The College Solutions Blog

January 31, 2016

Financial aid awards are often confusing. I believe many colleges and universities intentionally make financial aid awards hard to decipher to trick families into thinking that their institutions are being generous even when they aren’t. Obfuscation is an effective way to keep parents off balance. Since we are heading into the season when students will be receiving their financial aid...

January 10, 2016

This is the time of year when people are filing for financial aid. In this post, I’m sharing a few of the questions that I’ve gotten about applying for aid. What financial aid applications do my husband and I have to fill out if we want financial aid for our child? All colleges require parents to file the Free Application...

December 30, 2015

Happy New Year’s to you! I hope you had a lovely holiday. My husband and I were fortunate to be able to spend this time with our daughter Caitlin and our son Ben over the break. The photo you see is of our family earlier this week at the lighthouse at the Point Reyes National Seashore, which is the windiest...

December 14, 2015

The FAFSA season begins January 1. That’s the date when families can begin filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid for the 2016-2017 school year. Parents need to complete the FAFSA or their children won’t be eligible for federal or state aid. In addition, most colleges use the FAFSA to determine who will qualify for their own institutional...

December 1, 2015

Most students who hope to earn a bachelor’s degree will enroll at a university. The schools that students dream of attending are almost always research universities. It’s far less common for teenagers to end up at a college. I find that reality unfortunate because a college can often provide a better education for undergraduates than a research university. And it’s...

November 23, 2015

The No. 1 way to cut the cost of college is to become an educated consumer. You can learn how by attending my popular online course, The College Cost Lab. I’ll be relaunching the course in June 2016 and if you’d like to be notified when I have more details, please click here! If you are hoping that your children...

November 7, 2015

Note: I wrote this post last year, but it’s just as relevant today. Lynn O’Shaughnessy High-achieving students who apply every year to the Ivies and other elites schools have heard the grim statistics about how ridiculously hard it is to get into these schools. That reality, however, doesn’t deter students from applying even though the chances for most smart students...

October 26, 2015

It’s college essay time. That dreaded stretch of the college admission process that high school seniors AND their parents often hate. I feel for everyone going through this right now, which is why I want to help. In this post, you’ll see a video that provides college-essay tips for high school seniors and another video that gives parents advice on...

October 13, 2015

Today I am sharing an excellent analysis of the new SAT, which makes its premiere in March, 2016.  Jed Applerouth, the founder of Applerouth Tutoring Services wrote the piece, which I found so insightful that I asked him for permission to run it on my blog. Lynn O’Shaughnessy By Jed Applerouth By our appraisal, the revised SAT is superior in...

October 5, 2015

Should juniors in high school take the new SAT test? This is a question that many 11th graders are stressing out about as the rollout for the new SAT approaches. The dramatically overhauled test will make its premiere on March 5, 2016. Juniors will be the first to grapple with this question because the launch date of the new test...