The College Solutions Blog

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

Yale
July 26, 2012

Busting the Ivy League Myth

Do you need to graduate from an Ivy League school or other ultra elite college to earn the highest salaries? Many families believe that graduates who can put a school like Princeton or Yale on their resume will fare significantly better financially than smart students who end up earning their degrees from elsewhere. In a famous study, two economists tackled...
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June 27, 2011

Parents: Take a Chill Pill

I was at a preschool reunion on Sunday that reminded me about how nuts the college admission process is for a fraction of high school students and their families. The families I am talking about are the kind that you can find featured in the over-hyped documentary Race to Nowhere. Here, by the way, is what I think of that...
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Featured image for “Do You Really Need an Ivy League Education?”
March 13, 2011

Do You Really Need an Ivy League Education?

Do you need to graduate from an Ivy League school or other super elite college to earn the highest salaries? Many families believe that graduates who can put Harvard or Yale on their resume will fare significantly better financially than smart students who end up earning their degrees from elsewhere. In a famous study, two economists tackled this question nearly...
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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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April 18, 2010

Waiting List Cry Babies: Stop the Tears

I have been reading the annual sob stories from students who are stuck on waiting lists at the nation’s snobbiest schools. These are the colleges and universities that reject almost everyone. The students on these waiting lists, which can contain 1,000 or more names, complain mightily about being stuck in limbo. They can’t psychologically get on with their lives until...
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January 22, 2010

Why I Chose Yale – Not

If you haven’t seen the campy You Tube musical called “Why I Chose Yale, you might want to check it out. I imagine that watching it will only increase the anxiety of any parent or high school student who thinks Yale (or some other Ivy League school) is the only higher-ed trophy worth bagging. If you feel that way, or...
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December 21, 2009

Yale Accepts Quadruplets in its Next Freshman Class

Here’s a college admission success story that’s going to make you jealous. Yale University just accepted four teenagers from the same Connecticut family for its next freshmen class. This is the first time in anyone’s memory that Yale has accepted quadruplets. The New York Times wrote about this stunning feat over the weekend. This wasn’t some sort of gimmick. Yale’s...
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