The College Solutions Blog

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...

May 16, 2010

Has it become a status symbol to end up on a college wait list? During a fundraiser at my son’s high school last night, a mother shared with me that Duke University had waitlisted her son. She appeared to be bragging when she shared this news. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that Duke had also placed 3,382...

April 18, 2010

I have been reading the annual sob stories from students who are stuck on waiting lists at the nation’s snobbiest schools. These are the colleges and universities that reject almost everyone. The students on these waiting lists, which can contain 1,000 or more names, complain mightily about being stuck in limbo. They can’t psychologically get on with their lives until...

April 1, 2010

Surprise. Surprise. The Ivy League and other elite universities have just gotten even more selective. The Ivy League schools will be notifying applicants today whether they won the higher-ed lottery. And, according to some preliminary numbers gathered by The New York Times, more applicants will be receiving bad college admission news this year than ever before. Or, what is more...

January 22, 2010

If you haven’t seen the campy You Tube musical called “Why I Chose Yale, you might want to check it out. I imagine that watching it will only increase the anxiety of any parent or high school student who thinks Yale (or some other Ivy League school) is the only higher-ed trophy worth bagging. If you feel that way, or...

January 11, 2010

Want to research colleges, but not sure where to start? It’s no surprise. When I just typed “college” into Google, I got 634 million college websites. To make your job easier, I’m sharing wonderful websites that can help you assemble a great list of colleges. If you want to research specific colleges, here are my Top 10  College Websites: College...

December 21, 2009

Here’s a college admission success story that’s going to make you jealous. Yale University just accepted four teenagers from the same Connecticut family for its next freshmen class. This is the first time in anyone’s memory that Yale has accepted quadruplets. The New York Times wrote about this stunning feat over the weekend. This wasn’t some sort of gimmick. Yale’s...

December 20, 2009

It’s a relief to be sitting down to write this post. My husband, kids and I survived our annual holiday party. I cook for days, not including spending an entire Saturday making Christmas cookies, and by the time the party rolls around my back is screaming. Anyway, I survived the party for 65 people and the highlights included mini brie...

December 17, 2009

Want to know what college admission officers are really thinking? The Wall Street Journal and Unigo managed to get admission deans from eight prestigious schools, including Bryn Mawr College, Grinnell College,  Princeton University, University of Pennsylvania and Weslyan University to parpticipate in a panel discussion that touched on many issues that are relevant to collegebound teenagers. You can watch the...

December 13, 2009

Want to get into Harvard? Consider taking a gap year. It’s not easy getting into Havard or other elite schools, but some high school seniors manage to get into their dream schools by taking the year off and pursuing other interests through a gap year program here or overseas. I wrote about gap years experiences last week for my college...