The College Solutions Blog

February 11, 2014

Today I am sharing a guest post by Bradford Pine, a financial advisor in Garden City, NY, who wrote about his experience with his daughter, who has been receiving acceptances and merit aid scholarships from schools. He explains how he lassoed a $14,000-a-year scholarship just by asking. Lynn O’Shaughnessy Here is the link to his entire blog post: My Personal...

January 13, 2014

You can learn much more about how to afford college by enrolling in my upcoming online course –  Cutting the Cost of College. I designed this course to help you save money by making you a smart college shopper.    Lynn O’Shaughnessy What happens if your child recently received a college admission deferral letter? Plenty of students, who applied to schools...

January 2, 2014

January 1 marks the start of the FAFSA season. If you will be applying for financial aid this year for a new or returning college student, it’s time to tackle the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. Unfortunately,  it’s easy to make mistakes on the forms and these errors could cost you a ton of money. Resources exist, however, to...

December 10, 2013

FAFSA season is fast approaching, which always brings questions about who should complete this federal financial aid application. For the 2014-2015 school, year, the Department of Education has issued new rules impacting some parents about who should be completing the FAFSA. Here is a rundown of what you need to know: Traditional Married Couples If you are part of a...

November 25, 2013

The prospect of rejection is one of the most stressful aspects of the college admission process. In reality, however, most students don’t have to fear rejection. In its annual survey of college freshmen, UCLA always seems to find that at least 75% of students are accepted into their first-choice school. Today, I wanted to share a study, conducted by Inside Higher...

November 21, 2013

Today I am sharing two excellent how-to videos from a friend of mine, Tamika Lewis, who is an independent college consultant and a counselor in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Tamika put together an excellent tutorial on how to complete the Common Application, which is the document that more than 500 colleges are now using. In October I wrote...

November 4, 2013

As I’ve mentioned in previous college blog posts, net price calculators allow you to obtain a personalized estimate of what a school will cost after deducting any scholarships and grants that your child might be receiving. Before you let your child apply to any colleges, make sure you have used each school’s net price calculator. Unfortunately, not all calculators are...

November 1, 2013

Since we’re in the midst of college essay season, I wanted to share some wonderful advice about how to write a great college essay. Janine Robinson, my go-to-person for the best college-essay tips, who shares her tremendous knowledge on her website – Essay Hell. What’s Happening In Your College Essay? Here’s one way to check if your college admissions essay...

October 30, 2013

If you’ll be filling out the FAFSA during this admission season for a high school teenager, be careful how you list the colleges that your child will be applying to. Colleges could use that information against you. Some schools — no one knows how many – are checking the FAFSA to see in what order an applicant lists his or...

October 3, 2013

Should a student apply early decision? Today I am sharing a post written by Peter Van Buskirk, a veteran admission expert, on his take on Early Decision applications. My own cautionary comments are at the bottom. This is a second post on this topic, if you missed the first one, here it is: Should Your Child Apply Early Action or...