The College Solutions Blog

August 6, 2012

Below you’ll find a guest blog that Bob Bessette, the father of a rising senior at Bowdoin College in Maine, wrote. This post first appeared on my college blog in December when Bessette’s daughter  was finishing up her semester abroad in Ireland. I am rerunning this blog post primarily because my own son Ben, who is a rising junior at...

December 9, 2011

Below you’ll find a guest blog written by Bob Bessette, the father of a junior at Bowdoin College in Maine, who is finishing up her semester of studies in Ireland.  I was particularly interested in his post because my son Ben, who is a sophomore at Beloit College, plans to attend school  in Ireland for a semester during his junior...

December 27, 2010

If your child plans to study abroad while while in college, you need to prepare yourself. I wrote an blog post for CBS MoneyWatch that discusses what parents and students need to know about studying abroad based on the experience of my own daughter Caitlin, who attended the University of Barcelona for a year. You can find all the advice...

May 13, 2010

I’m a big believer in students studying abroad for a semester in college. My daughter Caitlin is one of the rare students who studied overseas for an entire school year. If I’m remembering correctly, only 5% of college students who study overseas stay for a year. Caitlin studied at the University of Barcelona. I think living in Barcelona was a...

April 9, 2010

European universities are nothing like American colleges and universities. That’s the conclusion that I drew during our family’s two-week vacation in Spain and France. We were visiting my daughter Caitlin, who has been attending the University of Barcelona for two semesters. During the vacation, I kept getting into conversations with Europeans about their universities. I had some knowledge about European...

December 20, 2009

It’s a relief to be sitting down to write this post. My husband, kids and I survived our annual holiday party. I cook for days, not including spending an entire Saturday making Christmas cookies, and by the time the party rolls around my back is screaming. Anyway, I survived the party for 65 people and the highlights included mini brie...

November 9, 2009

Do transfer students do well in college? I hear this question a lot from parents who are stressed about the high cost  of a bachelor’s degree. They naturally wonder if starting at a cheaper community college and then transferring is a smart move. The transfer student question is also relevant for teenagers who begin at four-year universities and then end...

September 7, 2009

In the last few days, I’ve been working on an assignment about college rankings — when it’s published I’ll be sure to link to the article. Today, however, I thought I’d provide links to some helpful college lists courtesy of US News & World Report. Colleges Giving the Most Merit Scholarships One question that I get asked frequently is which...