The College Solutions Blog

August 29, 2009

I want to welcome all my new visitors today, who discovered my blog thanks to the radio show that was broadcast this morning around the country. If you’ve got teenagers and you’re stressing about college, my blog should be a huge help.  You’ll find some of the best stuff in my college blog’s archives. Here are sections of the archives...

August 28, 2009

The year that I started college, Richard Nixon resigned, pocket calculators started appearing in stores and Jethro Tull was oh, so cool — at least with the kids I hung out with. I realized how dramatically different the experiences of today’s college freshmen are after I read Beloit College’s Mindset List. Each year the liberal arts college releases an amusing...

August 27, 2009

Out here on the West Coast, I know parents who believe that their children will be condemned to mediocre lives if the University of California, Berkeley, doesn’t send them an acceptance letter. Okay, it might not be that bad, but plenty of parents and teens believe that getting into UC Berkeley is the ultimate academic achievement  for a teenager. Unfortunately,...

August 27, 2009

The other day I brought up the “E” word with my son. Ben is about to start his senior year in high school and he needs to begin thinking about the college admission essay that he’s going to write. Ben’s reaction was typical of a lot of seniors:  He groaned. Undeterred, I  told him that he really needed to start...

August 26, 2009

Are professors spending too much time publishing and not enough time teaching? Absolutely! What I want to share with you today is an research paper that argues that professors are neglecting students because they are so busying writing papers and books that hardly anybody cares to read. The reason for the fixation on scholarly research is simple, according to Mark...

August 25, 2009

Now here’s a shocker:  College admissions are getting even more competitive at Ivy League schools and other highly elite colleges. That’s the conclusion of a new study, Playing the Admissions Game: Student Reactions to Increasing College Competition, which was written by profs at Harvard and the University of Michigan. Reading the report would make many parents think that their children...

August 24, 2009

David Hays, an investment adviser in Indiana, interviewed me for his radio program over the weekend. He was kind enough to send me the link to the podcast  of the interview. We talked for more than 30 minutes and here are some of the subjects that we discussed: Getting the best financial aid packages. Winning college scholarships. Why college rankings...

August 23, 2009

As usual, here is my roundup of posts that I wrote for my CBSMoneyWatch.com college blog during the past week. Why U.S. News’ College Rankings are a Joke First up, and my favorite, is my take on U.S. News & World Report’s latest college rankings that were released on Thursday. It’s a provocative headline, but I think it’s true. How...

August 21, 2009

I read a story in The Wall Street Journall this week, which should make “B” and “C” students hopeful. Universities have traditionally based their college admission decisions primarily on a student’s grades and test scores. But some school, including Tufts University, Boston College and DePaul University, are now eager to evaluate applicants on noncognitive traits that have nothing to do...

August 19, 2009

What is the average ACT score? For 2009 high-school graduates, the average ACT score was 21.1, which is identical to last year’s number. The ACT, which measures English, math, science and reading, uses a scale of 1 to 36. The average ACT score remained the same even though a record 1.48 million students — 4% more than last year —...