The College Solutions Blog

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

Grades
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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January 11, 2011

Another Take on Asian Students and Their Parents

Yesterday I wrote a post on Asian parenting after reading a disturbing essay in the Wall Street Journal that was written by a Yale law professor/mother, who admitted to calling her daughter “garbage” and demanding that her children be No. 1 in academics. Here is my original post: Asian Students At UCLA, UCSD and UC Berkeley: The Price of Success?...
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December 18, 2010

A Race to Nowhere Skeptic

Race to Nowhere, a documentary about the stress that college-bound teenagers experience, has gotten a lot of attention. I first heard about Race to Nowhere a couple of weeks ago after I gave a college presentation to a group of financial advisers and their clients in Irvine, CA. An adviser, who raved about the film, wrote its title on his...
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December 13, 2010

What Ivy League Professors Don't Want You to Know

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...
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1
December 8, 2010

Acing Your Final Exams: The Best Way to Study

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...
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March 5, 2010

What's Happening to the Average GPA?

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...
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January 1, 2010

10 Great College Tips for 2010

Happy New Year. I want to usher in 2010 by sharing 10 of my college blog posts from last year that I think will help you: Cut the cost of college. Find scholarships. Snag better financial aid packages. Locate great schools. Cutting the cost of college with better grades How to Negotiate for a Better Financial Aid Package Will Saving...
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February 28, 2009

Runaway GPAs

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...
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January 11, 2009

Cutting the Cost of College by Getting Good Grades

My son’s principal holds a breakfast chat with parents each month and at the last one, Brett mentioned that he is always amazed at how few students at the end of each semester ask teachers how they might improve their grades. It should be a no brainer, Brett suggested, for students to ask their teachers if they can do extra...
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