The College Solutions Blog

August 30, 2013

Five days a week I start my day reading stories about the higher-ed world. First I digest articles from The Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside Higher. I also get links to a long list of higher-ed stories from around the country that somebody at the Lumina Foundation in Indianapolis must assemble early, early, early in the morning. Thanks to...

August 28, 2013

I created a slideshow for my college blog at CBS MoneyWatch today that shares 10 tips for writing a winning college essay. Minerva, my eight-year-old golden retriever, illustrates Tip. No. 3. Please check it out! LO I wrote the following post in August, 2011, but with college students heading back to school, I decided it was well worth running again....

August 26, 2013

How can you find the most generous colleges? The ones that meet 100% of financial need or close to it? And what about the schools that provide merit scholarships for affluent students who don’t qualify for need-based aid? How can you find schools that provide a large number of these scholarships? You can find the answers to those questions by...

August 23, 2013

On Sunday at 4:30 p.m. PDT Sunday, Michelle Kretzschmar of Do It Yourself College Rankings and I will be holding our last college webinar. I will be demonstrating a valuable online tool that allows you to sort colleges by generosity. Please visit my webinar page at 4:30 p.m. PDT to see the webinar. People who watch live will be able...

August 21, 2013

According to the just released ACT scorecard for 2013 high school graduates, the composite ACT score has  dropped to its lowest level in five years. The latest composite ACT score is 20.9. That represents a .2 point drop from last year’s scores. The highest ACT score possible is a 36. Scores declined for all four tested areas – English, Reading,...

August 19, 2013

I want to thank everybody who offered advice to the single mom, who is anxious about her daughter’s college options. You can read all the comments and the original post here: A Mom Stressing About College Today I thought I’d offer my own suggestions about the options for this teenager, who thinks that she might want to be a teacher....

August 16, 2013

I recently received an email from a single mom who is stressed out about how she is going to afford college. I wanted to share her email and solicit suggestions from you. I have my own ideas, but I’ll hold onto them for the next post. I always love to read the suggestions from my readers so if you have...

August 14, 2013

Winning private college scholarships can certainly help make college more affordable, but you need to know the realities of competing for this college cash. Before you start hunting for private college scholarships, here are nine facts about these awards that you need to know: 1. Private scholarships aren’t the biggest source of college cash. I suspect most families believe that...

August 12, 2013

Earlier this month I attended my husband Bruce’s 40th (!) reunion at Cherry Creek High School in suburban Denver and got to spend some time in the Rocky Mountains that my husband adores. You can receive an excellent education at Cherry Creek High School, which was a magnet for affluent families 40 years ago and it still is today. As...

August 9, 2013

Today’s college blog post was written by Alison Cooper Chisolm, who heads the college admissions consulting practice at Ivey College Consulting. Prior to becoming a college consultant, Chisolm worked in admissions for more than 10 years at three selective universities (Southern Methodist University, University of Chicago and Dartmouth College). Chisolm is the co-author of How to Prepare a Standout College...