The College Solutions Blog

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

Admissions

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 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...

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...

My Pet Peeve: Picking Colleges By Size

Here’s one of my biggest pet peeves about how teenagers look for colleges: When teenagers put together a list of potential colleges, a campus size requirement is often way up at the top of their criteria. I want to go to a big school. I don’t want to go to small school. I’m interested in a medium-sized school. Hardly anyone...

Calculating the Real Cost of College

As some of you know, I am now writing a weekly college blog for US News & World Report. I ain’t gonna lie, it gets tiring writing original material all the time. Consequently, today, I’m going to share one of the recent posts that I wrote for US News. Here it is…… It’s a sad reality that most families with...

30 Liberal Arts Colleges In or Near Cities

I’ve talked to a lot of teenagers, who are interested in liberal arts colleges as long as they are in cities or at least close to metropolitan areas. Unfortunately for these kids, many liberal arts colleges are in rural areas. My daughter Caitlin is fully aware of this reality because she attends Juniata College, in Huntingdon, PA, which is a...

Shaving $98,000 off the Cost of College

For three million students, the angst about getting into college had disappeared. That’s roughly the number of freshmen who will be attending college in the fall. The final grades are in, the college admission decisions are made. Freshmen face the prospects of locating extra-long sheets, discovering the name of their dorm roommate, attending freshmen orientation and counting down the days...

Looking for Private Colleges That Use the FAFSA

Thought I’d share my response to a message that I received today from a mom, who was interested in finding private colleges that just use the Free Application for Federal Student or FAFSA. Here is Patrice’s question: Is there a way to determine which private colleges use the FAFSA method for financial aid? I would like to focus in on...

Choosing Colleges: 5 Things You Must Do

Need help in choosing colleges? It so, you’ll be interested in this college blog post by David Montesano. David is an admission strategist with College Match, an educational consulting firm that aims to help families find great colleges at discount prices. Here are 5 things that David suggests that you keep in mind when when are looking for college matches:...