The College Solutions Blog

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

The Over Hyped Ivy League: Giving the Ivy League Too Much Credit

When Harvard sneezes, the media rushes to cover it. It’s amazing how Harvard and the seven other Ivy League schools can command so much interest in the national media when so few students even attend these schools. Here is the reality: The only Ivy most teenagers are going to come into contact with is the poison ivy variety. While there...

The Most Lucrative College Majors

When I was in college it didn’t occur to me to major in something that would lead to a lucrative career. I started out as a history major and ultimately switched to journalism. Today, however, teenagers, including my own, seem far more interested in choosing majors and careers that will lead to large paychecks. My son aspires to be an...

Cashing In With Dubious College Rankings

Last week, The Princeton Review released its annual publication, The Best 368 Colleges. Inevitably the book generates tremendous press coverage each year and lots of sales. I just checked the book’s rank on Amazon.com and it was the online book seller’s 400th most popular title. To put this number in perspective, Amazon.com sells well over 1 million different books. This...

One in 5 College Students Transfer

A new report from the federal National Center for Education Statistics documents there are more transfer students at four-year colleges than you’d think. Nearly one in five students transfer from one four-year college to another. When my daughter’s friends came home from their freshmen year in college this summer, most of them were happy campers. The colleges and universities these...

529 College Savings Plans: The Good, Bad & Butt Ugly

A few years ago, I was sitting in an auditorium in Michigan listening to a guy talk up the virtues of a particular 529 college savings plan. The salesmen made the plan sound wonderful. In fact, I was probably the only one in the crowd who knew that the speaker had put lipstick on a pig. The salesman never mentioned...

Another Reason to Avoid Private Student Loans

I thought I knew a lot about private college loans after researching them for my book, The College Solution. But when I read The New York Times this past weekend, I was shocked to learn of another reason why families should try hard to avoid private loans. In my book, I devote an entire chapter to explaining the perils of...

Borrowing for College the Smart Way

This is the time of year when college students and their families start signing loan papers. Lots of families take out loans to pay for at least a portion of college costs, but far too many don’t borrow wisely. I suspect that families are so relieved after surviving the college admission process that they often don’t pay nearly enough attention...

The Odds of Getting an Athletic Scholarship

Millions of parents across the nation hope that their children will someday win an athletic scholarship to college. That might explain why so many parents start yelling at referees when their kids are barely out of preschool. My son, who is a soccer referee in a rec league, tells me that he’s been yelled at by dads of kids who...

Pell Grants and Ivy League Hypocrisy

The most emailed story in The New York Times on Monday focused on Berea College, a little school in Kentucky with a heart of gold. The college charges no tuition and only accepts low-income teenagers. Every student graduates with no debt. Not surprisingly, the school is mobbed every year with applicants. Berea is dedicated to accomplishing what a lot of...

College Rankings: Playing With Better Numbers

Perhaps the biggest problem with college rankings is that millions of people believe them. When U.S. News & World Reports declares that Notre Dame is the nation’s 19th best university, rarely will anybody dispute that number. When the magazine ranks the University of Chicago and the University of Virginia as 9th and 23rd among the nation’s universities, what parent or...