The College Solutions Blog

March 29, 2013

In my last three posts, I’ve written about deciphering financial aid letters. As I’ve mentioned previously, I believe colleges and universities intentionally make these documents hard to understand. If you missed the posts where I griped about this reality, here they are: What’s Wrong With This Financial Aid Letter? Evaluating a Financial Aid Award The federal government has created a...

March 27, 2013

Many colleges do a horrible job of presenting their financial aid awards in an easy-to-understand way.  As I’ve been explaining in my last two posts, I believe this is largely intentional: What’s Wrong With This Financial Aid Letter Evaluating a Financial Aid Award Recognizing this shameful behavior, the federal government has created a financial aid template called the Shopping Sheet....

March 25, 2013

This is the second day that I’m devoting to evaluating financial aid letters. If you missed it, here is the first post that I wrote on this important subject: What’s Wrong with This Financial Aid Letter? Today I’m sharing another financial aid award that I obtained from Paula Bishop, a CPA from Bellevue, WA, who received this letter from a...

March 22, 2013

Many financial aid letters  — heck almost all of them —  are confusing. I’ve always wondered why award letters are so difficult to understand. Perhaps the staffers generating these letters in the bowels of universities have been conversing in financial-aid speak for so long that they have lost their ability to communicate in standard English. Of course, the cynical explanation...

March 20, 2013

This is the season when colleges and universities are offering spurned applicants spots on their wait lists. I wanted to share this post that I wrote last year about wait lists.  I have updated the wait list statistics for the University of Notre Dame. Lynn O’Shaughnessy This weekend I heard from old friends who wanted to share with me stories...

March 19, 2013

What does the financial aid look like for a school that is generous? In my last post, I illustrated what a stingy university looks like using statistics that you can find on the College Board. If you missed the post, here it is: Is This University Stingy? Today I’m going to use the same tools to illustrate what a school...

March 15, 2013

If you require need-based financial, you should hunt for schools that are generous with their aid packages. This is the advice that I shared in my last college blog post: Where Is the Financial Aid Cash? If you didn’t read it, I’d suggest that you do before continuing on with this post. If money is an issue, students should be...

March 12, 2013

This is the time of year when students are receiving their financial aid awards. I’m sharing a letter today from a mom who is unhappy about financial aid letters that her son has been receiving. Lynn O’Shaughnessy Hi Lynn, I’m a parent relatively new to the financial aid process and I have a question.  Once you have completed the FAFSA...

March 10, 2013

This is a stressful time for teenagers and parents who are waiting for acceptances. Or who are trying to decide what the ultimate college choice will be. Or who are wondering how they are going to pay for a school when their financial aid package is inadequate. Today I want to share some conversations that I’ve had at my gym...

March 7, 2013

Today I’m sharing a post written by David Kochanek, who is the publisher of LiberalArtsColleges.com, a site dedicated to providing students and parents with the information they need to make intelligent college decisions. In his post he examines the the beauty of pursuing a liberal arts degree from the perspective of Williams College, an elite institution, which has tracked where...