Help in the Hunt for the Perfect College

Your university-bound genius has tackled the SATs and has a GPA that’s nothing to sneeze at.  Now comes the hard part:  finding the perfect college.  You’ve pored over all the well-known guides and narrowed your choice down to an unmanageable 50 or 60 schools.  Sure, name brand universities and an accessible location are a nice start, but how will you know which school will be the right fit for your kid?  Will she be happier at College A or College B?  Help is available at InsideCollege.com. Continue reading »

College Tuition Growing as Fast as Your Kid

It seems that higher education may be the only business that’s currently recession-proof.  According to a survey released by the College Board, tuition at 4-year private colleges spiked 4.4% this year to over $26,000.  Students at public institutions got an even bigger hit:  up 6% for both in-state and out-of state students, to over $7,000 and $18,000 respectively.

Continue reading »

They Say: Kids Throw Up When Parents are Smart

More proof that we’re dooming our kids with every good thing we do: a new study shows the further parents went with their education, the more likely their daughters will develop an eating disorder.

So all those years of holding my head over the toilet can be blamed on my mother’s master’s degree? Continue reading »

Mom Begs on Highway Ramp to Pay Son’s Tuition

A woman whose son has been accepted to his dream school doesn’t have the money to send him there. So she’s been spending every day on a highway off-ramp near her Washington home, begging for change.

For a woman who’s unemployed, the pay isn’t bad. She reports as much as $45 an hour! Continue reading »

Wal-Mart Promotes Old-Fashioned Parenting Roles

Jezebel has alerted me to a troubling trend in Wal-Mart advertisements. It’s not exactly new news that Wal-Mart is not a progressive company, but this is still a pretty shameless ad campaign for the 21st Century.

So, what do the following two ads have in common? Continue reading »

Mom Questions Porn Star Sister’s Tuition Donations

If only I could be in this kind of predicament: a woman wrote a letter to Dear Abby this week asking if she had to accept her sister’s money to pay her kids’ college tuition.

Turns out the sister is a porn star, and Mom’s got a conscience - she doesn’t want her kids reaping the benefits of flicks she wouldn’t let them watch.

Good thing Abby (well, her daughter anyway - the faux Abigail Van Buren’s been gone for years because of a battle with Alzheimer’s, but daughter Jeanne! Phillips fills in these days) had the good sense to pull a Cher a la Moonstruck. Continue reading »

School Secretary Changes Daughter’s Grades

A high school secretary has taken helicopter parenting to a whole new level—a criminal one. Carolina Maria McNeal decided that she’d better her daughter’s future not by helping her study or by helping her become a well-rounded, happy young women—rather, McNeal decided to tamper with public records. Continue reading »

Teens Get $1 a Day Not to Get Pregnant

What teens won’t do for a little spending money! No, not THAT. In fact, the very opposite of THAT. A North Carolina program is paying teen girls to NOT get pregnant.

In addition to attending weekly meetings, the girls ages twelve to eighteen in the College-Bound Sisters are given a stipend of $1 a day to keep their legs closed. Continue reading »

Meet the 11-Year-Old College Grad

Prepare to feel like a total eejit, even if you’ve got a master’s degree and a pretty snazzy job. Because chances are, you weren’t eleven years old when you graduated from your first college.

Eleven-year-old Moshe Kai Cavalin will graduate with honors from a California community college this week with a liberal arts degree. Continue reading »