Colleges

Should 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 | 0 comments | Continued

10 Things New College Grads Need To Know About Jobs

My daughter, who is a Spanish major, will be graduating from college in the spring and like many college seniors, she is stressing about finding a job. While the job market is still ailing, a new national survey of 4,600 employers suggests that jobs will be more plentiful for the graduating class of 2011. According […]

3Dec2010 | Lynn | 0 comments | Continued
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A New Look for The College Solution Is Coming

Before I head into my sister’s kitchen in Pleasanton, CA, to start cooking the Thanksgiving feast and making a terrible mess, I wanted to share some news about my blog. On this day of thanks, I am happy that my college blog has continued to grow in popularity this year.  I want to thank all […]

25Nov2010 | Lynn | 3 comments | Continued

8 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 | 0 comments | Continued
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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 | 3 comments | Continued
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Attending College With Too Many Rich Kids

When I talk to California teenagers who are interested in attending college outside of the state, their preferred destination is usually the East Coast. As a native Midwesterner it is disheartening that so many Californian teenagers dismiss so much of the country as simply real estate that makes flights from California to New York or […]

19Nov2010 | Lynn | 6 comments | Continued

50 Top Colleges for Science & Engineering PhDs

I flew up to the Bay Area yesterday to give a college talk to a group of affluent families. I was told that some of the parents in the audience worked for Google, Facebook and other high-tech goliaths. Not all of their children, however, are necessarily as smart as they are. I expect that having […]

18Nov2010 | Lynn | 0 comments | Continued
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Why State Universities Aren’t Always a Bargain

If you’ve been a regular visitor to my college blog, you know that college price tags are meaningless. A $50,000 college, for example, could cost some families less than a $25,000 school. More families in my state of California are beginning to realize this. I bet that’s why expensive private schools such as Whitman College, […]

15Nov2010 | Lynn | 1 comment | 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 | 1 comment | Continued
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University of Chicago’s Ego

I had lunch today with a dear friend whose son hopes to be attending the University of Chicago in the fall. This is a kid from Southern California who fell in love with the institution when he visited. Taylor, I changed his name, applied early action to the University of Chicago and he remains optimistic […]

11Nov2010 | Lynn | 2 comments | Continued