Big Picture

August 12, 2023

What percentage of Americans go to college? Since the great postwar boom in university enrollments of the 1950s-60s, Americans have persistently associated college education with social mobility. The popularity...

April 27, 2023

Do you know a college student on the cusp of graduating? Did you just start panicking about choosing a college graduation gift? Have you found yourself in the dark,...

March 22, 2023

Baking brownies from scratch requires a certain level of precision. For the best result, ingredients should be at room temperature, cocoa powder should be weighed and sifted, and good...

February 13, 2023

Just as pens have evolved from chiseled reeds to ballpoints and newspapers have evolved from stone tablets to daily emails brimming with curated headlines, a liberal arts education has...

January 23, 2023

So, you’ve decided to take a gap year after high school. Now what? An internet search will reveal droves of possibilities, from international service learning to backcountry survival to...

January 17, 2023

Brilliant students who are serious contenders for a spot at an Ivy League or Ivy-equivalent school often take 10+ AP classes. Whether the subject comes easily to them or...

September 24, 2022

Life as a college professor sounds like a delightfully quaint way to make a living. Residing in a rent-free cabin somewhere in New England, clad in your unfashionable yet...

August 29, 2022

Want to spend a couple of unproductive hours on the internet? Start by Googling “What should I major in?”. You’ll find countless articles with strong points of view. Some...

July 16, 2022

Back in the 1980s, parents’ worst nightmare was that their flaky Gen-X teens would defer entry into college, stating that they first needed to “find themselves.” After a year...

July 14, 2022

There is a famous saying in baseball that you can’t win a pennant in April but you sure can lose one. This adage is equally applicable to high school...

June 29, 2022

Before we directly answer the question, “What is a liberal arts college?”, we begin with an analogy…Two cups of coffee sit before you: one bearing the insignia of a...

June 18, 2022

Let’s begin with a caveat: The College Transitions team is philosophically opposed to the unhealthy obsession with elite college admission that begins in the womb, ramps up to overdrive...

June 15, 2022

Prior to the 1920s, attendance at a top-flight prep school was nothing less than a prerequisite for admission into an Ivy League college.

June 13, 2022

For just about every teen on Earth, the last 2+ years have not gone as anticipated. Starting in spring of 2020, your high school experience was impacted by the...

May 11, 2022

When parents and students evaluate and compare prospective colleges, one of the most massively important–but frequently overlooked–factors is the quality of the career services office. In the end, the...

April 22, 2022

At last, the arduous journey that was the 2021-22 college admissions cycle has reached its conclusion, and after all the stress, the results turned out beautifully—your son or daughter...

February 14, 2022

The “four-year degree” is quickly becoming a misnomer.  As of 2020-21, only 41% of American college students graduate from college in four years. Further, the majority of colleges and...

February 9, 2022

The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly increased the amount of interest in online high schools. While brick and mortar public and private high schools have adapted to intermittent remote instruction...

January 5, 2022

If you are considering spending grades 9-12 at a boarding school, then you are about to make a financial investment every bit as a sizable as the cost of...

December 12, 2021

College Transitions “So you want to be…” series is designed to help career-minded high school students think intelligently about their postsecondary journeys. These blogs provide a thorough examination of...