The College Solutions Blog

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

The Advantage of Not Declaring a Major

I once bumped into a father I know whose daughter had attended the same middle school as my son. I asked him where his daughter was attending college and he told me that she was enrolled at a community college. I was surprised because Rachel is a very bright girl. The dad explained, however, that his daughter didn’t know what...

Listen to my College Cost Webinar

LLast week I gave a one-hour webinar on shrinking college costs for 100 college consultants. Cyndy McDonald, a friend of mine who is also college consultant and the founder of MyCCA.net, invited me to give the presentation. MyCCA (which stands for My College Consultant Assistant) provides management software for college counselors to help them assist their clients in navigating...

Comparing the Right Graduation Rates

When I give talks about finding and affording colleges in California, the audiences often gasp when I share grad rates for some extremely popular state schools. Here are some of the four-year grad rates that shock parents: San Jose State University 7.9% Cal State University-Long Beach 12.3% San Francisco State University 14. 2% Cal State University-Fullerton 16.5% Low Grad Rates...

Good Luck Graduating in Four Years!

Here is a scary college statistic: According to the federal government, only 36.4% of full-time students graduate from college in four years. Here is a closer look at the latest available stats: Graduating in Four Years Public universities can often be less expensive than private institutions for students who can graduate on time, but most students attending public institutions stay...

2 Reasons Why More Colleges Look Selective

How’s this for a college mystery: Every year Barron’s releases its Profiles of American Colleges directory that categorizes schools based on their selectivity. During the past decade, the number of schools that are considered the easiest to get into declined considerably while the number of schools that are characterized as the most elite rose. According to a new report by...

A Look at Why Colleges Are Failing Students

I wrote the following college blog post last year, but I think it’s worth repeating because I believe that more teenagers (and their parents) are focused on getting into college rather than making the most of the experience once they arrive. I’d love to know what your thoughts are on this post. If you don’t mind sharing, please use the...

Do-It-Yourself College Rankings, Part II

If you didn’t catch yesterday’s college blog post, I’d urge you to check it out: Do-It-Yourself College Rankings I wrote about Michelle Kretzschmar, who created an impressive spreadsheet system to help families assemble a list of promising colleges based on their own priorities. In today’s post I’m sharing some of the steps that Michelle, the founder of DIYCollegeRankings.com, and her...

Do-It-Yourself College Rankings

It’s not often that I stumble across a college blog that I can get really excited about. Today I am happy to share a great resource that stands out from the crowd. I urge everyone to check out DIYCollegeRankings. DIYCollegeRankings (the DIY stands for Do It Yourself), which was created by Michelle Kretzschmar, a former data analyst and the mom...

College Choices for Affluent Families

A mom emailed me earlier this week and I’ve somehow managed to stretch out the topic of her concern to three posts. If you’re curious, here are the previous ones: Who Is Stressed Out About College? Do You Really Expect Me To Pay That Much for College? Today I’m going to address her chief question: What do you do if...

Who Is Stressed Out About College?

In my last post I shared an email from a mom whose is concerned that her family makes too much money to qualify for financial aid at schools on her son’s list. If you missed the post, here it is: Do You Really Expect Me to Pay That Much for College? I had intended to write a followup post that...