The College Solutions Blog

January 25, 2012

The federal government has been trying for years to make the Free Application for Federal Student Aid less complicated. It should get kudos for the effort, but millions of parents still mess up when tackling this financial aid form. But bless its heart, the federal government is trying, in what might be it’s biggest push ever, to make completing the...

January 24, 2012

Now that we’re in the thick of FAFSA season, I wanted to answer some questions on my college blog that I’ve been getting about financial aid forms. If you have your own questions, please leave them in the comment box below. Lynn O. Mom’s question: Try as I might I still can’t get my hands around the whole financial aid...

January 23, 2012

It’s FAFSA season so I’m going to devote at least a couple of college blog posts this week to financial aid forms. The post today was actually written by Michael Szarek, an independent college counselor with Counseling for the Rest of Us in New Jersey. If you have any questions about the FAFSA or CSS/Financial Aid PROFILE, just share them with...

January 20, 2012

The last  couple of days, I’ve been  exploring why some teenagers can’t emotionally handle their freshman year in college while other students behave worse than toddlers. Here are the posts:  A Nightmarish Experience at an Ohio University Could This Student’s Freshman Year Have Been Saved? I was ready to move on to other topics – some parents have been asking...

January 19, 2012

I want to thank everyone who commented on the plight of a bright young woman, who left the University of Dayton after her freshman year. Her first roommates were pigs and her experience unnerved her and her mother. If you missed the post and the accompanying comments, here is where you can find them: A Nightmarish Experience at an Ohio...

January 18, 2012

I wanted to share with you today a comment that I received yesterday from a California mom, who shared the heart-wrenching experience of her bright daughter, who started college in Ohio. She was prompted to write after reading my college blog posts about students who desire to attend schools far from their homes. Here are two of them:  Snobs, Pushy...

January 17, 2012

Time is money and that is especially true when it comes to college. College students usually don’t graduate in four years and that comes as a shock to most parents. Yesterday I devoted my college blog to explaining how families can find the four-year grad rates of any schools — and just as importantly — compare any institution’s grad rate...

January 16, 2012

I met a teenage girl during the fall who was excited about applying to Hampshire College. She had visited the campus in Amherst, MA, had met professors and talked with students. She was smitten. She and her mother felt good that they had done their due diligence on the college, but then I asked them a question that drew a...

January 12, 2012

If you didn’t read my college blog post yesterday, I hope you do because it focused on a lot of hot-button issues for parents and teenagers trying to navigate the college process. The post, which was actually an email from the mom of a high school senior, touched upon such issues as: Brand name snob appeal Pushy relatives Mistrust of...

January 11, 2012

I received an email yesterday from a mom in Southern California, whose daughter Nicole is getting grief about the Southern universities that she has applied to.  Karen’s email raises a lot of interesting issues including preconceived notions about schools, the tendency of some parent(s) to push kids to attend their alma mater or state schools and a lack of understanding...