The College Solutions Blog

October 10, 2010

Should colleges continue to give merit scholarships to rich students? The vast majority of colleges and universities in this country dispense money to rich kids through merit scholarships or grants. The higher-ed world isn’t proud of this practice, but it’s pervasive. I ended up talking about this phenomenon this weekend when I was visiting my daughter Caitlin, who is a...

September 27, 2010

During my last two posts, I have focused on picking college majors. This is the last post that I’m going to devote to majors for awhile. Here are my previous posts: Chosing a College Major College Majors: 5 Things You Need To Know Is getting a head start on a college major a good thing? Not according to a study...

September 26, 2010

How do you choose a college major? This is my second blog post that explores this question. If you missed the first one, here is the link: Choosing a College Major Today I want to share some more tips on majors: 1. Rethink a business major. Business is the most popular major in the country, but don’t assume that you...

September 24, 2010

Last spring I bumped into a dad I know whose daughter had attended the same middle school as my son. I asked him where his daughter would be attending college in the fall and he said: She’s going to a community college. I was surprised because Rachel is a very bright girl. The dad explained, however, that his daughter didn’t...

September 16, 2010

When I visit college campuses, I can’t help but notice that an alarming number of students are overweight. In fact, I just read a story in The Chronicle of Higher Education, that stated that a third of college students are overweight. If your jeans don’t fit at age 20, I hate think how much your waist band will stretch by...

September 10, 2010

The last two days I’ve been writing about applying early decision in the college admission process. Here are my two posts: Finding the Success Rate of Applying Early Decision Case Study: Applying Early Decision After reading my case study post, a mom posed with her own question about early decision. I decided to answer her here.  I promise this will...

September 7, 2010

My family lives in California where roughly 84 percent of the state’s college-bound students enroll in public colleges and universities here. With such a strong tradition of students staying put for college, my son Ben wasn’t surprised at the reaction he routinely received this spring when students at his high school in San Diego asked him this question: “Where are...

August 29, 2010

If you hadn’t already noticed, this is college rankings month. US News & World Report, the big college rankings  gorilla, released its latest lists of the best liberal arts colleges and best universities earlier in August.  Forbes Magazine rolled out its best college list this month too and the Washington Monthly unveiled its picks for  best colleges a few days...

August 15, 2010

Saturday evening I said goodbye to my son Ben, who officially started his four years at Beloit College. I am grateful that the send-off was better than the one that Scott Bierman, the president of Beloit College, experienced years ago when he dropped his second daughter off at Kenyon College. As the drop-off day wore on, Bierman told a gathering...

July 29, 2010

This week, 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: My Pet Peeve: Picking Colleges By Size Research Universities: What You Need to Ask What’s a Medium-Sized...