The State of the Recent College Graduate

Just in the last month, more recently graduated or soon-to-be-graduated college students have re-connected with Creative Marbles for post-college advising.  Degrees (almost) in hand, “Now what?” is the question, as these grads move back home with mom and dad. The current sentiment as published in today’s Wall Street Journal gives insight into the world our…

Continue Reading

Ahead of the Curve: December 13, 2013

From the News: How to Stop Worrying about College Rejection, Washington Post December 9, 2013 Could LinkedIn’s University Pages Make the Difference in the College Admissions Process?, CBS Los Angeles December 6, 2013 College Admissions Offers May Be Easier to Obtain, Los Angeles Times November 25, 2013 From Clients: End of the Semester: “studying” for…

Continue Reading

Student Loan Repayments May Cost More Than The Amount Borrowed

Changes to repayment rules for Federal student loans offers borrowers flexibility to manage their debts, as outlined in a recent New York Times article.  However, not only do the recent changes provide assistance for current borrowers, potential student loan borrowers can plan ahead. Our recommendations are outlined, alongside excerpts of the article in italics. Rising…

Continue Reading

More College Admissions 101

Additional insights to answer the complex questions Hewlett Packard employees asked during our second College Admissions and Financial Aid Brown Bag Lunch, since we were limited in our discussion time last week.  Each topic is bolded, with the details listed below: College Application Essays The autobiographical college application essays are a meaningful part of any…

Continue Reading

Finding A College Can Feel Like Searching for a Needle in the Haystack

But, in reality, the student is the needle.  No, that’s not some obscure Master-Yoda-Jedi-training-mind-trick.  What it means is that the more that college bound student, knows about himself/herself  (i.e. interests, vision, goals–career and otherwise), then the narrower the field of possible colleges for both application and enrollment becomes.  Plus, the six figure price tag of…

Continue Reading

College Tuition Set to Keep Rising with No Relief In Sight

 Since 1980, college tuition has risen 945%, in comparison with inflation’s rise of 193% during that same period–meaning all purchases have increased in price, but college tuition has increased at a ratio of 9 to 1–based on information from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  The University of California (UC) and California State University (CSU) systems…

Continue Reading