The College Solutions Blog

June 22, 2011

If you do poorly on the science and reading section of the ACT will  you struggle in college? Not necessarily, according to a new intriguing study conducted by researchers at Stanford and the University of Chicago. The research concludes that the test scores on the reading and science sections of the ACT have “little or no” ability to predict whether...

June 21, 2011

Today I’m sharing a piece written by Scott Coltrane, the dean of Arts and Sciences at the University of Oregon, on the beauty and practicality of a liberal arts degree. The popularity of liberal arts degrees is clearly declining. According to a thought-provoking article I read this month in The New Yorker, only 40% of college students graduate with a...

June 19, 2011

When students are shopping for colleges, admission representatives typically urge them to ignore the sticker price. Here’s what these college reps routinely say:  We’ve got lots of financial aid and scholarships. Just APPLY! I was reminded of why applying blind is such a reckless strategy when a mom contacted me after her husband heard me give a college talk recently...

June 17, 2011

I read something crazy this week about how young Americans feel about all their credit card balances and the student debt they’ve racked up. Apparently, the majority of them feel “empowered” by all that money they owe lenders. The average student loan borrower, who graduates from college, owes $23,000 or $24,000. And the typical graduating senior with one credit card...

June 16, 2011

When should families start visiting colleges? A parent recently asked me that question and I’m going to respond by sharing the advice of Kris Hintz, a very smart college consultant in New Jersey, who addresses this issue in her upcoming book – the title is still not firmed up or I would share it. Kris believes that until a teenager...

June 14, 2011

Are we trapped in a higher-ed bubble? Some college insiders are offering persuasive arguments that we are. Reminiscent of the recent stock market and real estate bubbles, escalating college prices are continuing to reach new heights. According to the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, average tuition in the past 2 ½ decades has risen by 440 %,...

June 13, 2011

Summer is a great time to write those dreaded college admission essays. Teenagers have more time to devote to college essays, but a surplus of time won’t necessarily make an admission essay better. While students will find plenty of advice about how to write a college essay, here is one of my favorite tips: Don’t bore the admission readers with...

June 11, 2011

Most of the attention during every admission season is on high school seniors, which means transfer students often get lost in the shuffle. That’s a shame since a sizable number of college students end up transferring every year. According to special transfer student report from the National Association for College Admission Counseling, a third of students end up transferring to...

June 9, 2011

Earlier this year, 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:...

June 8, 2011

Many college seniors, who are graduating this month, probably thought this day would never arrive. I’m not talking about their graduation day. I’m referring to the time when they would have to start repaying their student loans. With the economy still in a funk and unemployment remaining high, this is a scary time to be contemplating all that student debt....