The College Solutions Blog

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

What You Need to Know About Borrowing for College

As recently as the early 1990s, most students did not take out college loans. Today about two out of every three students borrow to pay for college. One reason for the dramatic change is this fact: during the last-quarter century, tuition has risen four times faster than the consumer price index. The typical student borrower is now leaving school with...

When Two Children Head to College

Yesterday’s post, which explored the school options of a brilliant teenager from Wisconsin, generated many insightful comments from parents. Here is the post: Should a Kid Borrow $80,000 for a Brand-Name University? If you missed the post or the comments, I’d urge you to check both out. To summarize, the teenager managed to get admitted to some elite schools including...

Should a Kid Borrow $80,000 for a Brand Name University?

I am sharing an email that I received Tuesday from a Wisconsin mom, who is stressed about the admission decision that her teenage son must make by May 1. What follows is a cautionary tale for any families which have not been through the college admission process yet. Read on to discover how to avoid the kind of mistakes that...

A Recruiter’s Take on Hiring Students from No-Name Schools

I’ve been receiving some fascinating comments lately that were triggered by recent posts that shared the agony of students who aimed for the Ivies and other elite schools and got spurned or who couldn’t afford the tab. If you missed the posts, here they are: Should You Blow the Budget on Cornell? The Odds of Getting Off a Wait List...

The Odds of Getting Off a Wait List

This weekend I heard from old friends who wanted to share with me stories of brilliant students who got shut out of elite universities. At a party on Friday night, a former colleague of my husband’s mentioned that he was stunned that his son’s friend didn’t get into Stanford University. The boy is a stellar student and he only missed...

Avoiding College Snake Oil Salesmen

For many years I was a financial journalist who wrote about such garden-variety investment topics as 401(k)’s, IRA’s, mutual funds, bonds and how investors can assemble a retirement portfolio that will last longer than they do. I enjoyed what I was doing until I stumbled across a financial topic that I knew nothing about when my daughter was in high...

Should You Blow the Budget for Cornell?

If you don’t have the cash, is an Ivy League school or any other university that the college rankings gods worship worth the cost? Affluent families have been asking me that lately. Yesterday afternoon, for instance, I got a call from a dad in Maryland, who wanted my opinion about the three schools on his daughter’s short list. The father...

10 Ways to Pick a College

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I’ve been getting questions from parents who are agonizing about where their teenagers should attend college. It’s a tough decision and time is running out to pick the winners. The national deposit day for freshman is May 1. Here are some of choices facing a family that contacted me yesterday: College of Wooster, University...

Which College Should This NY Teenager Attend?

This is the month when high school seniors must decide where they will attend college. It’s not surprising then that I’ve been getting emails from families agonizing about their choices. Here is one of those notes from a mom named Carmen: I would appreciate your professional advice in the following matter: My son has narrowed down his choice to two...

Where Are the Scholarships Hiding?

Yesterday, a frustrated mom posted a comment on my college blog that expressed her doubts that merit scholarships even exist. Here is what Wendy had to say: How Many Students Receive Merit Scholarships? Wendy’s comment is a timely one because this week the National Association of College and University Business Officers released its annual statistics on merit scholarships and grants...