rankings from Forbes Magazine, you’ll notice some peculiar numbers. Forbes ranks Cornell as the 105th best school in the country, but U.S. News & World Report ranks it as the 14th best national university. Forbes rates Dartmouth and the University of Pennslyvania as the 98th and 83rd  best schools, but US News college...

July 27, 2009

I’m taking some time off from my college blog this week and a friend, Ruth McKinnie Braun, who is the creator of the great website: SuchASmartMom.com offered to pitch in and provide this post. Hope you enjoy it….. Summer is the perfect time for low-key college planning. Setting aside time for exploring college options without the pressure of homework, tests...

July 25, 2009

I was surprised this week to see such heavy traffic on the college blog post that I wrote for CBSMoneyWatch.com on the the college degrees that generate that highest paying and lowest paying jobs for new college graduates. I guess it’s only natural that people are curious about what college degrees are the most lucrative. Engineering degrees dominate the list. New...

June 18, 2009

I know a bunch of parents who expect their teenagers to graduate from college in four years. Many of them are dreaming. Forty percent of  students can’t even graduate from college in six years! Colleges and universities often blame students for this dismal record. But if it’s the kids who are slackers, how come schools with similar academic profiles experience...

June 17, 2009

Here’s a grim statistic:  Fewer than 60% of four-year college students graduate in six years. Of course, noncompetitive schools, which accept nearly all comers, drag down the national graduation rates. For instance, only 18% of students at Mountain State University in Beckley, WV, which accepts all its applicants, graduate in six years. In contrast, 97% of Harvard students have earned...

June 4, 2009

The annual U.S. News & World Report’s college rankings edition is fun to read. In the past, I’ve poured over it myself. The rankings, however, are flawed. I’ve covered many of the reasons why U.S. News & World Report’s rankings are sketchy in my book, The College Solution, as well as in some of my blog posts. Here’s one reason...

April 15, 2009

Yesterday I hung out at San Diego’s largest annual college fair. If you want to attend one of these mega college fairs, the National Association for College Admission Counseling has posted its list of spring college fairs  on its website. Here’s where you can find fall college fairs. Spending the morning at the San Diego college fair reminded of the...

January 24, 2009

Don’t have the money to pay for an expensive college road trip? Schools are increasingly making it easier for high school students to get a feel for their institutions without leaving their homes. That’s the conclusion that I drew after reading a new study conducted at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, which explored higher ed’s embrace of new media. Here...