The College Solutions Blog

September 3, 2013

I received an email over the Labor Day weekend from a father named Mike, whose daughter is unsure about how to handle a typical questions on her college applications. Here is the common question: Why do you want to attend this college? After visiting 10 schools this summer the schools are beginning to blur to her.  At a few she...

August 30, 2013

Five days a week I start my day reading stories about the higher-ed world. First I digest articles from The Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside Higher. I also get links to a long list of higher-ed stories from around the country that somebody at the Lumina Foundation in Indianapolis must assemble early, early, early in the morning. Thanks to...

August 26, 2013

How can you find the most generous colleges? The ones that meet 100% of financial need or close to it? And what about the schools that provide merit scholarships for affluent students who don’t qualify for need-based aid? How can you find schools that provide a large number of these scholarships? You can find the answers to those questions by...

August 19, 2013

I want to thank everybody who offered advice to the single mom, who is anxious about her daughter’s college options. You can read all the comments and the original post here: A Mom Stressing About College Today I thought I’d offer my own suggestions about the options for this teenager, who thinks that she might want to be a teacher....

March 27, 2013

Many colleges do a horrible job of presenting their financial aid awards in an easy-to-understand way.  As I’ve been explaining in my last two posts, I believe this is largely intentional: What’s Wrong With This Financial Aid Letter Evaluating a Financial Aid Award Recognizing this shameful behavior, the federal government has created a financial aid template called the Shopping Sheet....

March 20, 2013

This is the season when colleges and universities are offering spurned applicants spots on their wait lists. I wanted to share this post that I wrote last year about wait lists.  I have updated the wait list statistics for the University of Notre Dame. Lynn O’Shaughnessy This weekend I heard from old friends who wanted to share with me stories...

March 12, 2013

This is the time of year when students are receiving their financial aid awards. I’m sharing a letter today from a mom who is unhappy about financial aid letters that her son has been receiving. Lynn O’Shaughnessy Hi Lynn, I’m a parent relatively new to the financial aid process and I have a question.  Once you have completed the FAFSA...

February 11, 2013

I wanted to share a letter that I received recently from George Shen, a business consultant in the Greater Boston area and the father of three boys. Shen, a first-generation American who is concerned about how Asian Americans are treated in the admission process by elite schools, has formed a Facebook page entitled Asian Americans Against Affirmative Action. If you...

February 8, 2013

Earlier this week the Common Application organization released its new college essay prompts. For months plenty of people (myself included) worried that the advisory board of 15 counselors in charge of revising the prompts were going to recommend killing off Option 6, which encourages applicants to write creatively. Sure enough, Option 6 that allows applicants to write on the topic...

February 1, 2013

Colleges are beginning to realize that high tuition/high discount (scholarship) model is failing. Escalating tuition is leaving more students unable to cover college costs even as colleges continue to offer scholarships to offset costs. In my last post, I mentioned the latest drive by private colleges to rein in merit money, but, as one of the visitors to my blog...