The College Solutions Blog

Valuable insights from Lynn O’Shaughnessy
a nationally recognized college expert.

What You Don't Know About Athletic Scholarships

I hadn’t planned on writing about athletic scholarships for three days in a row, but a father of a Division I athlete at Indiana University emailed some great observations that I wanted to pass along. I should mention that his daughter is a rower, which is the only sport that I know of where just about any girl who rows...

The Hazards of Chasing an Athletic Scholarship

I wanted to share a great response about athletic scholarships that I received after posting, 2 Worst Places to Find College Cash. I heard from Kris Hinz, who is a college counselor at Position U 4 College, who was agreeing with me that too many parents think that their kids are going to win athletic scholarships. Only 2% of high...

2 Worst Places to Look for College Cash

This week I intend to share with you a few of the money saving tips in my new eBook, Shrinking the Cost of Colleges: 152 Tips to Cut the Price of a Bachelor’s Degree. Inside the eBook, you’ll find the best sources of college cash. Here’s Lesson No. 1: One of the most important things you can do to shrink...

New College eBook: 152 Ways to Cut the Cost of College

Are you worried about how you’re going to pay for college? I thought so, which is why I wrote an eBook that’s packed with ways to cut college costs. The title of my new eBook is Shrinking the Cost of College: 152 Ways to Cut the Cost of a Bachelor’s Degree. Click the book icon on the right to learn...

Avoiding Part-Time Professors

When you are researching colleges, be sure to ask this question: What percentage of professors are part time? At many schools, the percentage is going to be high. I’ll explain why you should care in a minute, but first here are some startling statistics from the Association of American Colleges and Universities about tenured professors: Tenured college professors now represent...

How Many Hours Does It Take to Research Colleges?

Zillow, where you can find out how much your house is worth, has released a survey that suggests that Americans only spend five hours researching mortgages. That’s the same amount of time that Americans spend planning vacations. It’s significantly less time than the 10 hours that consumers devote to buying a car, which is obviously a much smaller purchase. That...

Who Isn't Graduating From College?

Should more high school graduates go to college? This question has been getting a lot of attention since President Obama announced that one of his prime education goals would be to get more Americans to attend college. That’s a laudable and ambitious goal. I worry, however, about students, who are unprepared for college. They often get entangled in a huge...

College Wait Lists Run Amuck

Has it become a status symbol to end up on a college wait list? During a fundraiser at my son’s high school last night, a mother shared with me that Duke University had waitlisted her son. She appeared to be bragging when she shared this news. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that Duke had also placed 3,382...

America's Most Expensive College Textbooks

What are the most expensive textbooks in America? This week I provided the answer. At my other college blog over at CBSMoneyWatch, I wrote a post that contained the names of the 12 most expensive college textbooks. The most expensive one — Acta Philosophorum The First Journal of Philosophy – cost $1,450 retail. The next priciest textbook is Encyclopedia of...

Funny Stories from Studying Abroad

I’m a big believer in students studying abroad for a semester in college. My daughter Caitlin is one of the rare students who studied overseas for an entire school year. If I’m remembering correctly, only 5% of college students who study overseas stay for a year. Caitlin studied at the University of Barcelona. I think living in Barcelona was a...