“Innovative and invaluable…use this book as your college lifeline.”
— Lynn O'Shaughnessy
Nationally Recognized College Expert
May 19, 2015
Pursuing your entire undergraduate degree abroad may sound like an extravagance reserved for the jet-setting upper-class, yet going to college in a foreign country can actually make excellent economic...
May 1, 2015
We begin with an analogy. Three racehorses: Cream of the Crop, Above Average, and Run of the Mill are selected by three trainers of varying quality to prepare for...
April 7, 2015
An iconic year, even by the standards of its iconic decade, 1969 teems with momentous events in America’s cultural history: the moon landing, Woodstock, the Amazin’ Mets, and the...
February 19, 2015
“Buridan’s ass” is a well-known (and unfortunately named) philosophical paradox where a famished donkey sits equidistant between two similarly delicious bales of hay and, unable to find a rational...
January 27, 2015
We’ll save the drama—even in an era of bloated tuition costs, ballooning student loan debt, and a weakened American job market, the answer to the general question of whether...
January 19, 2015
Particular adjectives frequently accompany sound bites and headlines on the topic of student loan debt—“crippling,” “burdensome,” and “overwhelming,” just to name a few. Student loan debt is a “crisis,”...
December 16, 2014
While honors programs have existed in one form or another since the GI bill first brought an influx of talented but cost-conscious students to public universities in the post-war...
November 24, 2014
Walk into any Starbucks, Barnes and Noble, or public library around the holiday season and at least a few tables will be occupied by teen/middle-age dyads, with the older...
November 14, 2014
Inside Higher Ed, one of higher education’s leading news outlets, recently conducted a nationwide survey of college admission directors. The newly-released results are shocking, and reveal a profession entirely...
October 6, 2014
In Back to the Future II, Marty McFly travels from 1985 to 2015 and is shocked to learn that a bottle of Pepsi costs $50. With Pepsi bottles sitting...
August 26, 2014
More is better Applicants often feel that more is inherently better when it comes to their application file and proceed to send along everything from editorials penned for the...
August 12, 2014
Two caveats, before we dish out the advice. First, as readers of our blog know, we do not advocate over-focusing on highly selective schools. Yet we also recognize that...
July 30, 2014
In the past few years, and increasing number of selective colleges and universities have adopted test-optional policies, no longer requiring students to submit their standardized test scores. Institutions eliminating...
July 23, 2014
We frequently receive questions from students and families in reference to PayScale.com’s new college rankings, which sorts institutions on the basis of a calculated 30-year return on investment (ROI)....
July 14, 2014
Attempts to navigate the world of private college scholarships often result in students and families left adrift in the proverbial mile-wide, inch-deep ocean of cyberspace. Let the following tips...
June 17, 2014
Listening to the mainstream media, one might conclude that getting into college has never been a more competitive or harrowing venture. With the exception of a scattering of hyper-selective...
June 5, 2014
In recent posts, we urged students to approach the college admission process with a “big picture” perspective and to consider long-term goals before “breaking the bank” on an expensive...
May 7, 2014
So much misinformation about the college admissions process is transmitted through the “you have to do x, y, and z” admonitions of peers, relatives, media outlets, and message boards....
March 29, 2014
Prior to the 1920s, attendance at a top-flight prep school was nothing less than a prerequisite for admission into an Ivy League college.
February 6, 2014
In the throes of the admissions frenzy, it is hard to be face-to-face with a college representative and ask anything other than a thinly veiled version of “Are you...
