The College Solutions Blog

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

August 15, 2010

Saying Goodbye to Ben

Saturday evening I said goodbye to my son Ben, who officially started his four years at Beloit College. I am grateful that the send-off was better than the one that Scott Bierman, the president of Beloit College, experienced years ago when he dropped his second daughter off at Kenyon College. As the drop-off day wore on, Bierman told a gathering...

August 12, 2010

4 Ways To Win a Merit Scholarship

I am out of town the rest of this week because I’m helping my son Ben move across country to Beloit College. So I asked David Montesano, an independent college counselor at College Match, to write a guest post in my absence. At the end of the last admission cycle, David tallied up the merit awards that his clients earned...

August 11, 2010

Starting College With the Jitters

I’m getting up before dawn tomorrow. My son Ben and I are catching a 6:45 a.m. flight to Chicago. Ben will be starting college on Saturday and he’s nervous. But hey, aren’t all college freshmen nervous? Coincidentally, I found a great blog post today, written by two college professors, who shared ways that college freshmen can increase their confidence. Here...

August 10, 2010

Are AP Classes Worth It?

Are AP classes really worthwhile? There is no doubt that advanced placement classes are popular. Last year, nearly 1.7 million students worldwide took more than 2.9 million AP exams. Twenty five percent of high school graduates have taken at least one AP exam. With teenagers returning to the classroom grind soon, I thought this would be a good time to...

College Loan Debt Just Passed Credit Card Debt!

Americans now owe more money on their college loans than they do on credit cards. I just read about that scary reality on The Wall Street Journal’s website. According to Mark Kantrowitz, the financial aid guru over at FinAid and Fastweb, Americans owe about $829.7 billion in student loans. In comparison, consumers owe $826.5 billion in revolving credit card debt....

8 Ways to Cut College Costs

College costs sure are daunting, but the sticker prices are meaningless. I recently wrote about how my son and the other two boys in his high school carpool shrank their college costs dramatically. The tuition for the three boys for the coming year totaled a whopping $136,500, but they received grants from their respective liberal arts colleges for the 2010-11...

Get The College Solution for Free

I just learned from my publisher that the Kindle edition of my book, The College Solution: A Guide for Everyone Looking for the Right School at the Right Price, will be free next week. That’s right, The College Solution on the Kindle will be FREE from Aug. 9 to Aug. 14. Normally the Kindle version is $9.99. Why is the...

Why It's Harder Getting Into Harvard

It’s not your imagination. It’s become even harder to get into Harvard, the rest of the Ivy League gang and the other super elite schools. In the college blog post that I wrote for CBSMoneyWatch.com today, I explain 5 reasons why it’s become even more challenging trying to storm the gates of Harvard and other schools of that ilk. Here...

Buying Stuff for A Dorm 2,050 Miles Away

How do you outfit a dorm in advance when you can’t load the car with stuff and head off to college? That’s the dilemma that a lot of college students face if they are attending school far from their homes — my son included. His school is 2,050 miles from our house in San Diego and airline baggage rules are...

Cutting the Price of Out-of-State Universities

The price tag for attending an out-of-state public university can be quite high. It’s easy to understand why. States are interested in holding down the costs for their own residents. You might, however, be able to capture a higher-ed bargain if your state maintains a reciprocal agreement with its neighbors. States commonly maintain reciprocal agreements with public colleges and universities...