The College Solutions Blog

January 14, 2010

Close to one out of every three students who attend a state flagship university is affluent. Specifically, 30% of students at flagship universities have parents with incomes in the top 20% of all American households. This is just one of the findings of a new study released this week by The Education Trust, which is a nonprofit that promotes education...

January 11, 2010

Want to research colleges, but not sure where to start? It’s no surprise. When I just typed “college” into Google, I got 634 million college websites. To make your job easier, I’m sharing wonderful websites that can help you assemble a great list of colleges. If you want to research specific colleges, here are my Top 10  College Websites: College...

January 8, 2010

Yesterday I wrote this provocative post: Why High School Counselors Don’t Know Much About College.  Today I wanted to follow up with 10 things that the typical high school counselors doesn’t know. Here goes: 1. There are roughly 50 colleges and universities in the country that are no-loan schools, which means they meet a student’s financial aid need with grants...

December 29, 2009

What happens if your teenagers has made a bad mistake during his or her high school years? I’m talking about a suspension from school. A drunk driving ticket. A cheating incident. How do you handle these kinds of mistakes on your college application? Lee Bierer, an independent college counselor in Charlotte, NC, and a syndicated columnist, tackled this thorny college...

December 28, 2009

Want to attend a public university outside your state? Often the out-of-state tuition costs are far greater at state universities, which naturally prefer to keep the costs lowest for their own residents. You can, however, find public universities willing to cut their state tuition for outsiders. Here are five ways to cut the costs of attending a public university outside...

December 21, 2009

Here’s a college admission success story that’s going to make you jealous. Yale University just accepted four teenagers from the same Connecticut family for its next freshmen class. This is the first time in anyone’s memory that Yale has accepted quadruplets. The New York Times wrote about this stunning feat over the weekend. This wasn’t some sort of gimmick. Yale’s...

December 17, 2009

Want to know what college admission officers are really thinking? The Wall Street Journal and Unigo managed to get admission deans from eight prestigious schools, including Bryn Mawr College, Grinnell College,  Princeton University, University of Pennsylvania and Weslyan University to parpticipate in a panel discussion that touched on many issues that are relevant to collegebound teenagers. You can watch the...

December 8, 2009

Graduation rates at most universities is a disgrace.  Fewer than 60% of  college  students graduate in six years. Many of the rest never do earn  a bachelor’s degree. I’ve written about low graduation rates many times (see links below) and it’s always struck me as unfair that so many educators blame this tragedy solely on the students. That’s why I...

December 2, 2009

Thousands of California high school seniors are panicking right now because they’re worried that they won’t be attending a California State University campus in the fall. The Cal State system happens to be the largest in the country. In fact, the number of students attending the 23 Cal State campuses exceeds the number of people living in Kansas City or...

December 1, 2009

Will colleges hand out more college scholarships and financial aid for the latest crop of high school seniors? Last year private colleges and universities, in particular, dug deeper and increased the amount of money they awarded through college financial aid and merit scholarships. Last time I checked, the financial misery index is still alarming, but colleges might not be as...