The College Solutions Blog

Valuable insights from Lynn O’Shaughnessy
a nationally recognized college expert.

Grades
Featured image for “Stop Stressing About Picking the “Right” College Major”
October 3, 2016

Stop Stressing About Picking the “Right” College Major

Are you stressing about what your teenager’s college major is going to be? If you’re worried about your child not picking the right college major, you must ABSOLUTELY watch the video and read the blog post below! In the video I interview Jane Horowitz, who is a phenomenal career-launch coach for college students and new college grads and the founder...
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Featured image for “College Majors and Graduation Odds”
August 22, 2016

College Majors and Graduation Odds

Will your children graduate from college? And will they graduate with their declared academic major? These are critically important questions that families routinely overlook. Unfortunately, families focus primarily on getting into college and not on whether their children will actually succeed and obtain a bachelor’s degree. Too often students fail to graduate. Or they fail to earn a degree in...
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Featured image for “Why Affluent Teens Are Miserable”
December 2, 2014

Why Affluent Teens Are Miserable

In my experience, high quality, independent test-prep firms produce some of the best college newsletters. One newsletter that I always make sure I read comes from Compass Education Group, which offers test prep in Northern and Southern California.  Today I am sharing a thought-provoking post that Matt Steiner, who is Compass Education’s marketing director, originally wrote for the test-prep firm’s...
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Featured image for “A Secret to Acing Final Exams”
December 13, 2012

A Secret to Acing Final Exams

What is the best way to ace your final exams? This is a timely question as millions of high school and college students are taking their final exams. You might assume that reading textbooks and notes over and over again is the best way to study, but researchers from Purdue and Washington University insist that it’s not the best approach....
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May 21, 2012

The Best Way to Study for Final Exams

What is the best way to ace your teenager’s final exams? This is a timely question as millions of high school students are getting ready to take their final exams. You might assume that reading textbooks and notes over and over again is the best way to study, but researchers from Purdue and Washington University insist that it’s not the...
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February 6, 2012

Surprising Facts About College Freshmen

During my college workshop at the University of California, San Diego, on Saturday, I asked the parents in attendance this question: What percentage of high school seniors do you think got accepted into their No. 1 college last year? One dad blurted out, “Six percent.” From the other side of the room, a mom provided this answer: “Two percent?” I...
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January 10, 2012

Are Students Learning Much in College?

With crazy amounts of psychic energy being spent on getting teenagers into college, too many students and their parents think getting admitted is the hard part of the college process.  Actually, it’s not. Squeezing as much value out of the college experience once you’re a student is far more important. Unfortunately, however,  many students are graduating from college without learning...
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December 20, 2011

The Best Way to Study for Final Exams

What is the best way to ace your final exams? This is a timely question as millions of high school and college students are taking their final exams. You might assume that reading textbooks and notes over and over again is the best way to study, but researchers from Purdue and Washington University insist that it’s not the best approach....
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December 19, 2011

Where Every Week Is Finals Week

Last week our son Ben called the house wanting to know if we wanted to Skype. We usually call him every Sunday to find out how he’s doing so whenever he contacts us it’s a big surprise. His primary reason for calling was to share with us how hard he was studying for his math final exam. He ended up...
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November 10, 2011

Colleges Where the Professors Are Easy Graders

Are college students getting smarter? If you looked at the grades they are “earning,” you might assume the answer is yes.  The average GPA in college is 3.1. At private schools, the norm is a 3.3 GPA. In contrast, the typical college student had an average GPA of 2.52 in the 1950s. (That’s just about the GPA that my dad,...
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