The College Solutions Blog

February 25, 2011

Here is one reason for runaway college costs: US News’ college rankings. Find out why....

February 17, 2011

There are many websites that you can research the financial aid practices of individual schools. Today I’m going to focus on an especially helpful site — the federal College Navigator. The College Navigator is not flashy, but it contains incredible tools that tap into the US Department of Education’s vast college database. The College Navigator provides information on individual schools...

February 16, 2011

In my last post, I promised to share some resources that can help you evaluate the generosity of colleges and universities. If you missed it, here is that post: Financial Aid Nuts and Bolts Today I’m going to focus on the College Board’s website, which is a quick and easy resource for anyone interested in getting financial aid statistics on...

February 11, 2011

I attended a mini college conference yesterday in San Diego that was sponsored by the Western Association for College Admission Counseling (WACAC). A couple of enthusiastic young admission reps from a pair of Catholic universities back East were the presenters at one of the sessions.  I wanted to share one of the questions that the reps fielded. An audience member...

December 2, 2010

Can anybody pinpoint which colleges have the best college professors and the worst professors? I doubt it, but that doesn’t mean people won’t try. Yesterday I wrote a college blog post for CBSMoneyWatch that made a stab at establishing which colleges and universities have the best and worst professors. Here are the controversial posts: 25 Colleges With the Best Professors...

November 7, 2010

Nearly one out of every three students who attends a flagship  state university is affluent. Thirty percent of students at these top universities have parents with incomes in the top 20% of all American households. This is just one of the findings of a study from the Education Trust, which is a nonprofit that promotes education opportunities for all. The...

October 20, 2010

Ever thought about attending a Canadian university? A growing number of Americans are considering earning a college degree from up North. Actually, it’s not as far north as you might think because most Canadian universities are near the US border. There are some hidden academic jewels in Canada, which explains why you might be interested in exploring their Northern options....

October 20, 2010

Where do you begin a college search? When you research colleges, you’re going to want to find schools that will provide your teenagers with an excellent education and get them out the door in four years. But how do you even start such a daunting college search? Scattered around my blog, I’ve written plenty about how to conduct a college...

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...

October 12, 2010

Zillow, the website that can estimate how much your house is worth, released a survey earlier this year that suggested that Americans only spend five hours researching mortgages. Americans devote about the same amount of time planning vacations. It’s significantly less time than the 10 hours that consumers devote to buying a car. That made me wonder how many hours...