Evaluating Schools

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Will You Get Into Your Dream College?

What are your chances of getting into your dream college? I wanted to share with you a great tool that you can use to help assess what your chances are for getting an acceptance letter from any college on your list. You can find the tool at COLLEGEdata, which is a website shock full of […]

30Nov2010 | Lynn O’Shaughnessy | 0 comments | Continued
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6 Tips for Performing and Visual Art Majors

In my college blog post last week for US News & World Report, I wrote about students who want to major in the performing and visual arts. Here it is…. If your child wants to major in musical theater or some other performing art, go ahead and blame it on Glee, American Idol or America’s […]

14Nov2010 | Lynn O’Shaughnessy | 1 comment | Continued
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Should You Apply to a Reach School?

Do you know what a reach school is? I’ve been surprised recently to find out that many parents and teenagers don’t understand what the term means. I discovered just how elusive a concept it is during college talks that I occasionally give at high schools and other settings. When I ask, “Who knows what a […]

2Nov2010 | Lynn O’Shaughnessy | 0 comments | Continued
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Fighting Back Against Rising College Costs

College costs continue to rise (surprise, surprise), according to the latest statistics released by the College Board. The news is depressing, but not as awful as you might assume. As I’ve discussed in previous college blog posts, roughly two-thirds of college students receive scholarships or other price breaks so the sticker prices are meaningless. 2010-2011 […]

31Oct2010 | Lynn O’Shaughnessy | 4 comments | Continued

Looking For Colleges In All the Right Places

Where do you begin a college search? When you research colleges, you’re going to want to find schools that will provide your teenagers with an excellent education and get them out the door in four years. But how do you even start such a daunting college search? Scattered around my blog, I’ve written plenty about […]

20Oct2010 | Lynn O’Shaughnessy | 0 comments | Continued
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Campus Safety: How Safe is Your College?

I wanted to share a great federal resource today that can help you measure the campus safety at any college or university. All you need to do is visit the website of The Campus Safety and Security Data Analysis Cutting Tool. (It’s a federal website, which explains the clunky name.) With the federal college safety […]

14Oct2010 | Lynn O’Shaughnessy | 1 comment | Continued

How Much Time Will You Spend Researching Colleges?

Zillow, the website that can estimate how much your house is worth, released a survey earlier this year that suggested that Americans only spend five hours researching mortgages. Americans devote about the same amount of time planning vacations. It’s significantly less time than the 10 hours that consumers devote to buying a car. That made […]

12Oct2010 | Lynn O’Shaughnessy | 0 comments | Continued
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What Colleges Do Employers Love?

I have parents ask me variations of this question all the time: What are the best colleges and universities to attend that will ultimately generate jobs for my child? I think it’s rare that going to any particular school, by itself, will result in an automatic job for a new college graduate. I am willing […]

11Oct2010 | Lynn O’Shaughnessy | 1 comment | Continued
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How To Select a College Counselor

How do you select an independent college counselor? A parent posted that question on my college blog a couple of weeks ago and I promised that I’d provide the answer. I had the good fortune to interview three prominent independent college counselors on this subject when I was at a national college conference last week […]

7Oct2010 | Lynn O’Shaughnessy | 0 comments | Continued
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College Majors: 5 Things You Need to Know

How do you choose a college major? This is my second blog post that explores this question. If you missed the first one, here is the link: Choosing a College Major Today I want to share some more tips on majors: 1. Rethink a business major. Business is the most popular major in the country, […]

26Sep2010 | Lynn O’Shaughnessy | 2 comments | Continued