The College Solutions Blog

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...

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 4, 2011

I’ve met a lot of college students who assume that they must slog their way through graduate school to enjoy a successful and lucrative career. What is troubling, however, is how little information young adults know about what is involved in earning a graduate degree that can be expensive and a huge time commitment. No one should pursue a graduate...

August 27, 2010

With the economy still floundering, more Americans are considering attending graduate school. But how do you shop for the best  graduate school programs? Writing in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Thomas A. Benton, an English professor at Hope College made a stab at answering that question. He observed that the  universities receiving the highest graduate school rankings aren’t always the...

August 26, 2010

Yesterday I wrote a blog post for CBSMoneywatch that included lists of the most popular graduate degrees. Here is the post: America’s Most Popular Graduate Degrees Not surprisingly, the MBA was the most popular master’s degree program for both men and women. What I found interesting, however, was how quickly the most popular master’s degree programs diverge for men and...

June 8, 2010

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...

April 20, 2010

I banged out an email full of financial advice this week to a soon-to-be college graduate, who luckily has already lined up a job. She wanted to know if she should start saving for retirement as soon as she graduates. Here’s what I told her: Absolutely! I was thrilled that this young woman was already thinking about retirement. As a...

April 19, 2010

How do you shop for  graduate school programs? With the economy still floundering, more Americans are considering attending graduate school. But how do you find the best ones? Writing in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Thomas A. Benton, an English professor at Hope College made a stab at answering that question. He observed that the  universities receiving the highest graduate...

November 23, 2009

The job news is grim for soon-to-be graduating college students. Employers, according to The National Association of Colleges and Employers are expected to hire 7% fewer graduates of the Class of 2010 than they did with the last batch. With this shrunken pool of college graduate jobs, how can soon-to-be graduates get ahead in this jobless recovery? Here are seven...

May 8, 2009

Some students are lucky enough to earn a free graduate degree. Others will pay tens of thousands of dollars or more for a master’s degree or PhD. The tab – if any – often depends on what a student is studying. If you’re bright enough to major in chemistry (an unfathomable subject for this little ole journalism major), you can...