The College Solutions Blog

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

Applying

5 Things High School Seniors Should Be Doing Now

If you are a rising high school senior, you probably thought you had all summer to get prepared for the upcoming college admission frenzy. But guess what? You’re running out of time. To avoid the time crunch in the fall, here are five things you can do now: 1. Examine school prices. I think it’s reckless to apply to a...

My Favorite Books on College: A YouTube Review

Interested in some summer reading? I’ve got bookcases packed with college books in my home office. In this YouTube video, however, I share some of my favorite books about college. College Workshop I’ll be giving the final college workshop this Saturday (July 23) in a summer series for parents and teenagers at the University of California, San Diego. If you’d...

Reading a College Admission Office’s Mind

In my last post I talked about the benefits of visiting colleges before applying — particularly at schools where you can collect brownie points for showing up. If you missed it, here it is: Which Colleges Should I Visit? Today I’m directing you to a couple of resources that can help you pinpoint whether a school really cares if you...

Which Colleges Should I Visit?

Is there a strategy to deciding which colleges to visit? I got that question via email from a mom who attended my college workshop over the weekend at the University of California, San Diego. Clearly it’s much more expensive and involved for families out West to visit schools because you can’t just hop in the car and visit a bunch...

Parents: Take a Chill Pill

I was at a preschool reunion on Sunday that reminded me about how nuts the college admission process is for a fraction of high school students and their families. The families I am talking about are the kind that you can find featured in the over-hyped documentary Race to Nowhere. Here, by the way, is what I think of that...

How Valuable is the ACT?

If you do poorly on the science and reading section of the ACT will you struggle in college? Not necessarily, according to a new intriguing study conducted by researchers at Stanford and the University of Chicago. The research concludes that the test scores on the reading and science sections of the ACT have “little or no” ability to predict whether...

Can This Family Afford Syracuse University?

When students are shopping for colleges, admission representatives typically urge them to ignore the sticker price. Here’s what these college reps routinely say: We’ve got lots of financial aid and scholarships. Just APPLY! I was reminded of why applying blind is such a reckless strategy when a mom contacted me after her husband heard me give a college talk recently...

Winning College Admission Essays

Summer is a great time to write those dreaded college admission essays. Teenagers have more time to devote to college essays, but a surplus of time won’t necessarily make an admission essay better. While students will find plenty of advice about how to write a college essay, here is one of my favorite tips: Don’t bore the admission readers with...

College Admissions and HomeSchooled Students

For those who have been following my college blog this week, I’ve been answering questions from readers. These questions came from a mom and her homeschooled teenagers. Here is what she had to say: Question No. 1: Homeschooling has been our educational choice. When my son completed various applications, sections were often dedicated to “leadership and offices held.”He had to...

Measuring a College for the Right Fit

This week I’m sharing answers to questions posed by my blog visitors that I passed along to college admission officers who attended the annual conference of the Western Association for College Admission Counseling. Here are some answers: Question No. 1: What do admission officers feel are the three most important criteria points for a student and their family to look...