The College Solutions Blog

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

Student Loan Price Drop

Did you or anybody you know take out a federal student loan before July 2006? If so, you’ll want to discover a great new way to cut your lending costs that many lenders are unlikely to divulge. The interest rate on Stafford loans, which were borrowed before July 2006, will be dropping significantly if you haven’t already consolidated this debt....

The Chinese SAT

On Saturday, high school students around the country were taking the SAT. As hard as that test is, the Chinese have it much worse. For Chinese teenagers, everything was riding on the National College Entrance Exam last week. The test, which drags on for two days, determines not only where students get to go to school, but what their majors...

Getting Into College Without the SAT

We all know teenagers who don’t test well. There are all sorts of legitimate reasons why some students, even bright ones, can’t earn decent numbers on the dreaded SAT test. It used to be that parents and students could rail all they wanted against the test, but it wouldn’t matter. Colleges and universities wanted to know what their applicants’ scores...

Blogging About College

I was chatting to a retiree from Norman, OK, a couple of days ago for a story for a national publication. When I talk to people beyond the 202 and 212 area codes, where many experts tend to congregate, it can be fascinating to hear how people are investing, coping financially or, for that matter, floundering. At first I thought...

Why It's So Hard to Get Ahead!

A story that I wrote for USA Today about Gen X-ers and their money troubles appeared this week in the newspaper. Here is the link. A couple of things amazed me about the story. One was the reaction of readers. The article triggered about 900 comments and a lot of them seemed to be from older Americans –baby boomers on...

Annuity Sharks

I’m not sure how I get on these mailing lists, but I occasionally receive emails from promoters who assume that I’m in the business of ripping off seniors or anybody else who crosses my path. These promoters promise to show me how to peddle variable and equity indexed annuities to the unsuspecting and make big bucks. Not surprisingly, these emails...

Playing With Fire Overseas

Earlier today, I had my own little experience with the global economy when my Internet connection vanished. After trying to dodge Cox Communication’s automated helper who drives me nuts, I finally got to talk to a real person who suggested that Cox wasn’t the problem. “Must be your router,” the Cox technician concluded. As it turns out, she was right....

Get Your Credit Scores for FREE!

By now most American consumers probably know that they can obtain their credit reports for free. Once a year, anybody can order a gratis credit report from each of the three major credit bureaus — Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. You can obtain any of the reports by heading to AnnualCreditReport.com. Obviously, it’s a smart idea to take advantage of this...

The Financial Challenges of Gen Exers

I’ve spent most of my week working on a series of stories for a national publication on the prospects of Gen Xers and retirement. You are a Gen Xer if you were born roughly between 1965 and 1980. Not surprisingly, the phrase that keeps recycling in my brain as I report on the retirement prospects for many Gen Xers is...

Learning in a Crowd

Last week, I promised that I’d post a portion of my upcoming book, The College Solution: A Guide for Everyone Looking for the Right School at the Right Price, that focuses on how to make attending a large public university a more intimate learning experience. Since 84% of Californian students attend state public schools, I thought it was worth sharing....