The College Solutions Blog

October 7, 2011

I’ve been running into more and more parents, who are curious about sending their children to community colleges. I can understand the attraction. Community colleges are often much cheaper than four-year schools and they can offer a more personalized education than big state universities. Out here in California, for instance, a freshman can take introductory courses with 30 to 40...

September 13, 2011

As many of you know, I’m not a fan of US News and World Report’s college rankings even though I write a college blog for the magazine.  The methodology is flawed and the rankings sponsor does not try to measure what kind of education students receive at their schools. What I find even more troubling is the fact that  college...

August 25, 2011

This week, I’ve been focusing on colleges and universities that are pricey. Here the the posts if you’ve missed them:  Is That Flagship Worth the Price? Attending Expensive East Coast Universities The majority of students limit their college choices to schools within two hours of driving distance, but those who want to look elsewhere tend to salivate over the same...

July 8, 2011

Summer is a great time to research schools. So today I want to share a great online resource to help you evaluate colleges.  It’s called COLLEGEdata. COLLEGEdata can provide a ton of information on any college. I think it’s more indepth than what you can find by heading to the College Board and accessing a college’s profile through its College...

June 21, 2011

Today I’m sharing a piece written by Scott Coltrane, the dean of Arts and Sciences at the University of Oregon, on the beauty and practicality of a liberal arts degree. The popularity of liberal arts degrees is clearly declining. According to a thought-provoking article I read this month in The New Yorker, only 40% of college students graduate with a...

June 11, 2011

Most of the attention during every admission season is on high school seniors, which means transfer students often get lost in the shuffle. That’s a shame since a sizable number of college students end up transferring every year. According to special transfer student report from the National Association for College Admission Counseling, a third of students end up transferring to...

May 15, 2011

My daughter Caitlin graduated from Juniata College this weekend! It just seemed like yesterday that we had arrived at this beautiful campus for freshmen orientation and now Caitlin was walking across the stage to receive her bachelor’s degree. With rain clouds threatening, workers packed up the white folding chairs set out for the outdoor ceremony and everyone was directed into...

May 12, 2011

I once calculated that only .2% of freshmen who start college every year head off to the Ivy League, but these eight schools still monopolize much of the national coverage of college issues. The spotlight on the Ivy League has helped to make it nearly impossible to get into these eight schools, as well as a small group of other...

May 10, 2011

What Is a small college? In recent posts, I’ve been looking at the size of colleges and explaining why size matters. It drives me nuts that students routinely pick schools by size without understanding the educational ramifications of their choices. Here are my three previous posts on this subject: What’s a Medium-Sized University? What is a Research University? Do You...

May 6, 2011

In my last blog post I complained that too many high school students pick schools based primarily on size. And most of these students only want to look at schools that are large. Here is where I vented: Do You Know the Difference Between A College and University? What’s more important, I argued, is a school’s mission. Today, I want...