Admission practices
When Your Dream School Costs Too Much
I’m resurrecting a college blog post that I wrote last spring because it’s going to be timely again when high school seniors begin getting their acceptance letters. We are approaching the time of year when parents agonize about sending their children off to expensive colleges and universities even if they can’t afford the price tag. […]
8Feb2011 | Lynn O’Shaughnessy | 1 comment | Continued
Phooey: Race To Nowhere
Last month I wrote a blog post about the movie Race to Nowhere that’s being shown at high schools across the country. I pretty much trashed the movie – here is the post: Race to Nowhere Skeptic If you want to get an idea of why I’d like to hurl some overripe tomatoes at a […]
25Jan2011 | Lynn O’Shaughnessy | 2 comments | Continued
The Dirty Little Secrets of College Admissions
Today I want to share a piece, which originally ran in the Washington Post, that was written by Dean P. Skarlis, who is president of The College Advisor of New York in Albany. I liked what Skarlis had to say so much about today’s college admission climate that I asked if I could share it […]
29Dec2010 | Lynn O’Shaughnessy | 4 comments | Continued
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, […]
18Dec2010 | Lynn O’Shaughnessy | 2 comments | Continued
The Skinny on College Recommendation Letters
I wrote this post a year ago when my son was asking for college recommendations. He’s in college now, but I thought parents and teenagers could benefit from what I wrote in 2009. This is the time of year when high school counselors and teachers are flooded with requests to write college recommendation letters. Writing […]
15Dec2010 | Lynn O’Shaughnessy | 3 comments | Continued
Sharing Secrets on Your College Application
What happens if your teenagers has made a bad mistake during his or her high school years? I’m talking about a suspension from school. A drunk driving ticket. A cheating incident. How do you handle these kinds of mistakes on your college application? Lee Bierer, an independent college counselor in Charlotte, NC, and a syndicated […]
14Dec2010 | Lynn O’Shaughnessy | 0 comments | ContinuedShould You Attend Your Dream College?
This is the time of year when high school seniors and their parents begin reciting this age-old advice: Follow your dreams. Families tend to use this advice to justify their children attending expensive dream colleges even if these schools will require taking on crushing student debt. I am a huge advocate of families researching schools […]
5Dec2010 | Lynn O’Shaughnessy | 3 comments | Continued
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 | Continued8 Things Transfer Students Need to Know
Most of the attention during this 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 […]
23Nov2010 | Lynn O’Shaughnessy | 0 comments | Continued
The Hazards of Brainiacs on College Campuses
I’ve often wondered why colleges and universities are so fixated on admitting students with extremely high SAT or ACT scores. Some of these teenagers only excel at taking tests and earning top grades, which can lead to awfully uninspiring young adults. I’ve heard admission folks privately lament that kids with high test scores can be […]
21Nov2010 | Lynn O’Shaughnessy | 4 comments | Continued
