The College Solutions Blog

May 18, 2011

What is the best way to ace your final exams? This is a timely question as millions of high school and college students are preparing 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...

February 21, 2011

Last month, I wrote a couple of posts about this reality:  many students are graduating from college without absorbing much of an education. From a parent’s perspective that’s a lot of wasted money. And, of course, there are serious ramifications for students who have spent their college years living in a Bud Lite commercial. Here are the two posts: Do...

December 13, 2010

Ivy League schools always hog the top spots in the college rankings, but are Ivy League professors the best teachers? Heck no. I’ve written a college blog post for CBS MoneyWatch that reveals that the undergrads who attend Ivy League schools aren’t nearly as happy with their teachers as you might expect. I drew that conclusion after looking at the...

December 8, 2010

What is the best way to ace your final exams? Reading your textbook and notes over and over again isn’t going to cut it, according to some interesting research. While poring over the written material seems like a no brainer, researchers from Purdue and Washington University insist that it’s not the best approach. Here’s a better way to improve test...

August 10, 2010

Are AP classes really worthwhile? There is no doubt that advanced placement classes are popular.  Last year, nearly 1.7 million students worldwide took more than 2.9 million AP exams. Twenty five percent of high school graduates have taken at least one AP exam. With teenagers returning to the classroom grind soon, I thought this would be a good time to...

July 22, 2010

In my last college blog post for CBSMoneyWatch.com, I wrote about a study that explored how homeschoolers do in college. Here is the link: Can Homeschoolers Do Well in College? I was surprised at the passionate responses that the homeschooler piece triggered. The homeschool supporters seemed especially incensed that I brought up what I perceive as a common belief about...

March 19, 2010

With March Madness in full swing, I want to pose this question: Should schools be allowed a spot in the NCAA basketball brackets if they can’t manage to graduate their basketball players? I think it’s only fair to bar these basketball teams from participating in March Madness and, more importantly, so does Arne Duncan, a former Harvard basketball player, who...

March 5, 2010

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. In nearly every decade, the GPA has inched...

March 4, 2010

I heard from some high school counselors yesterday, who were furious with me. I wrote a post for my other college blog at CBSMoneyWatch about a new study that suggests that plenty of school counselors would flunk out if they were graded like their students. In the Public Agenda survey, which was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation,...

January 9, 2010

15 Best and Worst Jobs In America In my most popular college blog post on CBSMoneyWatch this week, I wrote about a list of the 200 best and worst jobs based on much more than pay. When you see lists of the best and worst jobs in America, the creators are usually focusing on salaries. CareerCast.com developed the list based...