The College Solutions Blog

April 1, 2009

While everyone likes to gripe about the cost of college, in the world of state flagship universities true bargains exist. UCLA and the University of California, Berkeley, are two of them. The tuition at each of those schools is below $7,000. In comparison, Harvard’s tuition is more than $36,000. The protests against annual rises at state institutions, however, has masked...

March 30, 2009

No doubt most teenagers who attend state universities never look beyond their borders. If you’re a kid living in Los Angeles, the cost of going to UCLA or Berkeley is going to be cheaper than attending another flagship like the University of Texas or the University of Michigan. What keeps plenty of kids from wandering too far from home is...

March 9, 2009

The Chronicle of Higher Education ran a fascinating story today that attempted to explain why colleges and universities are mired in a financial crisis. Of course there are the obvious culprits — a recession and stock market meltdown — but the crisis goes far beyond that.  Here are a few of the reasons: 1. Yale copycats. David Swenson, who manages...

March 7, 2009

If you want your child to snag an athletic scholarship, there’s no better sport than women’s rowing. Last year The New York Times completed an exhaustive research on the odds of winning an athletic scholarship and women’s rowing topped the list. According to the newspaper, 2,359 teenage girls row in high school and 2,295 girls receive rowing scholarships. EXCELLENT ODDS!...

March 6, 2009

For many wannabe investment bankers, the key to unlocking Wall Street’s treasure chest was traditionally getting a Harvard MBA. So this shouldn’t come as a surprise:  Harvard tops the list of business school that have produced the most Wall Street scoundrels in our current financial mess. Here are the top three winners: Harvard New York University Cornell University Do business...

February 28, 2009

Earlier this month I wrote a blog post that shared a wild story about my son’s precalculus teacher. When the teacher said no late assignments, he meant it. A cancer patient who was taking his class nearly died from the wrong dose of chemotherapy, but the teacher still wouldn’t accept her late paper. I think there are many more teachers...

February 15, 2009

No doubt most teenagers who attend state universities never look beyond their borders. If you’re a kid living in Los Angeles, the cost of going to UCLA or Berkeley is going to be cheaper than attending another flagship like the University of Texas or the University of Michigan. What keeps plenty of kids from wandering too far from home is...

February 5, 2009

The University of California Board of Regents is expected today to approve the most sweeping admission changes to admissions in at least a decade at the nine UC campuses for undergraduates. The new requirements will allow 40% more high school graduates to be eligible for admission to the UC system. Many high school students are going to be relieved to...

February 1, 2009

Now here’s something you haven’t heard reported in the news media this year: Many colleges and universities are slashing prices even further than they have in the past. Private schools, in particular, are worried that kids are crossing expensive schools off their lists because of the recession and the stock market implosion. Most parents assume that private schools are in...

January 24, 2009

Don’t have the money to pay for an expensive college road trip? Schools are increasingly making it easier for high school students to get a feel for their institutions without leaving their homes. That’s the conclusion that I drew after reading a new study conducted at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, which explored higher ed’s embrace of new media. Here...