Malcolm Gladwell’s recent article in the New Yorker on how US News and World Reports ranks colleges and universities should be an eye-opener for both parents and high school seniors whose anxiety...

Only a few weeks into the academic year and already signs of senioritis are sweeping the country. Parents are nagging kids about writing their essays, getting some last-minute tutoring for their “real”...

Although the college admissions race doesn’t officially start until senior year, waiting until then to have a serious sit-down with your junior student about  college planning is like hoping they...

The house is quieter – that’s what you notice first.  You mark time by their phone calls, texts and e-mails, reading between the lines or the silences for indications that they’re okay – not too...

A friend recently confided that she and her husband were planning to get a divorce after their youngest child left for college. While I understood and empathized with her decision, I couldn’t agree with...

Shrinking budgets have made college counselors a vanishing breed  in most public high schools as  the ratio of students to counselors – optimally, 100 to one – has surged to two and a half times...

There was a time when applying to college was simple. You took your college boards and you and your parents sat down with the high school guidance counselor. She knew exactly what your scores were –...

We expect teenagers in transition, especially those who have one foot out the door already, to think, feel and behave like adults – young adults, to be sure, but capable of greater maturity than...

The New York Times asks – is senior year worthwhile? Suggesting that for the ”soberest and most studious” it’s a redundancy and for those headed directly into the labor force it’s like a year...

Many of the problems parents and students have with the college transition come from confusion about whose problems they really are. Get clear on ownership of both rights and responsibilities. Stepping...