The College Solutions Blog

February 2, 2011

Yesterday I wrote a post that explored what types of schools enjoy the best graduation rates. If you missed it, here it is: Who Graduates In 4 Years? Today I’m sharing the 25 public universities where students enjoy the best chances of earning a diploma in four years. I pulled these figures off the federal database that goes by the...

January 31, 2011

Time is money and that is especially true when it comes to college. College students usually don’t graduate in four years and that comes as a shock to most parents. It should be no surprise that students at private non-profit schools graduate sooner than students at state universities, but there is variation within those two broad categories, according to statistics...

January 18, 2011

Do undergrads learn much in college? Many students don’t. That’s the conclusion of a new book that’s got the higher-ed world buzzing today. The book is Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses, which was published by the University of Chicago Press. A pair of professors at New York University and the University of Virginia wrote the book based on...

November 19, 2010

When I talk to California teenagers who are interested in attending college outside of the state, their preferred destination is usually the East Coast. As a native Midwesterner it is disheartening that so many Californian teenagers dismiss so much of the country as simply real estate that makes flights from California to New York or Boston way too long. While...

November 18, 2010

I flew up to the Bay Area yesterday to give a college talk to a group of affluent families. I was told that some of the parents in the audience worked for Google, Facebook and other high-tech goliaths. Not all of their children, however, are necessarily as smart as they are. I expect that having high-achieving parents  can put even...

November 15, 2010

If you’ve been a regular visitor to my college blog, you know that college price tags are meaningless. A $50,000 college, for example, could cost some families less than a $25,000 school. More families in my state of California are beginning to realize this. I bet that’s why expensive private schools such as Whitman College, Colgate University and Swarthmore College...

November 4, 2010

I’m not surprised by much that I read about the higher-ed world, but even I was amazed at how quickly private colleges are blowing by the $50,000 price tag. After crunching College Board data, The Chronicle of Higher Education has published a list of the nation’s 100 top colleges by price, which all cost at least $50,000. Two years ago,...

October 25, 2010

I talked to a mom last week who wanted me to help her son find wonderful colleges that would would award him a scholarship, but her top priority is keeping him as close to home as possible. The San Diego mom wants him to attend a California college. She also seemed to rule out Northern California as too far away....

October 24, 2010

When I dropped my son Ben off at Beloit College (WI) in mid August, I left with a lot of questions. Would he adjust well to college? Could he handle his classes? Would he make friends?  And would he tell his mom or dad if the answers to any or all of the preceding questions were  “no.” The first positive...

October 14, 2010

I wanted to share a great federal resource today that can help you measure the campus safety at any college or university. All you need to do is visit the website of The Campus Safety and Security Data Analysis Cutting Tool. (It’s a federal website, which explains the clunky name.) With the federal college safety tool, you can find statistics...