The College Solutions Blog

October 28, 2009

Debt isn’t the only thing that weighs down students when they attend college. They also get fatter. Undergrads who head off to college are warned about the “freshmen 15.” That’s allegedly the number of pounds freshmen gain when they arrive at college. Some nutritionists and physicians, however, believe that the freshman 15 is now more like the freshman 30. A...

October 23, 2009

I’m exhausted today so it’s hard to get motivated to write something for my college blog. I gave four lengthy speeches at college fairs around San Diego on three consecutive nights this week. During the past few days, I also spent a lot of time at High Tech High, which is my son’s school, talking with college admission representatives and...

October 13, 2009

How hard is it to win an athletic scholarship? It’s darn near impossible. About 2% of high school athletes receive athletic scholarships to play their sports in college. The grim odds, however, doesn’t mean that you can’t parlay your athletic talent into sweet deal from a college. That’s what I’ve been telling my niece Molly, who is a high school senior...

September 30, 2009

I  spent some time yesterday afternoon listening to  Peter Johnson, the dean of admissions at Columbia University, talk to a dozen or so attentive students at High Tech High in San Diego.  The visit from an Ivy League admission dean at my son’s school isn’t as unusual as you might think. During the fall, it’s common to see admission officers...

September 26, 2009

I want to share an ACT strategy that I was excited to learn about at the education conference that I attended this week in Baltimore. I was fascinated to learn that an increasing number of colleges are cherry picking applicants’ ACT test scores. To understand what this means, here’s some background: Historically, colleges used a student’s composite ACT score that’s...

September 24, 2009

College rankings are sexy and fun to read, but have you ever wondered if they are really legitimate? If you have, I urge you to check out my latest story for CBSMoneyWatch.com that explores a variety of college rankings. In my article, I take a look at the methodology of various college rankings and then rate the rankers. My favorite...

September 24, 2009

I made it to Baltimore for the gigantic convention of the National Association for College Admission Counseling that 5,300 college admissions officers and high school and independent college counselors are attending. I’m not completely awake — I got to my hotel room at 2 a.m. today — but I’m excited about bringing lots of news about college to all my...

September 23, 2009

I can’t devote much time to my college blog today because I’m heading to Baltimore for the annual meeting of the National Association for College Admission Counseling. (It’s hard to imagine a clunkier name and the organization’s acronym NACAC rhymes with the name of the supplemental insurance company that runs those irritating ads with the duck.) Anyway, there are going...

September 22, 2009

Tell me if this makes sense: When private lenders got into the federal student loan business years ago, the federal government guaranteed that it would step in when student borrowers defaulted on their federal loans. The  government (us taxpayers) also gave the student loan lenders a fat subsidy to participate in this virtually risk-free business. You have no idea how...

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...