The College Solutions Blog

September 29, 2014

College sticker prices are often meaningless because most students at state and private universities don’t pay it. Published prices, however, can be a helpful starting point when exploring what kind of price break, in the form of scholarship and grants, your child might get at a particular institution. Here’s an example: Your teenager receives a $15,000 annual merit award at...

September 29, 2014

This course is focused on how to make college more affordable, but you can’t talk about escalating prices without exploring one of the chief culprits — U.S. News & World Report’s college rankings. For all its power, U.S. News is actually a shell of its former self. It’s not even a magazine anymore. It now rates all sorts of stuff for its survival including...

September 29, 2014

If your family will need to depend on financial aid to attend college, your best bet is to find a school that will offer an excellent financial aid package to your child. A handy way to assess the generosity of any school is to look at the percentage of demonstrated financial need it typically meets for its students. Teenagers, who...

September 29, 2014

To learn more about the recruiting process, I talked with Avi Stopper, a former college athlete and a co-founder of CaptainU, which could be called an athletic LinkedIn that helps student athletes to connect with athletic coaches. Stopper, who is a former men’s soccer coach at the University of Chicago, launched CaptainU when he was in the school’s MBA program. Over the...

September 29, 2014

Are you wondering if your child will someday win an athletic scholarship? Some of the parents who are dreaming of sports scholarships have children who are only in grade school and middle school. Even my own sister, whose daughter is 12, believes that a soccer scholarship is in her future. The reality is that athletic scholarships aren’t nearly as plentiful or...

September 29, 2014

One of the most infuriating aspects of the college admission process is this: Traditionally, you couldn’t know what any college was going to cost until your child received his or her financial aid or merit award package. Even worse, you might not have gotten the offer until the spring, which would give you little time to select a school by...

September 29, 2014

Millions of parents believe that private scholarships are the largest source of college money. When many parents contemplate how they are going to pay for college, they envision their children hustling for private scholarships that are offered by foundations, charities, companies and civic groups. Private scholarship, however, represent the smallest source of college money. For most students, it’s likely that...

September 29, 2014

State aid represents nine percent of the college money awarded in this country. Almost every state education agency has at least one grant or scholarship program available to residents and many have a long list of state aid possibilities, which can create confusion for families. While there are some exceptions, eligibility for these state programs is usually restricted to state...

September 29, 2014

The federal government represents the largest percentage of college grants. Forty-four percent of grants come from the federal government. Federal money for undergraduates is dispensed to those who have shown they need financial help to attend college. Pell Grants The vast majority of this federal money is awarded through the Pell Grant program. The maximum Pell Grant award for the...

September 29, 2014

http://youtu.be/FJ8IO0-c9E8 In this video, you will learn about the four main sources of college money. Before you can shrink college costs, you need to know what the major sources of college money are for undergraduates and whether your child has a chance to qualify for this money. Here are the four main sources of scholarships and grants and a recent...