The College Solutions Blog

March 19, 2012

When you appeal a college’s financial aid award what happens to your request? During the last admission season, The Chronicle of Higher Education provided an inside glimpse into how a financial aid appeal is handled internally in a fascinating article entitled: When Families Ask Colleges for More Money A Chronicle reporter observed financial aid deliberations that took place among senior...

March 15, 2012

State universities are often the cheapest places to obtain a bachelor’s degree, but not always. In fact, for a smart student who needs financial aid, expensive private schools will sometimes be more affordable. Out here in California, a story that generated a lot of attention recently carried a variation of this headline: Believe It: Harvard Cheaper Than Cal State.  Of...

March 14, 2012

I have started getting emails from parents who are disappointed that their teenagers’ financial aid packages are so meager. I wanted to share one story today from a mom, whose daughter is a stellar student and who was hoping for the University of Delaware’s top scholarship. A Mom’s Email My daughter just received her acceptance today from the University of...

March 13, 2012

Many students who apply to college end up being disappointed at what’s wrapped up inside their financial aid packages. There is a way, however, to reduce the chances that this will happen to you. Be realistic in the schools you target. Here’s the key reason why: Colleges and universities possess a finite amount of money for financial aid. Most schools...

March 13, 2012

Many students who apply to college end up being disappointed at what’s wrapped up inside their financial aid packages. There is a way, however, to reduce the chances that this will happen to you. Be realistic in the schools you target. Here’s the key reason why: Colleges and universities possess a finite amount of money for financial aid. Most schools...

March 12, 2012

Last week I wrote two college blog posts that included examples of confusing financial aid letters. If you missed them, here they are: Are These Financial Aid Letters Misleading? What’s Missing From This Financial Aid Letter? I received a couple of notes from independent college counselors saying that they were going to use the awards that I highlighted as templates...

March 9, 2012

If you didn’t see my college blog post from yesterday, I’d urge you to take a peek. I wrote about misleading financial aid awards, which can cause parents to think that a school is going to be more affordable than it really is. Here is the post: What’s Missing From This Financial Aid Letter? Today I want to offer three...

March 8, 2012

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 7, 2012

Last week my best friend was complaining to me about how expensive Mount Holyoke College is. My friend’s daughter is a sophomore at the women’s college and she makes too much money to qualify for any financial aid. My friend can afford the tuition, but for the first time she was expressing her resentment that any college should cost that...

March 5, 2012

Have you ever taken a look at RateMyProfessors.com? I’m assuming that you haven’t. It never occurred to me to head to the extremely popular site when my two kids were checking out colleges, but it might be worth a look. At RateMyProfessors, you’ll find more than 13 million student comments and ratings of professors at colleges and universities across the...