5 Best College Admission Blogs

There are so many college admission blogs out there, it’s hard to decide which ones to read. After all, you can’t read them all and you don’t want to waste your time reading posts on the same topics. And how do you know which are any good? If you do a search on “best college blogs” you’ll find things like “50 best college admission blogs,” “Top 25 College Blogs,” and “22 College Blogs You Should be Reading.” Not very helpful.

I’m not saying that the 50 blogs aren’t good-they may actually be the best, I’m saying I don’t have the time to go through all of them to decide which would be most relevant for me. I prefer a shorter list with maybe a little more added to the description of why the blog is included. I mean, I probably love finding new blogs more so than the average web user but I rarely find myself getting all the way down to number 50.

So what I want to offer here is a limited number of blogs that I’ve found useful. Of course, useful for me doesn’t necessarily mean useful for you but if nothing else, you’ll realize something that you don’t like and can avoid it in the future.

I offer the following list of five bloggers, (actually 4 blogs and one column) not just because they know their subjects but they are also likely to introduce you to other valuable resources.

They also are representative of a category type. If you don’t like the specific blog, you should try to find another one that would full fill the same function. For each blog, I include links to two posts that I think will help you get a better feel for the blog.

Category: If You Follow Just One Blog

The College Solution: This one probably isn’t much of a surprise for any frequent readers of my blog. I’m a big fan of Lynn’s book, The College Solution: A Guide for Everyone Looking for the Right School at the Right Price, and I find her posts to be useful and to the point. You will not be wasting your time following her blog.

• Skip the College Wait List
• Deciphering Misleading Financial Aid Letters

Category: College Preparation

Study Hacks: No longer just about what makes a successful student, Cal Newport, author of How to Be a High School Superstar and How to Win at College, has branched out to include how to live a successful life. This a blog to start reading when starting high school, not graduating.

• How to Get Into Stanford with B’s on Your Transcript: Failed Simulations & the Surprising Psychology of Impressiveness
• Case Study: How Could We Save This Ridiculously Overloaded Grind?

Category: Parent Wisdom

My Kid’s College Choice is a blog by Wendy Nelson who created the website for parents whose children aren’t driving the college search process. The posts tend to be very practical step-by-step guides to the various issues parents will encounter. And for those looking for scholarships, Wendy’s Full Scholarship List is worth the mere $2.99 she’s asking for.

• Help, We Don’t Have Enough Money for College!
• Organize Your College Search

Category: College Admissions Counseling

College Admissions: This a weekly column by Jodi Walder, an independent college counselor.  There are actually quite a few blogs by independent college counselors that provide good information. I chose this column because it’s one of the most consistent and is published independently from her consulting website.

• College Visits in Your Own Backyard
• The Similarity Between Online Dating Profiles and ‘Why This College?’ Essays

Category: Financial

I don’t have just one goto blog for this category. I think the following websites are worth visiting to see if they’re a good match for you.

• SavingforCollege.com: Plenty of useful non-premium content.
• The College Money Mom: Short videos explaining topics related to paying for college.
• NerdWallet: Check out their Education and Compare Colleges section.

Other Considerations

If you don’t want to bother with figuring out what to follow, an alternative is just follow The Princeton Review. The majority of the posts are summaries of articles from other websites. It’s one way to get a variety of sources in one place. The College Admissions section on the Huffington Post is another place to find multiple perspectives.

If you are interested in just the general news of higher education that may or may not affect your college search and selection process, I suggest Inside Higher Ed. Unlike the Chronicle of Higher Education, it’s free, and I find it tends to have more articles relevant to parents looking at colleges. Jeffrey Selingo at the Washington Post is another good source to consider. If you’re interested in more of public policy perspective, try The College Puzzle. It keeps up with the latest issues and research in the field.

If you have any other blogs you just swear by, let me know. I would be interested in listing alternatives for the categories above or even creating new categories if needed.

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