The College Solutions Blog

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

Admissions

A Wealthy Mom’s College Questions

I am sharing an email that I got this week from a wealthy single mom, who is anticipating her college costs for her twins. I comment on her situation below and I’d love to hear from you too. If you have any advice, please share it in the comment box below. Mom’s Email: Lynn, I just finished your new book, ...

6 College Essay Topics

If you (or your child) is a rising senior, now is a good time to get started on the dreaded college essay. If you’re applying to a Common Application school – and there are now nearly 500 colleges and universities that use this form – you will have six college essay choices. If it’s any consolation, schools don’t want a...

Hope for the 3.4 GPA Student!

Yesterday I wrote a post about a teenager with a 3.4 GPA who failed to capture a scholarship from any of the schools where he applied. This is hard to do when you consider that two-thirds of college student don’t pay the sticker price for college. If you missed yesterday’s post, here it is: Getting Stiffed by Colleges After reading...

Hope for the 3.4 GPA Student!

Yesterday I wrote a post about a teenager with a 3.4 GPA who failed to capture a scholarship from any of the schools where he applied. This is hard to do when you consider that two-thirds of college student don’t pay the sticker price for college. If you missed yesterday’s post, here it is: Getting Stiffed by Colleges After reading...

Getting Stiffed by Colleges

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 at...

Getting Stiffed by Colleges

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 at...

Why College Costs Are Rising

My favorite higher-ed commentator is Kevin Carey. I’ve got him on my Google Alert because I always enjoy reading anything he writes. Carey recently became director of the education policy program at the New America Foundation, which is a respected think tank in Washington, DC. You can learn more about him here. Carey has no interest in writing about college...

2 Reasons Why More Colleges Look Selective

How’s this for a college mystery: Every year Barron’s releases its Profiles of American Colleges directory that categorizes schools based on their selectivity. During the past decade, the number of schools that are considered the easiest to get into declined considerably while the number of schools that are characterized as the most elite rose. According to a new report by...

Who Is Stressed Out About College?

In my last post I shared an email from a mom whose is concerned that her family makes too much money to qualify for financial aid at schools on her son’s list. If you missed the post, here it is: Do You Really Expect Me to Pay That Much for College? I had intended to write a followup post that...

The Last Colleges Left Standing

Today I am reprinting an article written by Lee Bierer, a friend of mine, who is a nationally syndicated columnist and independent college counselor in North Carolina. Lee writes the Charlotte Observer’s weekly Countdown to College column, which is syndicated nationally to McClatchy Newspapers. I asked Lee if I could reprint her column because it reinforces what I’ve been saying...