The College Solutions Blog

October 15, 2009

My son and I have one more stop this week on his last college tour of schools before he starts applying to his favorites. We arrived in chilly Appleton, WI, tonight and we’re looking forward to touring Lawrence University tomorrow. Ben is one of three million high school seniors who are contemplating their college choices during this admission season. Coincidentally,...

October 14, 2009

Yesterday, my son Ben and I spent a lovely day at Beloit College. An admissions officer applauded Ben for making the long trek from San Diego to Wisconsin to visit the college. She mentioned that some students never visit the campus before applying to the liberal arts school. I’ve always thought it was strange that teenagers apply to colleges without...

October 2, 2009

Where do you find a great college? I hear that question all the time. You can pour through the big fat college guides from folks like the Princeton Review and Fiske, but they ignore most schools. For instance, Princeton Review’s latest guide covers 371 schools, but there are more than 2,200 four-year colleges and universities in this country. What I’m...

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 14, 2009

My son Ben’s best friend just returned from a tour of some liberal arts colleges that I suggested he visit in the Midwest. Nathan visited Carleton, Grinnell and Macalester colleges and I’m sure that any one of these schools would be thrilled to welcome him as a freshman next fall. Nathan is slated to be his high school’s valadictorian, his...

September 4, 2009

Here is my latest weekend roundup of the college blog posts that I wrote this week for CBSMoneyWatch.com. Are Ivy League Schools Fudging Their Numbers? This is the post that I was most intrigued by because it explored one of my favorite topics — the insane obsession with college rankings. I wrote that some of the statistics that Ivy League...

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...

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...

July 3, 2009

For those of you who can’t stop thinking about college — even during the Fourth of July weekend — I’m sharing with you the three posts that I wrote this week for my other college blog at CBSMoneyWatch. 1. Ten Hottest Careers for College Graduates Whether you’re a college student, a recent college grad or looking for a mid-career move,...